Rick & Carol's Journey (DL)

We arrived at our campground near Niagara Falls around noontime. In the afternoon, we toured the nearby city of Niagara-on-the-Lakes, which has a number of high end tourist shops along its main street. In the evening, we drove to downtown Niagara Falls, rode a huge Ferris wheel, then walked the entire distance of the waterfront from the viewpoint for the American Falls (which are located across the river) to the edge of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls, and back again. (The first photo of the American Falls was taken from atop the Ferris wheel. The second photo shows the water pouring over the top of the Horseshoe Falls.)

On Tuesday, we played tourist and visited a host of attractions in the Niagara Falls area. These included the Butterfly Gardens; the White Water Walk, a boardwalk along the side of the Class 6 rapids downstream from the falls; a boat ride to the base of Horseshoe falls on the Maid of the Mist; and a walk through tunnels that took us to an observation platform near the edge of the base of Horseshore falls.

Our final attraction of the day was the Spanish Aerocar, a cable car over a whirlpool in the Niagara river several miles downstream from the falls.

On Wednesday, we started with a tour of Ft. George, a riverside fort that was occupied successively by the British, Americans, and the British again. After a quick trip through a couple of small antique shops, we toured one of the areas many wineries -- this one specializing in ice-wine, a dessert wine that is made from handpicked grapes harvested in January or February after they have frozen solid. In the early evening we drove to one of the locks on the Wellbun canal, part of the St. Lawrence seaway, and watched a coal hauling "laker" traversing the lock.

Thursday was a driving day, back into the U.S. to a campground near Mexico, New York.