Window to Tim's mind: Down East Vacation, Day 3

If you go into a “Visitor Information Center” and buy the tour, don’t expect to get a good deal. We get on our bus (a small one) and start the “tour”. We stop first at the Niagara Falls State Park by the Horseshoe Falls and our guide tells us a story or 2 about the falls and the people who have gone over in a barrel (only 2 died in the attempt – 16 attempts total) and the one boy who survived without a barrel – just a life preserver. Then he points us toward the observation deck and we go look and take pictures.

We then walk over to the Cave of the Mist where we get to climb up a series of rickety decks until we’re right under the Bridal Falls getting SOAKED! Here’s how it works. You get your flimsy poncho. You get your sandals. You get on an elevator where you go down to the river’s edge. Then you walk up to these stairs and a series of decks that go up and closer to the falls. It really is pretty cool to be that close to them. But I kept looking at these 2x4’s holding up this deck wondering how this passed anyone’s inspection. I mean millions of people go on this thing. 2x4’s? One was stuck down into the water and it was actually shaking back and forth with the force of it.

You get to the top to the “Hurricane Wind” deck where you’re really right under the falls. It hits a rock just above the decking and comes right out over you. I mean HARD. It was a total soaking. Of course we had to go as close to it as possible. Then we walked on and watched other people do it. Everyone was just beaming with delight. It was very very cool and fun.

Next, we take our wet selves to see the Sister Islands which was up river a bit. Then we stopped at the designated souvenir shop (Michelle and I went across the street and got a “Twist of the Mist” ice cream cone). As we were sitting at a bench eating it in front of an Indian restaurant (see?), an Indian family came by. The boy (about 7) wanted to eat there. The girl (about 4) didn’t. Parents moved on to see what else was around and when they came back the girl was saying she didn’t want Indian, she wanted breakfast. The boy replied “Indian IS breakfast”. Quote of Niagara.

Next we go to Maid of the Mist, the boat that takes you to the falls. We drive over and as soon as the bus stops it starts sprinkling. As soon as we’re out of the boat it starts raining. As we’re waiting for the guide to pay, it starts POURING. Of course we don’t have those ponchos from the Cave of the Winds. We’d get new ponchos here. We are totally soaked as we go down the elevator to the boat. Then get rained on again as we’re waiting for our ponchos, and again as we’re waiting to get on. By that time, tho, we got to put on our ponchos over our wet clothes so we didn’t get any more wet.

The thing about Horseshoe Falls is that you can’t see it very well. It’s covered in mist all the time. But the Maid of the Mist takes you up close and personal. We go past the American Falls pretty close and get a bit misty. Then we head to Horseshoe. It is just drenching wet. There is an intercom going on and on about the falls which sounded a lot like “blah blah blah blah” but then as we get in close to Horseshoe, the intercom announces “THIS is Niagara Falls!” And boy, was it! It is really hard to describe, but we get in close enough so that it takes more than 180 degrees of your vision. You are literally surrounded by Niagara Falls. The roar. The drenching mist. It is just awesome – literally. I can’t begin to describe how awesome this is. If you go to Niagara – and I recommend you do – you have GOT to take Maid of the Mist!

Anyway, by the time we’re pulling away from the falls, the sun is out. So when we finish, we go up to an observation tower and get some more shots. We take a bit more of a walk. And we get back on the bus. Then the drive takes us back to our car. That was it. All this for 80 bucks. For 50 bucks we could have done 5 attractions. NOT worth it.

Since we knew we were going to be done at 1:30 or so, we had decided we’d go to the casino afterwards. You know, have a nice lunch, play some slots, get some free drinks. So we go. First thing we notice? Everyone is smoking in the casino. OK, not everyone, just oh, 80% of the people. Second thing? People with canes, walkers, wheelchairs, oxygen, etc etc. Wow! It was like going into a loud hospital ward.

We go in and put $5 into a couple of machines. We don’t understand how they work. We don’t understand the game of if/why/when we win. Somehow, I manage to come out a dollar ahead. Michelle is a couple down. These were nickel machines, by the way. We got our free drink and ordered another.

But we want to try something else so we find some penny machines. That’s right one cent. Michelle has fun on one and manages to lose most of the rest of her $5 and then some more on another machine. By this time we’re totally depressed with the place. It all seemed so SAD. We are NOT casino people. So we walk from there to find something to eat. We go past the convention center where there is a tattoo convention. We go past the Hard Rock Café. We go past several Indian establishments and we find ourselves back at Twist of the Mist and that Indian restaurant the kid wanted to eat at.

So we stop in. It’s a buffet. There aren’t many non-Indians there, so we figure it’s probably pretty good. And it was. Don’t ask me what I was eating, because I don’t know. There was chicken. There was chick peas. There was that bread that’s like pita but isn’t pita. There’s rice. Other than that, who knows. But it was good! And I stuffed myself.

We leave there and decide to hike. We start down a path and realize that it is paved and we have our bikes and why don’t we do a bike ride. So we walk all the way back to the casino and get our bikes out and go for a ride, going north from the falls. Really nice riding. They took 2 lanes of what used to be a 4-lane highway and made it into bike lanes. There was nobody on them. We went North until we get to the “whirlpool” which was pretty cool and should have been on the tour, but the tour guide had taken it off.

We’re looking at the whirlpool when we see a cable car going across the water. THAT looked cool! It was totally on the Canadian side. Then we see these huge power boats that were blasting over the rapids. From the Canadian side. The American side had these amazing bike trails that no one was using, a 4-lane highway they took ½ away. The American side was DEAD. The Canadian side had it going on!

We finish our bike ride and head for Motel 6, ready for an early day the next day. We shower, watch a little tv and go to sleep.