It was time for a day off–most definitely. I went to bed pretty early, last night, and set an alarm, in case I completely forgot to wake up, but alas, I didn’t need it. I think I slept till 7:30, then fixed myself some oatmeal with the coffee maker, and got ready to take a walking tour of Niagara Falls State Park. The three of us went to the park together, and headed straight for the Maid of the Mist boat excursion.
We were directed to the observation tower, to catch an elevator down 200 feet to the river level, where we were given rain ponchos to wear, before we boarded the boat. I’ve been to Niagara Falls 2 other times, but never taken this boat ride, and for the life of me, I don’t know why I didn’t. It was a blast! The boat took us right up to the American Falls, and let us get thoroughly misted. I thought that might be all we got, out of the tour, but it wasn’t. Our boat captain took us further down to the Canadian Falls, and yes, without a Covid test, we crossed over into Canadian waters, for a few minutes, to ride right up into the horseshoe shaped falls for a few minutes. And we got up close and personal with the falls–really REALLY personal. It seemed like we were just a few feet from where the 600,000 gallons of water per second crash into the river below, and it was deafening, and you could barely see ahead of you, due to the mist. I wasn’t scared, but I’m sure there were people on the boat who were.
Once we survived the boat tour, we walked over the pedestrian bridge to Goat Island, to do the Cave of the Winds ‘tour’. There, you again take an elevator down–this time, 175 feet, don another poncho and some Made-in-China sandals, then walk down several wet, mossy flights of wooden stairs to platforms where you get soaked and blown to smithereens by the gusts of mist generated by the falls. I watched Ed get completely soaked and blown and decided–no way am I doing that! And no one twisted my arm, so I just watched and laughed as other people got blown around like little puppets. I will never forget or not laugh, when I think of the images of the people I watched get soaked and blown. I’ll put that on my list of things I never want to do–right up there with bungee jumping.
After the Cave of the Winds, we had pretty much seen it all, so we caught a ride share up to a corner with grocery and drug stores, and knocked out a little shopping. On the way back, our Uber driver was taking forever to make an 11 minute drive to pick us up. A closer look at the map, Uber provides, showed he was stuck on the Canadian side of the border. We could have waited all day, for him. About the time we figured this out, a taxi pulled up to take some grocery shoppers home. When I asked the driver how much it would cost to get a taxi to our hotel, and he said “About $7.” Whoa. That is way cheaper than our Uber was going to cost. He ordered us up a taxi, and it arrived about 15 seconds later.
Then we headed back down to the Hard Rock Cafe, for lunch. After lunch, it was time for a little siesta, then a call to one of my sisters. The siesta was amazing! I rested up, with hopes that I would be able to catch up on my blog, this evening, but we know that will probably never happen.
Living Our Bucket List 