“NIAGARA FALLS!” – PART 2

Slowly we turned…and arrived in Niagara Falls, Canada about sundown Wednesday and immediately began snapping photos with all the Japanese and other tourist already there. It was almost like the Beatles movie “Hard Days Night” – a snap, snap here, and a snap, snap there. Actually, we nearly had the whole town to ourselves!

I caught the pink sunset light against the mist of Horseshoe Falls from our eleventh floor room in the Marriott. We left the small roll-out window open both nights we were there and we slept like big fat babies. It was so soothing and covered what little noise we heard. The rooms were great and looked right out over the Canadian falls, and the price included bus transportation from the hotel to the various sights around the city, both morning’s buffet breakfast, and $75 toward our last evening’s meal in the luxurious dining room.

It turned out that this was the best hotel package we got during the trip, which was so surprising due to the high cost of everything else. A 12 ounce draft beer in the hotel was $8 and a glass of house wine $12!

Thursday was spent at the falls doing the Journey Behind the Falls and experiencing the awesome spectacle of over 100,000 cubic feet of water crashing down 13 stories to the basin below every second. Elevators take you down 150 feet through bedrock to tunnels that lead and to the Cataract Portal and the Great Falls Portal which is one third of the way behind the massive sheet of water, then on to the Upper and Lower Observation Decks at the foot of the Falls. From these portals, lights change colors shine on different sections of both the American Falls and the Canadian Horseshoe Falls after sundown until about 2 AM.

Of course, the primary focus people have is getting couple or group shots with the falls as a backdrop. I have included a store bought one and one I created using three separate photos. The store bought is much simpler!

In the restroom I saw this little tub for washing feet…I assume. Does anyone have a clue why these are there? My thought is that people my go into the tunnels barefooted in the summer, but I really don’t know.

We then traveled over to the Skylon Tower. The tower stands 520 feet high and makes seeing a panoramic view of the entire falls area a cinch! I have included a few panoramic merges I created from shots I got. These shots include both The American and Horseshoe Falls. On the far side of the falls is Niagara Falls, New York.

We all had passports, so going back and forth was simple, except for the traffic jams. The Canadian Guard asked me if I had any weapons and I said “No, the website said to leave them at home.”

“Oh, do you normally carry a gun?”

“Heck yeah,” I replied matter-of-factly. He just looked at me and handed our passports back.

After dark, the Dragons proceeded to the Hilton Fallsview Casino, and Knights held up in The Falls Frikin, also within the Hilton complex, and indulged in black and tans. To our surprise, my Dragon won $280 playing the nickel slots!

I have to mention Johnny Rockets (inside the casino complex), where we had lunch. It is an authentic retro-setting of a ‘50‘s diner. Some of us enjoyed their juicy old fashion hamburgers, while others selected the delicious hot dogs and a creamy shake!

Next, in Part 3, we're off to Pennsylvania to visit the Amish!

Be sure to click to enlarge these shots, and/or visit my Flickr page for more photos.