Aug 26 2013

Day 27 – Waterfalls and Daredevils

Hi there…or for today I should say, Hi there eh! Greetings from Canada. Today Aimee and I toured around the town of Niagara Falls, Ontario.

It rained most of last night and into this morning, so we got a later start than we wanted. That’s alright, we welcomed the extra sleep. It finally stopped around 10 so we headed out. We drove over the Rainbow Bridge into Canada. The bridge crosses over the Niagara River. We waited in a short line for Canadian Customs and then we were officially in Canada!

Niagara Falls is a busy city full of hotels, Imax Theater, Shops, Casinos and even a space needle.

We headed over to the welcome center for the falls first. The welcome center was pretty cheesy but had some Canadian essentials, PJs anyone?

There were some educational items in the center, geologist have actually mapped the erosion of the falls over the years. Today, the water flow is controlled by a hydro electric plant to help reduce erosion and create electricity for the area. Roughly 45 million gallons of water flows over the falls every minute!

The overlook was pretty crowded, people from around the world came to Niagara Falls to witness this 7th wonder of the world. Here are a few of our pics from the Horseshoe falls, the largest of the falls..

The water was so powerful. As you can see it would wisp up and create a huge mist cloud that hid most of the falls. On a sunnier day, this mist cloud often creates a rainbow, cool!
Below is pictures of the American Falls, the shots are from across the river…

You probably noticed the boat in the picture, you could ride this boat to the bottom of the falls. Everyone was wearing ponchos or rain coats because you got drenched!

Looking down the side of the cliff, it’s a pretty steep drop…

After watching the falls for some time, we decided to head into town and explore. Our first stop was a pretty cool casino. We kept looking for a restroom, but here they’re called a Washroom, eh!

Need to check your coat, oh wait, coat checking is seasonal..

Aimee and I walked around some shops, including a chocolate and hot sauce shop. Stuff in Canada is very cheap. Yes those are chocolate high heel shoes…

While we were in the casino it started raining cats and dogs, so we stopped by a pretty cool fountain and had some lunch. Later we found out that the fountain is designed to mimic a hydroelectric power plant. There were plenty of cool sculptures in the casino..

Since the rest of the day was going to be rainy, we looked for indoor activities. We found an Imax that was running a show about the falls. The movie was great, if you’ve never been to an Imax, it’s an amazing movie watching experience full of sound and huge screens. I told Aimee we ought to put one in our dream house if we ever win the lottery 🙂

After the movie, the theater was a having a special exhibit of brave daredevils who chanced riding the falls and taking the plunge over the brink (that’s the point of no return, the edge of the waterfall). These daredevills came up with a some cool designs for vessels. As you see these vessels, picture these people going over the waterfall dropping 170 ft!!

That last one took a beating. Whats crazy is about half of the people actually survived. After a series of deaths, the authorities started fining individuals who dared to take the plunge..

Quick story for you..the first documented case of someone going over the falls happens to be a woman. She was a school teacher and was tired of teaching, her students were driving her crazy (she would have to be to go over the falls!). To gain fame and fortune, she decided that she would go over the falls in a 200 lb oak barrel stuffed with her mattress and pillow, she also took her cat! Well she went over the falls and survived, so did her cat; however, she didn’t receive much fame or fortune. She died lonely and poor in 1921. I guess one thing she did do is pave the way for future daredevils! Below is a picture of her and her barrel..

After the exhibit, we headed for some coffee and ice cream. Apparently, Tim Hortons is the Starbucks of Canada, Aimee had to try some. Being the non coffee drinker of the family, I went over to Cold Stone Creamery and (really!) enjoyed some ice cream. Until tomorrow, Bon Soir eh!

Aug 25 2013

Day 26 – 2nd long day of driving

Ah another long day of driving, poor Jacob. I haven’t drove once this entire trip, I’ve got it so good! 😉
This morning we moved out of the Walmart parking lot and headed toward Four Mile Creek State Park, NY just down the road from Niagara Falls.
The drive was about 8 hrs. but it was nice and scenic. We discovered, in a book at Camping World, that we are actually traveling a portion of the Oregon Trail. Maybe we will be able to do the entire trail, it goes from east coast to west coast. In the book, we didn’t buy it, they map out the historical and best things to venture off the trail to see. It looked like fun to me.

