By Joanne Niswander
Yes, I can attest that the Niagara River continues to rush toward the Atlantic, via Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Seaway. But what a spectacular picture the river presents as it pours over the precipice at Niagara Falls! If you've never been there, the trip should be on your "to do" list - not because it's just another tourist attraction (which it can be if that's all you want), but because there's not another sight, or sound, to match it.
I was there last week with my daughter Lee, her 12-year-old son Elliott and his friend Jens. We left Bluffton in the rain but, by the time we got to Buffalo, the sun had come out. We had decided to stay on the Canadian side, where the view of the Falls is the one most familiar. So we went through customs (with the needed passports) and crossed into Canada on the International Peace Bridge at Buffalo, driving the rest of the way to Niagara Falls, Canada, over the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way, that is).
Unfortunately, there is much more "tourist trap" in evidence since the last time I was there, about 15 years ago. Many more high-rise hotels and casinos have overtaken the terrain. But, when you get to the river road that skirts the gorge, there is Niagara Falls in all its grandeur and its fury - no amount of artificial glitz can match that!
Oh, we did all the stuff that one has to do to get close and personal to the Falls. We had a great ride on the "Maid of the Mist" - I think the boat operator took us the closest I've ever been. We wore three different disposable raincoats at three different locations - for the "Maid," "Journey Beneath the Falls" and "Niagara's Fury." The latter is a newer attraction with some very noisy and drenching special effects (think twice before you take a small child to that one).
The weather cooperated fully for the approximately 24 hours we were there. What a bummer it would have been had we arrived there a day earlier, with buckets of rain adding to the mists coming from falls. I'm sure the weather is one of the reasons casinos have sprung up on both the Canadian and States sides - they give the tourists another rainy-day venue and the casinos can make a bundle.
We splurged on a wonderfully delicious gourmet meal in the evening, featuring locally-produced foods. We then went back to see the Falls illuminated at night, the enormous spotlights changing colors as we watched. Definitely worth our while, especially since the weather was so summer-like.
We had a little time in the morning to check out two more attractions that Niagara had to offer before we had to leave. Just a few kilometers north of the Falls one can walk along a boardwalk as the Niagara River rushes toward Lake Ontario through a section of rapids that are awesome! Again, we saw the power of water displayed.
One more experience awaited for the boys. While Lee and I watched, they rode a cablecar strung across the Niagara River Gorge at the Whirlpool Basin. Then, when the tour buses began to roll in, we decided it was time to head to our next destination - Cape Cod.
We reached the Cape some seven hours, and 20 degrees, later. Yes, as we neared the Cape, the fog settled in and the 80-degree temperatures suddenly dropped to 60. We were entering a different world - a world of sea and sand, fog and mist, with plenty of sunshine in between.
Actually, I will be on Cape Cod for almost two months - until the end of July. My daughter, a scientist, will be working here at the Woods Hole Marine Biology Labs during that time. I'm just here as her guest.
But I will also be taking a short jaunt up to Thomaston, Maine, later this week to see my granddaughter graduate from high school. So who knows where I'll be when I write to you next time?
Stay tuned . . .
