Hamilton to Niagara Falls and back

Ok, we had to go to Niagara Falls. It's a national landmark, part of our Canadian identity, and too many people have asked me when I've travelled if Niagara Falls is all it's cracked up to be.

We grabbed the bus and ended up in the town or Niagara Falls. We walked down to the main street, and it was like a ghost town. A few tourists, but most things were closed. We found one of the only open diners and had a bit of brunch. But it felt like the whole place had fallen on hard times.

Then we walked out to the falls. This is where all the money is going apparently. Huge hotels, and a market, and walkways, and souvenir shops. Manicured gardens and beautiful flowerbeds. A very different sight from the town proper.

We spent some time running around trying to find some allergy pills. Neil has never had hay fever, but he was allergic to something. His eyes were running, and he was sneezing constantly and generally rather unhappy about everything.

So I dragged him on the Maid of the Mists boat tour, and that seemed to cure his allergies for a bit. The boat goes close enough to the falls that the mist is no longer a mist but a torrential rain. We had the camera rolling inside a plastic bag the whole time. Can't wait to see how that footage turned out. The camera stayed amazingly dry while we got completely soaked. The plastic poncho they gave us only helped so much. I couldn't keep my eyes open through it, and all I could do was fight to keep the poncho from flying off. And the falls are roaring all around you. It's an absolutely awesome experience. The best thing about visiting the falls.

And once we were off the boat, it was hot enough that we were dry pretty fast. We walked down further so we could stand right next to the falls, and got some shots. But time was marching on, and we had to catch the bus back to Hamilton. And we were running late. Happily, we managed to be in the right place at the right time when a local bus stopped, and the lady let us on even though we didn't have tickets. When we told her the bus we were trying to catch, she just laughed at us and said good luck. But she did manage to get us to the bridge stop in about 10 minutes, and after a quick run we actually made it to the bus station with a minute or two to spare. We still haven't missed a bus yet!