A Day at the Falls

Our third day out was a day to explore. Monica had never seen Niagara Falls and we planned to remedy that.






Our day started with a lovely breakfast made by Kads and Pran, our great hosts at the Teacosy Bed and Breakfast in NOTL. They gave out small French Presses to each of us, each with distinct knitted warmers on them, assigned according to some observed or made up trait or behavior. I got an elephant for my memory (clearly mis-assigned even though I did remember the passcode to the door) and Monica got a sheep because of her irish heritage.









With Breakfast under out belts, we headed out to Brock's Monument, a convenient place to park for free that is only 8 miles from the falls. There is great bike and walking trail that connects NOTL to Niagara, but we did not want to do the entire length of it. We grabbed our Euromini folding bikes out of Nessie, and unfolded them into bicycles.



We should explain that the manufacturer of these bikes has no connection to Mini cars, and we did not buy them because of the name, but we do kind of enjoy that they are called Euromini. They are great folding bikes, and we are psyched to have them, and to be able to have 2 bikes with us without anything on the outside of the car.













The trail to Niagara was beautiful, many stopping points to look at the views, nature trail offshoots, and it was not very crowded at all.

Great views of the water at random places along the trail. You had to watch for them and pull over to go look.













When we reached the falls, it was wonderful. They really are amazing waterfalls. We learned that before they started diverting water off for electric generation, the falls were eroding and retreating up river at a rate that sometimes was as much as a meter a year. In geology time, that is a blink of the eye pace. Now, they are pretty much stable where they are. Probably good, as people have built up a lot of infrastructure around them.

Seeing that there were not huge lines at the Hornblower boats, and learning that they were not nearly as expensive as we thought they would be, we decided to take one up to the base of the falls. We bought tickets after about a 5 minute wait, then waited about another 10minutes to get onto the elevator down to the bottom of the canyon, and then got our issued raincoats and about  5 minutes later we were on the boat and they were soon casting off.

The ride to the base of the falls is truly amazing. They take you right up to where the wind and spray is blasting off the falling water

After the falls we rode back to Nessie, stopping for a quick ride around the outdoor Botanical Gardens. Found ourselves at one point on a narrow path following a horsed drawn carriage. Not wanting to scare the horse by suddenly coming up around it off the path, we kept following it, and got a free lecture on the various plants along the way. Went by one amazing huge tree that was only 15 years old. Very quick growing, and at this point maybe 30 feet across and 50 feet tall? Look out if you plant one of those trees!
















After repacking the bikes into the car, we headed back, passing Two Sisters Vineyards to see if they had any space available at their restaurant for dinner that night. They said that they were all booked up, but Monica asked if they had had any cancellations and they looked and realized they had, so we booked a spot and headed back to shower and change.

The vineyard is impressive. A huge tree lined driveway leads to a gigantic structure that houses their tasting room, restaurant, and more. We arrived and were seated out on the patio right next to the rows of grape vines. Starting with water (sparkling) we had Polenta Fries (delicious!), a 2014 Reisling for Monica and  2015 Rosé for me.  Then I had the Mushroom Risotto while Monica had the Tagliatelle Tiger Shrimp, with another Reisling for Monica and a 2012 Merlot for me. Desert was Boudine chocolate pudding and Beignets with chocolate and salted caramel dipping sauces. Afterwards we were so full we could not imagine anything else, but our receipt was good for a free tasting, so our server suggested the ice wines, which we enjoyed and were glad that they were very small tastings!

Given that our reservation has been for 5:45, we had time afterwards to head to the water and watch the sunset over Lake Ontario. It seems to be a daily ritual for many people here as crowds gathered to see it off. Nothing spectacular this day, but a good way to end a good, but long day. Tomorrow is another travel day, with an early start.