Day Two in Niagara Falls

Our second day started out with a quick breakfast at the hotel, bagel with cream cheese, yogurt and some fruit, nothing too exciting but filling enough for awhile. After eating and getting ready we headed down to the falls, sadly today was a bit rainy so the falls never quite appeared to their full splendor, but they were beautiful none the less. The walk down to the falls brought us through Clifton Hills area, it has a bit of a Hollywood/Universal Studios kind of feel with rides and such, seems out of place to me in a place with so much natural beauty.

We walked along the boardwalk that lined the falls and I took numerous pictures, I did the only cache I found today which was a virtual one about Table Rock, it's amazing how much the falls have eroded over time. After walking around trying to figure out where to start we finally decided to go on the Niagara Fury attraction they have. Niagara Fury claims to give you information about the falls and how they were created. More or less it was a cartoon where a beaver goes magically back in time and quickly runs you through millions of years and then he writes a quick essay. After that little show you go into a room where there is a 180 degree movie screen where you can see the falls and get a little wet. It started out with a bit of snow to recreate the ice age, we then had water splashed at us while attempting to watch the water fall. All in all Niagara Fury was a bit of a disappointment, but the kids that were there on a class trip seemed to enjoy it greatly.

Next we decided to eat a little lunch, we had sandwiches and soup from Tim Horton's, it was decent for a quick lunch and the hot chocolate that came with the meal was quite tasty as well.

After eating we wandered up the path along the falls a bit more, we were able to see the scow in the distance that was stranded there. Hopefully I'll get around to doing the cache that is over that way, but we'll see, there is so much to do that quite a bit of the caching is probably going to be ignored. There just isn't enough time for everything.

We decided to hop on the people mover transportation that came with the pass we bought to a bunch of the attractions. We road that out to the Butterfly Conservatory, as most anyone knows I LOVE butterflies. I could have spent all day there, but they were only open for about an hour after we got there. Probably for the best so we could get in visits to other places as well. There is a botanical garden that goes around where the Butterfly Conservatory is that we are planning to go back to and explore if we have a bit of time in the next day or two. They look like they would be amazing but we didn't want to miss the bus back.

On the way back to the falls on the people mover we decided to go see the White Water Walk, we went down on the last elevator knowing that we would only have about twenty five minutes to experience the class six rapids. They are insane, I can't believe people actually want to attempt to go through those from time to time. The walk was pretty and waves were insane, I took some pictures but they really don't do justice to just how wild the rapids really are. I would have enjoyed a little more time strolling along the path and watching the fury of the water but time ran out. I do think we got to enjoy it as much as was really needed, but I enjoy dawdling when it comes to enjoying nature.

Journey Behind the Falls was our next stop, here you go down an elevator and then you can walk through a tunnel that takes you to portals behind the falls, on an overcast day like today all you could really see was white with some movement, amazing to see but nothing spectacular. After going and looking at the portals we went to the observation deck that is not to high above the water level, from there you have an amazing view up at the falls. I took quite a few pictures but sadly my camera battery died while I was there and my spare was back in the hotel. I suppose after taking some 200 plus pictures today it was to be expected that the battery just might be done.

As Richard and I were both getting a bit tired and my feet were aching we decided to take the Tram thing up the hill to our hotel, or what we thought was right by our hotel. Turns out there are two of pretty much everything in Niagara Falls, at the top of the tram is the exact some food places and hotels as across the street from our hotel. We ended up walking further to get back to our place then expected but in the process we did find that Tony Roma's was just behind our hotel and they had all you can eat ribs on Thursdays. So Richard got all you can eat ribs and I got a new brisket sandwich that they had, the ribs were far better then my dry brisket sandwich.

Then it was back to the hotel to view the photos that we took throughout the day and post a blog and get to sleep! I'm sure tomorrow will be another eventful day! We still haven't decided what exactly we want to do, it's either a bit of caching and site seeing in Canada or we head over to New York to see the American side of the falls and find a few caches on Goat Island. Decisions, decisions.