Days 58 - 59

Day 58
October 13, 2010
Today was a travel day from Cooperstown, NY to Niagara Falls, ON. We had good weather for the trip, and the drive was very nice. We reached our destination by a little after noon. The border crossing was the easiest of the 5 crossings we have made so far on this trip. At 4:30 pm, we all carpooled into the falls area to the Skylon Tower. This tower has a rotating tower at 760’ above the ground. It is a couple of blocks back from the Niagara River and has a fantastic view of the cities on both side of the river and the Falls. After dinner, we went up another floor from the restaurant to the observation deck where we waited until 7 pm when they turned on the colored lights on the falls.


Day 59
October 14, 2010
Niagara Falls, ON

We had rain overnight, and it continued all day. It made our day interesting. We started out by carpooling up to the Butterfly Conservatory where we went into a huge dome where butterfly’s were flying freely. It was comfortable in there because they keep it warm for the butterfly’s. After we finished at the Butterfly Conservatory, we were all given passes for the shuttle bus and several venues to do on our own. We left our cars in the parking lot and boarded a shuttle bus that took us to different venues along the Niagara Parkway. Not everyone went to the same venue at the same time. Our first stop was the White Water Walk. We rode an elevator down 236’ to the rivers edge, then walked on a boardwalk along the river. This is an area of huge rapids. The water is traveling at 30 MPH through the canyon. We took the elevator back up and re-boarded the shuttle bus to our next stop, which was the Maid of the Mist boat ride to the falls. We were all given blue ponchos to wear, which were supposed to keep us dry. Between the mist from the falls, the rain, and the wind, they didn’t help much. Back aboard the bus, we went to our next stop, which was a trip behind the falls, but we decided to eat lunch before doing that. After lunch, we went to the behind the falls venue. We were given yellow ponchos to wear. They were more trouble that they were worth. After descending in an elevator, there were three tunnels that we walked through. Two tunnels came out directly behind the falls. All we could see was water coming down and a loud roar. The third tunnel went out side to a platform next to the falls. After this, we rode the shuttle back to the Butterfly Conservatory to get our cars and head back to camp and dry out and get warm. We then had a potluck dinner, which was our last meal as a group.