Letchworth Park got me in the mood for waterfalls, so my next stop was the biggest of them all, Niagara Falls.  Actually, I went over the border to the Canadian side for this one, because, to be honest, it’s just better on that side.  The American side still has a lot of things to see and do, but the Canadian side is much prettier, better maintained, and the view is better.  Sorry ‘Murica.

Border crossing into Canada used to be kind of a non-event years ago, just basically say you’re an American on holiday, and you get waved through.  But obviously security has gotten much more rigorous, and now they actually ask a few questions and want to see a passport.  Given my odd trip, and my two passports, and the fact that my home address is now in Tennessee but I don’t sound like I come from there, I expected to have some explaining to do, and sure enough, the Border Security guard wanted to hear my life story.  Then he asked me twice if I was carrying a gun in the car, to which I truthfully answered no.  He looked puzzled and asked what other weapons I had for self defence.  I told him that I wasn’t carrying any weapons.  So he asked me again if I had a gun.  Then asked again how I intended to protect myself.  He seemed hardly to believe me when I said that I’ve never needed any weapons, but eventually let me go.

But when I got there it was all just as I remembered, with flowers lining every street, the thunder and spray of the falls right next to the main road, and hotels, night clubs, and casinos rising on the hill above.  Ok, I’ll make a confession… I looked for somewhere to camp here, but the only place I could find wanted to charge me $60 for a tent site… and I used Expedia to find a very decent hotel just two blocks from the falls for $65… so I wasn’t exactly roughing it, but I’m not going to call that cheating!!  Here are some pretty flowers on the main street to distract you..

So I went for a walk, and there it was.  Thunder in liquid form.  With added rainbow.

I grew up just four hours drive away, so I’ve been here a number of times.  Each time I go back I expect that I must have over-rated it last time.  Nope.  It’s astounding.  The volume of water, the sheer POWER of it all!!  This is the Canadian Falls, complete with tour boat.

The American Falls get less love and look small by comparison, but are still really really big.

Actually, it’s worth looking at some data!  I got this from http://www.niagaraparks.com/about-niagara-falls/geology-facts-figures.html if you’re looking for more detail:

• More than 168,000 cubic metres (6 million cubic ft.) of water go over the crestline of the Falls every minute during peak daytime tourist hours.
• The Canadian Horseshoe Falls drops an average of 57 metres (188 ft.) into the Lower Niagara River.
• The crest line of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls is approximately 670 metres (2,200 ft.) wide. The plunge pool beneath the Falls is 35 metres (100 ft.) deep.
• The height of the American Falls ranges between 21 to 34 metres (70-110 ft.). This measurement is taken from the top of the Falls to the top of the rock pile at the base, called the talus slope. The height of the Falls from the top of the Falls to the river is 57 metres (188 ft.). The crest line of the American Falls is approximately 260 metres (850 ft.) wide
• The rapids above the Falls reach a maximum speed of 40 km/hr or 25 mph, with the fastest speeds occur at the Falls themselves (recorded up to 68 mph.) The water through the Whirlpool Rapids below the Falls reaches 48 km/hr or 30 mph, and at Devil’s Hole Rapids 36km/hr.
• The Niagara River is a connecting channel between two Great Lakes, Erie and Ontario.
• Niagara Falls has moved back seven miles in 12,500 years and may be the fastest moving waterfalls in the world.

Now remember that little tour boat under the falls?  Those run about every half hour from 9am to 9pm, and hold between 300 and 600 passengers, depending on the boat, each wrapped up in the most clingy and inconvenient rain poncho ever.  The American side runs the Maid of the Mist (blue poncho), and the Canadian version is the Hornblower (red poncho, eh).  I’ve been on both the Maid of the Mist and the Hornblower tours before, and both are awesome.  As in, being blasted by a firehose while in a hurricane that’s blowing up your inconvenient poncho awesome.  But the Maid boats have vee or round hulls, while the Hornblowers are a more stable flat bottomed design, and consequently the Maid boats feel the waves more and give you a good rocking.  So I have to recommend the American version of this one, provided that you, like me, like to be tossed about like a cork in a washing machine while being blasted by the firehose in a hurricane with your poncho blowing up.  Honestly, this is not to be missed!

