Jenn went to work and we walked to union station to hire a car for the day. We drove down to Niagara falls, with a stop at a Tim Horton's for breakfast, because Stu was REALLY hungover. Elliott had told us we couldn't visit Canada without trying a Tim Horton's, but warned us the coffee was bad. It was. Still, it was just the pick-me-up Stuart needed.
Arriving at Niagara you drive right past the falls and can't help saying "WOW!" We parked up and headed to the main sidewalk at the top of the falls. The sheer volume of water as it drops is just amazing, equivalent to 1,000,000 bathtubs per second. Wow. There are much taller waterfalls in the world, but none that can rival the span of the horseshoe falls and the intensity of the water as it forces its way from Lake Ontario down to Lake Erie (or is it the other way round? Think that's right but my book is in the case so can't check!).
After wandering around taking pictures of the horseshoe and bridal veil (the US side) falls for a while we headed up to the Skylon tower. This small CN Tower-like building also boasts a 360 degree rotating restaurant and panoramic views, though the price of a meal there meant paying the entry fee to the top seen like a much better way to go. The tower is a bit of an old dinosaur of an attraction, with a bunch of old arcade games downstairs with barely a soul using them. In spite of being past its best, the view itself was great as you could see the falls and surrounding area, as far as the city of Toronto on the horizon.
We had lunch at an italian place in the casino, walked back down to the falls (via a bit of an accidental detour), and then went on the Journey behind the falls (which we nearly missed, thinking it had closed for the evening already, til they announced there was half an hour left.) Good thing we did, it took us down in an elevator and through some tunnels that had been blasted out from the rock, and opened up into a couple of viewing platforms right by the bottom of the falls, and two portals behind the falls themselves. The roar of the water was amazing, and the yellow plastic ponchos were definitely needed to protect us from the splashing water (in fact we could have done with something more effective like we'd had on the whale watching trip!)
Pleased we hadn't missed out on the journey behind the falls (which we'd decided on in preference to the Maid of the Mist boat ride to the bottom of the falls as there was so much mist we wouldn't have seen much anyway), we had ourselves a hot drink and a cake from another Tim Horton's (this time so bad Stu threw his coffee away!) and then headed outside again. It was getting dark and we wanted to catch the falls illuminated at night. We watched as the falls turned to shades of blue, green and red, and then headed back to the car park.
On the way back the car we passed a litter bin which seemed to be makibg some strange rustling noises. We paused to watch as a cute furry little face popped up out of the bin and two beady black eyes checked us out. Realising he'd been caught red-handed, the raccoon jumped out of the bin and headed across the car park and into the trees. He was so cute! If only I'd had my camera to hand.
Stu drove us back towards Toronto and I could barely keep my eyes open, but I did manage to stay awake to see a very cute skunk crossing the road, which Stu braked to avoid a nasty accident. Stu also spotted another one, scurrying after his friend. Heee! :)
We finally got back to Toronto, dropped off the car and walked the few blocks back to Jenn's. We'd had no time to eat dinner and I was much too tired to care, so polished off a bit of leftover ice cream and pringles from Sunday night and headed straight to bed. Zzzzz.
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