From Donna

We arrived in Buffalo late last night and found our way to the rather-tired-and-in-need-of-renovation Hyatt. We nearly left the car in the front for the valet to park as we went to our room only to realize that not only was there no valet, there was no parking at all. Lenny headed off to the local garage while Marina and I took the bags to the room.

First thing this morning we headed over the Peace Bridge into Canada. It was a large border crossing with nobody there. We drove to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls and spent of the day seeing them from every angle … above, behind, beneath. We also took an insufferable number of photos of us with the falls as background, planning the cover for our next photo album.

It’s Labor Day, so Niagara Falls was quite crowded with people from all over the world speaking every imaginable language. I noticed particularly the number of women in head scarves … there were Amish, Arabs, Chasidim, Indians with saris, etc.

We started at the spectacular Horseshoe Falls. I was amazed how close you can get to them at the top. We went in the tunnels behind the falls, and got pretty soaked at the photo spot just in front of them. Then we walked the length of the river, seeing the American Falls, before arriving at the world-famous Maid of the Mists boat ride. We grabbed our blue ponchos and headed out for a short but exciting trip into the mist. That’s one surprise about Niagara Falls … there is a huge mist constantly being thrown up from it (Lenny kept complaining that it spoiled his photographs). We got pretty wet on this trip as well.

We then walked to the Sky Wheel, a Ferris-wheel like structure that you ride for an aerial view of the falls. We went round and round quite slowly, and managed to stop at the top several times for a stunning view below.

The town of Niagara Falls, Ontario, is like a little teeny, tiny, Las Vegas. It is full of honky-tonk, cheap restaurants, and casinos. We had a pretty unappetizing lunch and then headed out of town.

After seeing the “whirlpool” where the river takes a right hand turn after the falls, my intention was to go over the next bridge north since the Rainbow bridge in town looked quite backed up. However, just looking up at the bridge we quickly got the idea that this was a problem. It was full of very large semi’s lined up to cross into the US. Just when we were debating what to do, we passed the hydro-electric plant, with a big sign of tours outside, so we figured heck, let’s do that instead!

So we coerced Marina into joining us for a tour of the hydro-electric plant. We got to go down into the plant and see where the water goes into turning the turbines to make power. Lenny particularly enjoyed seeing the tools, including a giant lathe (whatever the heck that is).

The biggest fact I learned on the tour is that the US and Canada have a treaty as to how much water they can divert from the falls in order to power their respective plants. They don’t want to destroy the lucrative tourist trade, so they are allowed to divert more at night than during the day. So apparently at night, the falls are running at far less than full on.

We retreated from the northern bridge and went back to cross into the US on the Rainbow bridge in town. From there, we drove to Lockport to see the Erie Canal (I have this song about the Erie Canal going through my head now).

The Erie Canal is apparently not quite the tourist destination of Niagara Falls. Indeed, we had trouble finding it. Eventually, we made our way to locks 35 and 36, a pair of locks that replaced the original 5 locks in the early 1900’s. They are still operated pretty much the way they were one hundred years ago. We were lucky in that two boats came while we were there and we got to see them operate. (Note to Joan and LB – we even got to cross over wearing our own shoes!). We watched the young man operate the locks, and he was kind enough to answer all our questions.

Back to Buffalo, and the hotel, and next we plan to go to the Anchor Bar for a dinner of original Buffalo wings.

-- Donna