Four of us (my mom, my two sisters and myself) joined US East and Canada tour on 11-19 Oct 2013. Our main destination was Niagara falls that could be enjoyed from US side and Canada side. On the 5th day we arrived at Niagara Falls State Park, as the oldest state park in the US, established in 1885 as the Niagara Reservation. Unfortunately we had taken the optional tour to see the Old Fort Niagara, so we had to go further than the falls across the recreational park. Starting with a small museum to show some pictures, weapon and soldier uniform, we continued walking around 10 minutes to inside of the fort.
The green yard was beautiful surrounding with the walls right next to the sea. Shooting attraction by a funny young man was one of the entertainment before we explored the building where the soldiers had activities. The building had two level divided by some functional rooms such as for saving foods or meeting, and a dwell available in the middle of the building. We finished the visit while the sun still shone.
Back to the Niagara falls around 15 minutes later by bus, we were dropped in front of the mall across the falls. We were hurry went down to the falls through stairs. One of our friend informed that it would be better to go directly to the bridge under the observation tower to enjoy the panoramic view of the falls. Passed through an empty locket next to visitor center, we went directly to the bridge. It's awesome to see the raging white water of the wild cascades Niagara falls with its sound. After taking some pictures, we asked helped from other visitor to take our picture together.
The Niagara Falls are renowned both for their beauty and as a valuable source of hydroelectric power, generating 2.4 million kilowatts—enough power to light 24 million 100-watt bulbs at once! This low-cost electricity saves the state's residents and businesses hundreds of millions of dollars a year. We stayed for a while on the bridge, taking some picture of the Skylon tower and the rainbow bridge. As informed the light at Niagara would be turned on at 20:00, so we hurried to go back to the mall to have dinner. Two level building contained of a foodcourt and shops selling US product for souvenirs, the price was quite expensive both for food and souvenirs.
At 19:45 we went back to the falls, unfortunately the fence to the gate was closed, so we had to go down to enjoy the falls. It's beautiful with colorful lighting. It's difficult to take picture with the crowd there. Anyway we were able to take some photos, lucky that we could watch it while there's still sunshine.
On the next day was more attractive, starting with watching movies at the giant screen Imax theater where they showed the Miracles, Myths & Magic produced by filmmaker Kieth Merrill. The myths was about a very beautiful native girl named Lelawala who refused marrying an appointed man as her husband, so that she had to leave her village. She rowed a boat to the Niagara falls and never found after that, but people said that she became the savior for people in that area. Another event about a captain who dared to bring his boat, named "Lelawala", on the Niagara falls and he could survive landing on the river at the bottom of the falls. Jean Francois Gravelet who performed the first tightrope walked over the falls between the Canadian and American side. A talkative granny, Annie Edson Taylor, with her cat also survived to flow through Niagara in a big wooden tub. Lastly a girl and a boy who could survive after accidentally their boat plunged over the fall. The amazing Niagara Falls Daredevil Exhibit was available next to the theater.
The next destination was the most interesting one, joining "Maid of The Mist" boat ride adventure. It's a very long queue, they replaced our entrance ticket with blue raincoat. The boat had 2 storeys, we went to the upper deck to enjoy the falls. My mother and youngest sister stood in the middle of the boat while myself and my sister were on the fence of the boat. It's very windy so we had difficulty to maintain our raincoat on the proper place. The boat sailed near to the falls, the first one was a calm part, the American and Bridal Veil Falls. It's amazing to feel the splash of the water and see the big falls closer. Then the boat took us into the dense mist of spray inside the curve of the Horseshoe Falls, also known as the Canadian Falls, we got really wet here till I had to hide my camera under the raincoat, but all of us really enjoyed it. It's so fresh air and water, made us feeling relax. The price US$34.5 was worthy.
Finally we had lunch at the revolving restaurant in Skylon tower cost CAD$42,75. The lift glide smoothly brought us to the 775 feet above the falls, that faced right to the falls just in 52 seconds. I selected salmon which was much better than my mom's selection, well done beef. It's really overcooked, it's not nice at all. Lucky that the salad as appetizer and ice cream as dessert were yummy. Contrary to the food quality, the scenery was very beautiful, we could see from the bird view of spectacular Niagara falls, also the landscape of Toronto city and Buffalo, New York.
We could go to Indoor/Outdoor Observation Deck as a favourite Niagara Falls attraction, just two levels above the restaurant. The outdoor floor was wet, it's only opened for the Niagara side, not for the city view. We could get better picture here as there was no glass covering the view as in the restaurant, anyway it's very windy so it's difficult to get a good picture of you with good hair style :-)
From indoor observation deck you could see the falls complete with the info about it on the bottom of the window. A souvenir shop was also available there. As we missed our mother and our youngest sister, we hurried to go down to from the tower. Lucky that they were already downstairs, so we didn't miss the bus.
Read More ..
