What R We Up 2?: September 2009

Our next trip this year was to Niagra Falls. We try to go somewhere different and special every year for our anniversary, which is July 3rd. Since it's the day before Independence Day, it has made for a good opportunity to take a long weekend. It's only an 8 hour drive from here, so off we went. We've heard from many, that if going to Niagra, we must stay on the Canadian side. So we took their advise and were very happy we did! There are so many more attractions, tours, restaurants, casinos, etc. on the Canadian side than on the American side. Both sides do the Maid of the Mist tours. We did the raging rapids tour that we have pics of below. There's a Behind the Falls tour where you can walk out right on 1 side where the horseshoe begins (and get pretty wet!) as well as a tour called Niagra's Fury (re-enactment of the beginning of the falls from the Ice Age on). The American side does have a wind-tunnel tour that we tried to go on when we crossed back into the states but seeing that it was 4th of July, there was an 8-hr line! No thank you!! In our opinion, the Canadian falls were much prettier and more impressive. It's in the shape of a horseshoe. Without the right breeze, it's difficult to see the middle due to all the mist. The American falls have a lot of rocks at the base and are quite pretty as well. You can see both of the falls from the Canadian side, but it looks like it would be difficult to see the Canadian falls well from the American side. We thought it would be kinda wrong to be in Canada on the 4th of July, so we traveled back over where we found out about the crazy line for the 1 tour mentioned above. The rest of the American-side tours didn't sound too interesting so we continued on and checked into out hotel just outside of Buffalo. We just relaxed the rest of the day. Went to a movie (The Proposal - very good!), dinner, and found a spot to watch the University of Buffalo's firework show. It was a great trip! We highly recommend the trip if you're able to go and definitely try to make it over to the Canadian side! You do need a form of passport to cross now but we ended up getting Enhanced Driver's Licences. It was so much cheaper and faster! It works on land or sea which basically includes Canada, Mexico, and most of the Caribbean islands. If we take a trip by plane we'll have to go ahead and get a passport, but no near future plans for that.

Canadian Falls - Maid of the Mist going in!!

American Falls - people in yellow ponchos in line for the Wind Tunnel tour.

Every night they illuminate the falls.

Pics a little blurry because of the mist

Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday they do a ten minute firework show over the illuminated Canadian falls. Sooo pretty. We got fireworks on our anniversary and on the 4th of July!!

From the edge of the Canadian Falls

The Maid of the Mist boat that we took.

Prepared to get soaked! And we did! As we were getting on the boat we passed the people getting off and they didn't look so bad but I guess we were looking at the wrong group of people. In the heart of the horseshoe I had the hood completely covering my head and tried to hold the hand holes closed. It was a difficult task as the windy mist blew up the bottom of the poncho soaking the bottom half of our legs. It was pretty intense! The boat sits in the middle for at least 5 minutes. As you could imagine, it was difficult to see much through the blue poncho, but when I'd peek out it was difficult to see period with all the wind and mist.

View of the American falls from the boat.

Not too far North of the falls they have some class 6 rapids. Class 5 is the highest legal level for extreme rafters. There have been a number of crazy's in the past who have illegally tried these rapids and only a few who amazingly made it through alive

It was difficult to really show the intensity of these rapids in pictures. You just have to be there.

To top off the trip nicely, we opted for the ferry ride across Lake Champlain for a leisurely picturesque finale to a wonderful vacation. The ferry is an hour long ride that ends in the heart of Burlington's waterfront.

From the NY side, waiting for the ferry.

Ahhhh! There's beautiful Burlington Vermont!!!

We have been lucky enough to take several trips this year. The first was to visit Tyra's brother Jason and his family in San Antonio!! We got to meet the newest edition to his family, little Kade, who was born on Christmas Day 2008. We enjoyed spending time with all of them and exploring San Antonio. Greg had a birthday while we were there too!

The Alamo!

There was this awesome tree within the Alamo grounds. Some of the branches were being held up by metal poles. We thought about asking what kind it is so that some day we could have one in our backyard. Such a good climbing tree!