Water under the bridge

Last week we traveled with some good friends to western New York where we rented a cottage on a small lake. The cottage was in the quaint town of Batavia located between Buffalo and Rochester and while you couldn't pay me enough money to live in that part of the country from December - March, it is absolutely a beautiful place to be in the summer.

We spent the week fishing and swimming in the lake as well as visiting some of the local attractions. Since we were only an hour away, Niagara Falls topped our list of places we felt we really needed to go see.

After doing a bit of research we decided that the Canadian side of the Falls was where we wanted to be, so we loaded up the mini-vans and headed for the Falls...and parked on the American side. Apparently our friend Kris had heard from one of his friends that it was easier to park in America and then walk across the bridge to Canada -- which according to this friend equated to a walk of about 2 city blocks.

So we paid our $10.00 to park & made our way to the Falls. It was a somewhat cool overcast day, but that didn't damper our spirits (much). After we got the viewing area we realized that while the walk across the bridge itself may have only been 2 city blocks long, getting from the American viewing area to the Canadian viewing area would have been a walk closer to 3 miles. This was something that neither family was willing to take on with 4 kids under the age of 8. So, since we already paid to park, we figured we'd make the most of the attractions on the American side.



After a short time gazing at the Falls from above, while Mr. Crackers continually asked me, "What's next?", we headed to buy our Maid of the Mist tickets. Note to self: DO NOT drive to the Grand Canyon with Mr. Crackers. A 3 day drive followed by a 5 minute viewing of the Canyon while Mr. Crackers peppers me with the question "What's next?" will make my head pop off.

While I had visited Niagara Falls a couple times in my past, I've never ridden on the Maid of the Mist & I was excited (and a little nervous) to get on the boat and see the Falls from the water.

So we put on our blue ponchos and prepared ourselves for the trip.

My family...a bunch of goofballs!

Little did we know that these would be the last moments of the morning where we would see a smile on my son's face. Apparently Mr. Crackers & I had both (conveniently) forgotten that while he loves to swim and jump in the water, C hates to be splashed in the face with water. I mean he really hates it. Oops.

We boarded and at the request of our son (who may have already started to realize that he was going to get more than a little wet) we stood back a bit from the front of the boat. This was the moment I realized that I was not going to be able to take very many pictures of the Falls while standing near the front of the boat because of all the water... you would have thought the ponchos would have clued me in earlier to this fact, but it wasn't until I got that first cold spray in the face that I stuck the camera back in my pocket.

I did manage to snap a couple of shots without ruining my camera. I wish it had been a clearer day, but I was still in awe of the power of all that water crashing down. The American side of the falls was cool, but the Canadian horseshoe portion of the falls was even better (that is unless you are my son C and don't like to be splashed in the face with water AT ALL, in which case you won't really like either one of the Falls, but you will especially HATE the Canadian side)

Here's the view of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls as seen from underneath the boat's canopy where I stood with my now irate son C who kept shouting "I hate this! We are getting too wet and we are too close to the those waterfalls! I just want this to be over!" Well, at least he can say he tried it. And even though I also got nervous a couple of times, I loved it. It was a terrific experience.

After we got off the boat, we asked the kids if they were up for climbing the path that went closer to the falls and we were met with these expressions that were mixed with equal parts of crankiness, hunger, exhaustion and incredulity.



Apparently, none of them cared that the sun had finally made an appearance and that the adults could get better pictures of Niagara now. Since we were also getting tired & hungry, we beat a hasty retreat to Buffalo so we could dine on the chicken wings from Anchor Bar that made the city famous. Mmm...

After lunch, our friends decided to head over to Canada to see the Falls from that side. Based on my own children's reaction to the American side, we opted out and headed back to the lake house.

Once there, we put on our own water show.

Where my three favorite people demonstrated how much they like water that wasn't rushing by in rapids and falling down into deep gorges with tremendous power.

Water that was cool and still and begging to be disturbed with a jump or a dive.