Niagara Falls, New York and Ontario

Day 10

Niagara Falls is an interesting place of give and take. The Canadians get the better Horseshoe Falls while the Americans get to look across at the trashy casinos with less attractive falls. The Americans however, get to more physical possession of the falls while loosing a majority of the tourism to Canada. The Canadians also get skinnier residents while overweight Americans get to pollute the Canadian streets. Interesting relationship where Canada seems to win.

Anyways, we started out visiting Niagara Gorge State Park in New York, hiking down a few hundred feet from the road to the river and throwing a snake into some trees. The gorge was impressive and watching the jet boats dance in the surf was entertaining.

At Niagara Falls State Park we did the tourism circuit: Maid of the Mist (worth it), Cave of the Winds (worth it), IMAX movie (second rate and a waste of time), the Niagara Aquarium (decent because of the sea lion show, but probably wouldn't have gone if we hadn't already paid), and the Discovery Center (worth it, but geared towards young children). We got thoroughly soaked on the Maid of the Mist and at the Cave but the nice weather dried us out quick enough.

Crossing into Canada for $0.50 by foot was better than driving the Wagon and we ate an overpriced meal at an overrated restaurant. Walking up the Canadian strip, we gambled $10.00 on penny slots. Liv steadily lost money from the beginning, and I went up $1.60 then crashed.

The American border guard had the personality of a wilting cactus, but he let us back in without too much hassle. At the campsite, we moved the tent away from the creek to avoid the frog's rather loud relations and managed to get a rather restful sleep.

Niagara was a good visit and the ions from the falls made everything just grand (falling water releases negative ions which naturally makes people feel positive).