Niagara! Mostly.

[kv0925]

Back home! Actually got back Tuesday evening. Travels were largely uneventful, I got through security and customs and all that with no hassles, and the flight was right on time. The only event of note was about 5 minutes after I dropped off my rental car and realized I'd neglected to grab my USB stick of music. I was early, so I headed back to the dropoff point only to find that they'd already taken the car away. So I inquired at the desk, and proceeded to waste a half an hour while they tried in vain to get someone to bring the drive to me at the desk. Eventually I had to move along to check in, and they said they'll mail it to me. I do hope so. Not that it's that big a deal, it's a $10 USB drive and hardly irreplaceable. I guess we shall see!

So I started editing the photos, and I got through the day I trekked down to Niagara, so I thought I'd go ahead and post that part.



I set out for Niagara around 8:30am, and got there just before 10:30. So it was still pretty chilly, and everything near the falls was covered in ice from the mist.




The falls themselves really amazed me. I knew it would be awesome, of course, and had certainly seen photos. But there's nothing like really being there, seeing and hearing all that water, feeling the mist. And the color of the water, and how it sheets over the edge of the rock.. all just fascinating. I could definitely imagine taking the kids here sometime, I think they'd really like it too.






I'd read this memorial to Nikola Tesla was here--he was instrumental in building the first hydroelectric power station here--so I made it a point to find it.




Looking towards the US side of the river, with American Falls, the Rainbow Bridge, and the Prospect Point observation tower.


Mist! Ice!


On the way back towards Toronto, I exited the highway for gas, and happened to spot the masts of this ship poking up--just had to pull over and take a closer look. This is in Jordan Harbour, and turns out to be the remains of a ship that started out in 1914 as a ferry. In the 1990s it was intended to be a floating restaurant and replica of the Grande Hermine, one of the ships of 16th-century explorer Jacques Cartier. The guy who owned it was never able to get it off the ground, so to speak, and then he died--and the ship sat in this harbor until it burned (probably arson) in 2003. Kind of interesting:

I thought I'd check out Toronto a little bit since I was passing through on the way back up to Barrie.


I found myself on Lakeshore Drive, and stopped at Humber Bay Park, where the pedestrian arch bridge was an attraction on my list.




Nice view of the downtown skyline, too.


Along the length of the arch bridge were padlocks marked with names and dates of friends and lovers, a la the Paris Bridge of Locks (which, coincidentally, is being made lock-proof because residents think it's ugly and the extra weight of thousands of padlocks was killing the bridge). There weren't really all that many on this bridge, though.


Not much vegetation to speak of since winter was still in charge, but I dug these thistle seed pods near the lake.

And that's it for now. Stay tuned for part 2, once I get the rest edited!