FRODO SEVEN : Canada, Eh?

The next few posts are from summer vacation 2018 when we spent two weeks with our neighbor to the North, land of moose, hockey and all things maple. Most of the posts were written on the trip at the end of very long days. I would literally spend ten minutes before bed capturing what I could. Which proves that something is better than nothing and, in fact, something can really be worth doing. Enjoy!

Canada Day 1:

August 10, 2018: We left between 10 and 11 AM as planned. 11:05 to be exact but who's counting? We're on vacation! The drive to our first destination took about three hours. We arrived at Hoak's on the Lake at 2, a seafood restaurant highly recommended by Chris' coworker. It did not disappoint and we had no leftovers. After lunch, we wandered down to Lake Erie where we skipped rocks, collected rocks and, amazingly enough, did not get wet. The day was beautiful with perfect temps, blue skies and just the right number of fluffy white clouds.
When we got back on the road, we headed to Niagara Falls, NY/ Niagara Falls State Park. We walked to one of the observation areas and got our first glimpse of the falls. The view was partial and, for that reason, a bit underwhelming but we were all so excited to be here that we were easily satisfied and impressed. We noticed that below us, on a platform at the bottom of the falls were yellow ponchoed people standing nearly under the falls, getting completely soaked and having tons of fun. After walking around a bit, we bought tickets, were given our own yellow ponchos and went on the "Cave of Winds" tour. We started off in a small museum about the use of the falls for energy and for the appreciation of beauty. Then, we watched a movie, the theme of which was "The World Changed Here". The star of the documentary was Tesla, a brilliant scientist/ inventor who discovered a way to harness the energy of the falls, turn it into electricity and send it over a distance, a revolutionary thing at the time. After the movie, we were given extremely stylish footwear for our tour that we were allowed to keep. Then, it was an elevator ride down to the self-guided tour where we walked along layers of decking for a wonderful view of the falls. The "Hurricane Platform" was the highlight of the tour. It was there that we experienced hurricane force winds (category 1) and were literally bathed by Bridal Veil Falls. It was truly amazing. At one point, I stood with my arms raised and eyes closed at the edge of the platform facing the falls, a wall of rushing water. I heard the roar and felt the power and, for one second, fear.
Soaking wet and chilly, we climbed in the car and drove to the border where we were asked questions about our plans in Canada, whether we were planning to leave anything behind at the end of our stay and whether we were planning to meet anyone. No and No. It was a bit intense but we passed and were allowed to continue on our way to our bed and breakfast. We have our own little apartment, a breakfast delivered in the morning and extremely friendly hosts who gave us a full run down of the must-dos of the area. We will run out of time before we run out of options!