![\"d20110902_0008\"](\"http:\/\/www.soleillapierre.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/d20110902_0008.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nI also went up on the big ferris wheel they have overlooking the river. Here you can see the rivers leading to the falls – a feature often overlooked:<\/p>\n
I went on the Maid of the Mist<\/a> boat tour.\u00a0 It’s a short boat ride that takes you near the American falls and right up beside the Canadian falls.\u00a0 The spray is incredible.\u00a0 They give you a disposable raincoat, but you’ll still get soaked.\u00a0 It was almost hard to breathe there was so much water flying through the air – like being under a dozen showerheads at once. \u00a0Luckily my camera bag proved itself quite waterproof, but needless to say I didn’t take any pictures that close to the falls.\u00a0 This is when I had to put my camera away:<\/p>\n I did get this panorama of the American falls on the return leg:<\/p>\n The next place I went was Table Rock, which is the name of the best vantage point above the Canadian falls – and where a young woman recently fell in<\/a>. This compressed panorama doesn’t do it justice – there’s a lot of water there. It’s about 20cm deep where it goes over the edge, and moving fast.<\/p>\n Just below here is an attraction called Journey Behind the Falls<\/a>. There are three parts to it. Two are tunnels that come out behind the significant overhand of the falls. You can’t get right to the tunnel mouths though – what you see is this:<\/p>\n That whiteness is the wall of water falling down.\u00a0 Sometimes the wind blows some spray into the tunnels.<\/p>\n The third part is an observation deck near the foot of the falls.\u00a0 Lots of spray here too, but I was able to get a more dramatic angle:<\/p>\n On the return trip, at the request of my friend Liam, I photographed the monument to Nicola Tesla<\/a>, world’s greatest mad scientist.<\/p>\n That’s the documentary view, but I like this angle better since Tesla was inspired as a child to want to harness the power of the Niagara Falls:<\/p>\n You’ll note he’s standing on a partial model of the AC motor, one of his world-changing contributions.<\/p>\n I’m not much interested in the wax museum type stuff that dominates the tourist strip here, but I did go into Brick City<\/a>, hoping for a Lego extravaganza.\u00a0 Also I had heard the Lego model of the CN Tower that is no longer at the CN Tower was moved here.<\/p>\n Unfortunately it was a disappointment.\u00a0 What you see here is everything:<\/p>\n Basically a moderately substantial Lego collection for a single person.\u00a0 The CN Tower model is not the original, and is not as well done.\u00a0 Lots of trains, and some nice constructions, but also a lot of “canned” stuff – ie off-the-shelf Lego sets that have simply been assembled and added to the mix.\u00a0 Overall this exhibit is less substantial than the touring Lego shows that used to go to department stores across the country.<\/p>\n When I was here as a teenager, there was a big arcade on the strip where I and three other kids spent a crazy amount of money playing Gauntlet II<\/a>.\u00a0 That arcade is gone and I’m not certain of where it was exactly.\u00a0 There are four new establishments that have (a poor selection of) arcade games, but they more correctly identify themselves as midways:<\/p>\n More shots from the strip:<\/p>\n OMG, there are dinosaurs and the like after those mini-golfers!<\/p>\n A couple of moon compositions:<\/p>\n Night shots of the lights illuminating the falls, and their effect on the cloud of spray:<\/p>\n Night shots of the falls:<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n