30 August 2010 - Niagara Falls

I hardly slept from fearing I would miss my flight. We had planned to hit the road by 5am. I didn't realise that CVG is actually in Coviington, Kentucky and that I had now been in 3 states. Thus at the airport were beany babies horses tattooed with "Kentucky". I was full body scanned at CVG.

For those who have not encountered this technology, see a photo of a scan here at Gizbuy: http://gizbuy.com/2010/03/24/new-airport-security-system-from-tsa-30-sec-body-scan-or-2-minutes-of-patting/ (does this mean you can buy this product for your own home?)

Essentially a nude picture of yourself front and back. I wonder if there is a ratio of "attractive persons"..? There was no rights read to me the way in Australia they give you a placard explaining everything and what they plan to do with the data or what could happen to you (for explosives testing). Paul tells me they say they will only keep the images for 1 year.

At the airport I discovered I was 5 pounds over and so.. haha.. I pulled out the books I had bought on Amazon. Ridiculous. Anyway, it tells me that now I may not buy any more souvenirs on my trip.

Tell you what, I slept most of the way to Chicago and in a bleary daze, struggled my way to another section of the airport to get on my American Eagle flight to Buffalo. o'Hare is well organised but massive. Absolutely massive. I was so tired that I didn't even experience lift off. I was fast asleep and the first time I looked out the window we were already above the clouds. I took a tour through their hilarious magazine SkyMall again. There are things like platforms of astroturf for indoor pets with a sprinkler system for flushing and you can either plumb the base or use the tray (but you need to clean it yourself). And they sell LitterKwitter in there too.

Buffalo.. well I can tell you that flying overhead Buffalo it reminded me of the opening sequence of Weeds - there were developments where all the houses were the same and all their driveways equal length. t looked like a paisley pattern from up here.

The swimming pool ratio also increased, but tell you what, I have not seen any area overhead which could beat our Gold Coast for pool to house ratio.

I am so glad I had earplugs from my VAtlantic flight - I was sitting right at the back and on looking out could see the engine right up against my side. As I had put them in before we taxi'd, I had no idea until we landed just how loud it was. (This was an Embraer)

Luggage was funny. Because there were so few passengers, they just moved the carousel until all the luggage was outt and stopped the belt. I had to walk around to the other side to get my bag.

Paul was right there and I was glad because we hadn't made plans where to meet. We drove on out of there and blindly headed to Niagara Falls. The signs are not very helpful, but I guessed as we kept going past Niagara Fall tourist centres that it must be the right way. His TomTom seemed to think not. Eventually we arrived at American Falls and if there is one thing I wonder about America it would be the lack of shade structures. It gets boiling hot, and then it snows... you'd think that a few corrugated tin roofs would be ideal for this kind of place. Shade sails maybe...
I feared for my 5 kilos of chocolate but there wasn't anything I could do really. So unfortunately I think they have all been remoulded into new blob shapes in the foil.

Well, I was absolutely excited by the mist. I could see it over the trees before I could see anything else. Headed on down to the railings and it was just wonderful. So, on the American side there is the large American Falls and Bridal Veil falls. The things you can do on this side are go up a giant observation tower (open air), Maid of the Mist ferries or the Cave of Mists tour where you don a raincoat and go down to the base of American Falls and can trek a timber walkway all along the waterfront and then right up to the waterfall wall and get drenched. It looked great, but I was not dressed in the right gear nor was my camera going to love me.

We just looked and took photos and then got a giant soft pretzel with giant crumbs of salt all over it. That was essentially lunch.

Then it was back to the car and headed to the border crossing to be asked a few questions, not many, and certainly no body scan.

Clifton Hill, where we parked, was like... Gee I don't even know. Coney Island? It was full of wax museums, haunted houses, gumball machines, hot dogs, pizzas, game parlours and on and on and on... Like a whole year round fun fair with the most tacky decor, neon and lightbulb exteriors. Rides. Carnies. We ran past it all to get to the falls. Again, a lovely view, this time I got to see American Falls better. We walked to the end which is called Table Rock, then back again to get on the Maid of the Mist. The other things you can do here are go up Skylon Tower which has the lifts on the OUTSIDE and has a glass floor up the top. You can also do the Behind the Falls-- they drilled a tunnel so you can walk to behind the falls and look at a wall of rushing water.

Blue raincoats all around. Nowhere to stow any belongings. I feared for my new sneakers which are red satin. The ferry takes a short tour over to American Falls and the veil and then swings over to Horseshoe Falls for the full effect, going as close as it can and everyone gets wet. Camera retreated to under the raincoat at this stage. It was worthwhile, the view from below of both falls was gorgeous and it was a very hot day.

That being done, we then drove to Toronto where it was pointed out to me:
The wonderful, wide expanse of Lake Ontario.
The sole windmill in town.
The big CN Tower.

Apparently it has been 33 degrees C most of this week and is staying this way.

Paul's apartment has a pool inside and outside!

We had dinner at Nazareth Bar (Ethiopian). The meal we had was a giant puffy pancake that was then layered with various vegetable meals: stewed beans and lentils, minced and stewed veges, and a salad. Its an eat with your hands affair.