Yep. Getting wet is part of the fun
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7th
He didn't even have to bend down to scoop it up to drink it - #Niagara was a constant stream delivered all over - straight to his mouth.
You know how the saying goes "I laughed till I wet my pants" .... so true of this day. @Mac and his poncho antics had me in stitches - so much so that he only had to say "where's my poncho" and 24 hours later I am still laughing.
I do love the contrasts that the poncho highlights- when I have a challenge ... @Mac just jumps into the rescue- when he has one (which is rarely I might add) I am just paralysed with laughter and am absolutely no help at all. It didn't help that @Mac was committed to staying dry - and my commitment was at the other end of the scale.
The day started with the alarm wakeup at 7 am and we were on the road at 7:45 making a beeline with the commuters taking the tramway to #Union Station (we dutifully tapped on but the cost hasn't registered on our card ... no idea ... it did yesterday) and found ourselves underground and a little disoriented with hundreds of workers. Had to fire up #Google Maps to find our way out.
Early start with the commuters
Plants everywhere, busy, THE TOWER glimpse and our place with connecting condo
We should have taken one of the 200 breakfast offers underground (we rejected because they all had massive queues) because once above ground our scan of options meant we found ourselves at the ubiquitous -#Tim Horton's for brekkie. @Mac not a fan but it was adjacent to our 9:15 meet up point for our tour.
Above ground had few options - settled for #Tim
Joined @John and @Len and 58 other guests on the big #TBCL bus Tour of Niagara. Sign posts said 63 kms to #Niagara and it was on a major freeway - filled with traffic - it was moving our way but stopped coming back into #Toronto. And thinking about stopped traffic, when we did reach #Niagara, for those wanting to enter the #USA, the border showed there was a 2-hour delay/wait. Lucky for us, we were staying in #Canada.
@John had us zeroing on all the highlights on the way - there were lots including the Queen Elizabeth Way. Burlington Skyway Bridge, Mississauga, Hamilton, Welland Canal and the locks, the escarpment and of course the grapes and wineries.
Our first stop was to the #Wine Visitor and Education Centre to sample a few including an ice wine - very sweet.
Wine tasting and lunch before wet activities
And then onto lunch and our first view of the #Falls and our first encounter with the mist. Even perched up high in the restaurant, the mist was blowing into the dining area.
Spectacular really.
Such a thunderous amount of water pounding the surface below after a relatively short fall. Headed straight for the -#Horseshoe Falls and lined up for the "Behind the Falls" walk out onto the platform. This close to the edge of the #Falls were WET. @Mac posed - and kept his smile going for about the first 5 shots and then as he got wetter - the focus changed from posing to surviving. As the one not posing at the wet edge, I highly recommend this experience.
It was wet - smile for as long as you can
The walk behind the falls - worth it - but of course wet
Time to join the group again to board the "Hornblower." Everything was fine onshore, @Mac had that little red poncho at his mercy. We took up a position of height, up front and outside. @Mindy had advised the best vantage point and encouragingly said "Get wet, you only live once."
As soon as the "Hornblower" headed into the #Falls, the wind started and the mist became weaponised. @Mac thought he needed to be a little more secure and tried valiantly to waterproof himself. To no avail. He was beaten by a merciless volume of water, the unpredictability of the wind and the flimsy plastic sheath. And , true to form, and paralytic with laughter I was no help.
The mist was now sheets of water, your sunglasses hosted mini waterfalls, phones had to be put away and to be fair, the oncoming water was more like a series of little torture jets on the now naked eyeballs.
About to get serious 🤪
Before our turn, a pic from above as #Hornblower approaches the mist of the falls
To my question "Are you having fun yet?" I got absolutely no reply. But it WAS fun and after all, with his red poncho wrapped around his head, -@Mac was viewing it all through Rose coloured glasses.
Best wrestle with poncho goes to .. .... you guessed it .....
I didn't care what it looked like. Felt I was operating in the genius category. Used my headband to secure my poncho. Worked a treat.
That was probably about 3 minutes of full-frontal assault and then the #Hornblower was turned around and we were greeted by the arc of a rainbow.
All smiles now - rainbows - and a partial view
Really was a hoot. And luckily, we survived. We had made it very clear, that if something happened, we definitely wanted to be rescued on the #Canadian side - we have no #US insurance.
Finished our trip (wet hair, wet clothes, wet shoes .. along with everyone else) with a detour to the little town of #Niagara-by-the-Lake - absolutely gorgeous village (no buses permitted in the precinct; we did have to walk) which is bordered on two sides by #Lake Ontario the #Niagara River. The gardens were once again spectacular, and the Ice-cream wasn't bad either. The triple treat was that no poncho was involved.
Niagara-on-the,Lake
Still laughing as we reboarded for the 90 minute bus ride home which delivered us back to #Union Sation just after 8 pm. We opted to walk the 2 km home so I could get a night time shot of THE TOWER.
THE TOWER was red just like his poncho
Mission accomplished, picked up some dinner and spread out all the wet clothes to dry and to prepare ourselves for another day. Still laughing - @Mac asked where his 'souvenir' red poncho was!!!! I think he had visions of sleeping in it.
Another wonderful day in #Toronto.
❌️ still no forward ticket to #Ottawa - they were experiencing an unusual length of delay on phone when we tried from #Tim Horton's yesterday morning
✅️ no butt cheek bruising in evidence - I checked (before it got wet on the #Hornblower)
Meanwhile in 🇪🇺 with @M&I
They took the shortest flight ever from #Athens to #Mykonos and no torrential rain, but blowing a gale. Not really conducive to the beach or eating out - but they can work around that.
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