But I wanted to try something new this time, so signed up for the night time illuminated tour on the Hornblower.  If I forgot to mention, the falls are lit up at night, which is really pretty to see.  The tour lasts a bit longer, and includes drinks and free munchies, which you really need to have in advance, because that same firehose and hurricane are waiting for you once you get on the boat.  It dilutes the wine and blows the cheese and crackers right out of your hand — who thought this was a good idea?!  I managed to get a couple of pictures of the American falls before it got too exciting, and honestly tried for pictures of the Canadian falls, but taking pictures into a firehose is always going to be problematic, even when it’s illuminated, and perhaps particularly when surrounded by semi-intoxicated Canadians with soggy hors d’oeuvres, while “We Will Rock You” plays on the boat speakers.

Was it fun?  Oh, yes it was!  Do I prefer it to the daytime tour?  Nope, go in the day time and actually see something, this was just an illuminated wet blur.  I sloshed back to my hotel, happy but wiser.

In the morning I visited a few other attractions in the area, including the Floral Showhouse.  This turned out to be a lovely place with beautiful hothouses…

…including surprisingly energetic turtles and koi (not coy turtles, they were quite forthcoming).

Outside, in addition to some lovely gardens, I discovered some of the most wonderful birdhouses…

…and also what appeared to be a fairy village in and under a large tree!

I did consider going to the Botanical Gardens as well, since I’ve heard that they’re excellent, but they’re right next to the butterfly sanctuary, and quite frankly I have a thing about butterflies.  They’re creepy, there I said it.  So no, I wouldn’t risk it this time, alone with all those flitty things…shiver.

I did go down to see the Whirlpool however, which is awesome again in it’s power.  Looking across at the cliffs on the American side, I remember climbing down them several times with friends when I was younger (in spite of warnings and no trespassing signs) just to be near the sheer power of the rapids.  (Sorry Mom!  Did you ever know half the stuff I got up to??)

I also stopped by the Floral Clock, the purpose of which I’ve never understood, and it’s not even attractive, but here it is.

But one of the more interesting stops on my little tour of the town was the power stations, Ontario Power on the Canadian side, and looking across to the New York Power Authority generating station on the US side.

After looking into the surge in the number of wind farms in New York for my last post, I was of course interested in what the relative percentages of power production methods in the state actually are.  I found these interesting statistics (http://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.cfm?sid=NY&CFID=13801066&CFTOKEN=8b1649599cd6d0dd-A59E1191-5056-A34B-92E4DCCD57CA0D95&jsessionid=843084d78d278e2ae4287f3e336459144545):

• Natural gas, nuclear power, and hydroelectricity typically provide nine-tenths of net electricity generation, with wind, biomass, coal, and petroleum making up the balance.
• In 2015, about two-fifths of net electricity generation came from natural gas, one-third from nuclear power, and one-fifth from hydroelectricity
• About four-fifths of net renewable generation in New York comes from hydroelectricity, with small but growing amounts from wind, biomass, and solar sources.
• The state is home to the largest hydroelectric power plant in the eastern United States, the 2.4-gigawatt Robert Moses Niagara plant, and produces more hydroelectric power than any other state east of the Rocky Mountains. 
• New York is also among the top states using landfill gas and municipal solid waste to fuel electricity generation.

So that clearly shows how important hydroelectric power is to the state!  Contemplating all of these things, I attempted to find my way back to the Rainbow Bridge to the US — although if I remember correctly the Rainbow Bridge reached between Midgard and Asgard, the home of the Norse gods, and it’s not clear to me whether the gods live in the US or Canada?  I won’t bore you with the navigational complexity that my GPS attempted in order to get me there, except to say that once when I stopped to try to discipline it, I found this car.   It’s an Olds Cutlass, and although I don’t know the year, it just has that whole 70s vibe going on, and was only missing a guy in a muscle shirt with a Tom Selleck mustache.  Very pretty, and since I can’t think of any other way to end this post, I’ll stick it here!