Thursday, June 26

What a day! We started by taking the tour of the U.S. side of Niagara Falls. This included going to Cave of the Winds, which gets you up close and personal to the falls. Doning rain slickers and rubbers shoes, you descend to the river level. Then you walk on the wooden walkways to the edge of the falls. The mist from the falls gets you soaked. Then you can climb up the to the hurricane platform. There you really feel the force of the water and the wind associated with it as it plummets down. Next comes the Maid of the Mist boat ride. This takes you up the river into the U of the Canadian falls. Again you feel the power of the water as it cascades over the edge some 200 feet above you. A short rest and then we took the tour of the Canadian side. This side has much better views of the river and the falls as the Canadians have built roads and paths much closer to the edge. The highlight of the Canadian side was the trip to the Caves. Again, descending down about half way to the river, you go to an observation platform to witnes the falls. But the excitement comes when you go into the hand made tunnells behind the falls. The tunnels go some 200 yards into the rock, behind the falls. Then there are tunnels right to the end. The water coming down is only inches from the opening of the tunnel. When we exited the night lights were coming on, illuminating the falls from the Canadian side. Spectacular.