Niagara Falls Diaries

Today we took a complete break from moving anywhere at all, and stayed in Niagara Falls all day (because of our car being broken).

We dropped our car off at the mechanic to get fixed up, and set off on an exciting adventure.  Or at least we tried to.  Just because we're not driving doesn't mean we can't get lost.  We attempted to walk to the Welome Centre, which is one street over and two streets down from our hotel, but something the map did NOT make clear is that there is somewhat of a cliff in the way, which we were stuck at the top of, at a Casino (there are a heck of a lot of Casinos here).

The view from up near the Casino

The view downriver

We eventually made our way to the Welcome Centre via a more roundabout route, and signed up to watch "The Fury of Niagara" which is a "4-D" film (they also have a lot of those here).  Daniel thought the last dimension was movement, but he was wrong.  Movement WAS one of the Ds, but they did away with depth, and replaced it with getting splashed in the face with water.  Luckily they had given us ponchos ahead of time.

The idea of the film was that we would live through the creation of the falls over thousands of years, but it was really just confusing, as we were usually in the Niagara river (which is why they were dousing us with water repeatedly).  We really had no idea what we were getting into, and having done it, we're still not sure.

The Welcome Centre was pretty neat though, because it is right at the top of the falls, which is a pretty sweet place to be (the second best place for looking at the falls too)

The welcome centre sits DIRECTLY above the falls.

Shortly thereafter, we signed up to go take a look at the falls from the number one best place to look at them: the Maid of the Mist.

The process of getting onto the Maid of the Mist was about the most effecient thing we have ever seen.  There were people at every point directing you, taking your picture, handing out ponchos and so on.

Daniel has never been on the Maid of the Mist, but Darcy had.  However, she didn't remember it very well, so it was almost a new experience for both of us.

Note how dry we are here (it is about 25 degrees here during the day)

Darcy is ready for some misting!

The American falls are pretty intense, but note that not everyone is wearing their hoods yet

The Niagara skyline from the river

More like Maid of the MOIST am I right?

After our waterlogged voyage, we went to the Rainforest Cafe, which is almost exactly what it sounds like.  They built a fake rainforest, and then put a cafe inside of it:

It's an American chain, but they've got restaurants in Toronto, London, Paris and Dubai, so if you happen to be going/moving to one of those places, and are also entertained by animatronics, then you are in LUCK.

After the rainforest cafe, we went to the Bird Kingdom, which is the world's largest Aviary, or so they claim.  It was totally awesome.  At the beginning, they had a reptile room, in which we saw the most magnificent sight in the natural world:

This would be much better with sound, but we didn't have the foresight to capture a movie

We saw more birds than either of us have ever seen before, and we made some new friends (although they may not be aware that they are our friends, as they are birds)

The poster says that their flying foxes (a terrifyingly huge type of bat) recently gave birth.  Their bats' names are Edward and Bella.  Fifty points (to Slytherin) if you can guess what they named the kid.

There were many warnings about not getting too close to the Macaws.  BUT THEY TALKED.

This guy was Darcy's new best friend

And this one is Daniel's

 After that, we hung around, had supper at Applebees, and went to an IMAX showing of The Falls Movie: Legends and Daredevils.  We enjoyed it well enough, but the museum attached to the IMAX about people who have survived the falls was the most interesting.  It has been illegal for people to do any falls related stunts since 1955, but people still do it, and then later pay the fines.  The only stuntman they have allowed to do anything in the last twenty years is Nik Wallenda, who crossed them in June of this year.

To celebrate this, or something, a totally DIFFERENT tightrope walker (Jay Cochrane) has been walking between the Skylon Tower and the Hilton hotel every night all summer, including tonight.

Turns out it's the longest and highest building to building tightrope walk in the world, and he does it every night.  Also, just for funsies, he is not wearing a harness or using a safety net.

Tomorrow we are driving again, all the way to Maine, then the day after, HALIFAX!

Joke of the day: Why did the lion eat the tightrope walker?  Because he wanted to have a well balanced diet!

P.S. Some people have been complaining that they are not able to comment on the blog.  This should be fixed now.

P.P.S. We have been spelling Niagara wrong for a long time.  We think we fixed it today, but we might have fallen back into our old ways.