We passed a few covered bridges. This one looks like the one in Beetle Juice, don’t say it 3 times!
While we were in Camping World we bought a book to tell us the roads that a passible with a camper. Nobody wants to drive up to a bridge like this and have to take a chance that you may or may not fit. We’ve already run into that problem once.

There were a few tolls plazas we had to pass through, gotta love New York…they really know how to “stick it to ya!”

When you get on a Through Way you collect one of these tickets and it tells you how much you will own at the various exits along the way.

HEY! That’s what our camper’s backside used to look like 😦 Maybe we should warn them of what could happen.

As soon as we get on the road, this is what Roux looks like until we stop. It’s like we drug him! It’s so funny that he can sleep the entire time.

This is a rest stop. I will give New York 2 thumbs up on this. These stops are amazing….Clean bathroom, multiple food options, gas/diesel, great big-rig parking, and free WiFi! You really can ask for anything more.

As we drove from Vermont we could tell the land was changing. The rock outcrops, visible rocks on the side of the road, changed metamorphic to sedimentary to eventually flat plains like the picture above.

Aug 25 2013

Day 24 – Acadia National Park

We have only one full day to explore as much as Acadia National as we can. Our plan is to start the day with a drive around the coast, hike the Acadia Mt. Trail, picnic at Echo Lake Beach, visit the towns of Northeast harbor and South Harbor, and finish the day at the summit of Cadillac Mt. for sunset. There are so many things to see and do on this island, Mount Desert Island, that you could spend at least 2 weeks here doing something new everyday. We are already planning to come back. It’s only 28 hrs. away 😦

I love how the ground is covered by green velvety moss. Jacob thought the edges of the forest were well manicured, “they must pay someone to cut the grass here, it looks great!” he thought it was grass until I pointed out that it was moss.
This is harbor nation, every town in supported by its harbor. Seafood is the main form of income, and tourism, the lobster and clams are as fresh as the can be. The wood boats in the harbors are beautiful, and make for great pictures!
The pebbles line the beaches and stream. There is sand on the beaches but it is different than what we are used to along the Gulf Coast Beaches. While the Gulf Coast is lined with white powdery sand primarily composed of Quartz, from the Appalachian Mts. weathering over millions of years, and pulverized shells, the sand around Desert Island is course, kitty litter texture, composed of a variety of minerals from the surrounding mts. including; pink of Feldspar, black of Hornblende, and white/clear of Quartz.
I hope you can see in the picture that the rocks are pink. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take any home with you.
The drive around the Island was so breath taking.
When we arrived at the trail head of course I had to stop at the out house, it was a long drive and coffee doesn’t help.
On to the Acadia Mt. Trail, which was recommended to us by the park ranger. He said that it was an easy hike that should only take an hour. So we wore regular tennis shoes. This looks pretty easy!

Still not so bad….then we come around a corner…
and this is what most of the trail consisted of…it what way is this considered “easy to moderate”? There were people with small children and babies who had to carry them most of the way. Bad call on not wearing hiking boots!
The views were awesome at the top!

Big Foot?
After this 2.5 hr. hike, we hopped in the car to go to Echo Lake Beach. Jacob wanted to go swimming after working up a good sweat, but I knew there was no way I was getting in the water, it’s just too cold for this gal! Instead of swimming we had lunch and basked in the sun. It was super windy the people who got in quickly got out. Looked like torture in my book. It was a gorgeous day to lounge in the sun and we took full advantage of it.
I guess the settings on the camera got messed up because all of our pictures at Echo Lake are like this….I guess we’ll just have to go back!
Before sunset at 7:25pm, we had to head back to the camper to shower and walk Roux. On our way there we ran into my Aunt and Uncle again, too funny! The reason we showered before sunset is because we have to use the generator to power the water heater and water pump, our battery is not able to power both, and generators can only be used between 8am and 7pm.
Off to Cadillac Mt…..WOW! The views up here are amazing and you can drive all the way to the top. It looked like half the town was there with us. I’m so glad we didn’t miss this site. Maybe next time we come to this area we can catch the sun rise too.