I finally started some serious packing in the morning – videotapes, glassware, and so on. All the boxes that I’d bought the night before were moist from the unchecked moisture problems at my mom’s house.
Ben slept in, and had french toast for breakfast, courtesy of Grandma.
We saw a cardinal outside the kitchen window - Ben had never seen one.
Then it was off to Niagara Falls for the day.
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We stopped and took a picture of where I used to live. It's been torn down, but my living room overlooked the tree on the left. Ben's mom and I spent a lot of time together in that apartment before we moved to Alabama.
One of the things I needed to do was get insurance for any specific items of value that I’d be driving back to Utah. So I took a bunch of pictures, and went down to an appraiser in town. Ben chose to stay in the car and play Nintendo – poor guy, it took me over an hour.
The Grand Island bridges fascinated Ben. He’d never been on anything so big or so high before (other than a mountain). And the river underneath was bigger than any he’d ever seen. He also thought it was pretty cool that there was a regular town on Grand Island and that people had to drive over those bridges every day. We got to the Falls about 2:30.
Ben's first view of the American Falls.
Ben at Terrapin Point.
It's just such a cute little river right here.
Looking over the edge.
People on the Cave of the Winds boardwalk.
The American Falls from Luna Island.
Looking upriver at the rapids above the American Falls - all those little islands with trees just amaze me.
Ummm ... he's ten.
Pretty cool.
Two videos of the base of the American Falls. On the boardwalk, you cross over the base of Bridal Veil Falls, so this is the real deal.
Ben got a lot wetter than this a bit later - the water was coming straight down there and the force tore his poncho - but I missed it with the camera.
He has no idea how wet he's going to get.
Cruising by the American Falls.
We were just there!
This is as far into the Horseshoe Falls as I could take pictures - it was too wet after this.
Just a nice little river cruise back. Gift shop on the way out.
The squirrels on Goat Island are two-toned. Another gift shop too.
We'd been there for hours, and hadn't even seen the big Falls yet.
Ben on the shore of Three Sisters Island, with the main channel behind him.
The rapids by Three Sisters Island.
Looking upriver towards Grand Island.
I was all ready to go to Scarpello's at this point. Then Ben announced that he was expecting to see the whirlpool. I'd thought this was optional ... but it's not for a 10 year boy.
I think he thought this would be more impressive - like in Pirates of the Caribbean
After this, we drove back to Scarpello's in Wheatfield for dinner of pizza and wings, getting there a little before 7 - we got a little lost where the I-190 meets Buffalo Ave. Ben was tired, cold, and spent. Peg got him to take his clothes off, and she ran them through the dryer. He ate a little, and collapsed in front of the TV - probably his least talkative period for the entire trip. In the meantime, I had a nice, long talk with Peg and Michael.
Clothes dried, and with an extra borrowed sweatshirt for Ben, we headed back towards the falls at dusk. It was gray and drizzly. By the time we got to the Rainbow Bridge, it was dark. Getting into Canada was no problem. The parking situation is a bit different from when I was last there - and much safer for pedestrians. We parked, and took a bridge over to the highway to the Falls.
Then we walked outside. I hadn't realized that the wind was coming from the southeast, so in addition to drizzle, the entire cloud of foam that rises from the Horseshoe Falls is billowing right into our faces - so those are water droplets, not snow in the picture. We turned away from it and walked north. It was totally dead - only crazy tourists from Utah were out. We walked about half a mile, and watched the lights play off the three Falls, and also off the cloud in which we walked.
The lights are the reason you go at night.
We walked right under the beams of the lights. Normally you can't see these very well this close, but we were surrounded by a rainbow.
We were so wet it was funny, and actually too wet to be really cold - we could have shampooed like we were in a cool shower. So, we turned around and walked back. And who do we see back in the building?
Zoltar, from the movie Big! We should have wished to be dry.
Ben wanted souvenirs of Canada, so we hit the touristy shops. We bought a bunch of stuff, including a cute little stuffed wolf cub. He slept with it the next few nights.
It was close to 11, so we decided to head back to my Mom's. Customs was a problem. I had made sure I had a copy of Ben's birth certificate with me. It hadn't occurred to me that I had a Utah license, I was in a borrowed car, with Florida plates, a kid who was born in Louisiana, and I said I was going to Clarence. The guys must have thought only a shmuck could've come up with something that crazy, and he let us go. Ben was asleep before we made it to the North Grand Island Bridge.
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