Slowly I Turned

We needed to take another big road trip. A good, long one. A couple of weeks, with lots of stops. It had been a while. Too long, by our standards, certainly. But, life got in the way. Our days always seemed to be full. Chauffeuring the kids around. Working on the house. The pets. The this. The that. The everything. And before you knew it, a year had gone by. Then two. We really needed to take another trip.

What we really lacked was a reason. We needed some inspiration. A nudge. Then my sister (who lives in Alaska) gave us just the excuse. For the 3^rd year in a row, she was going to run in the Boston Marathon. And while in Massachusetts, she was again, going to stay with our East Coast family. “This year, you guys need to come.” she said. Then my Boston cousin confirmed, “You're all staying with us.”

Sure. Why not? We'll head east. All new places for Jenny and the girls to see. Plus, an opportunity for Clark to hang out with his family that he hadn't seen in forever. It sounded great. But, what else? We needed more. Boston is a pretty decent drive from St Louis. There's plenty to see along the way. The East coast is rife with opportunities.

So it was opened up for discussion.
                              “Where else does everyone want to go, besides Boston...?”
“New York City?”

                              “Definitely!”

“Pennsylvania?”
                              “Sure.”
“Connecticut?”
                              “Maybe...”
“Can we see how long it takes to drive across Rhode Island?”
                              “We'll see...”
“Niagara Falls?”
                         
“NIAGARA FALLS!!!”

Slowly I turned...

So, it was set. Our next adventure. First stop, the northwestern tip of upstate New York. We piled into 'Mia the Kia' (our recently named minivan) and headed out. Surprisingly, Niagara Falls is just a 12 hour drive from home. (Who knew?) And like a bunch of traveling pros, we got there in no time.

Now none of us had ever been to Niagara Falls before. Even though we all had our own idea of what we thought they would be like, we had no idea. It's funny how things are that way. The more we travel, the more we learn that. You just can't picture things until you've been there.
We arrived at a seasonal transition time. The extremely harsh northern winter was (mostly) gone. Preparations were being made everywhere for the upcoming tourist season. Spring was near. Or so we thought. When we got out of the car, it felt pretty brisk. Cold. We put on our coats, and headed straight to the overlook of the falls. The wind picked up the closer we got. Pretty darn chilly now. Gloves. Hats. Then as we walked up to get our first glimpse, the mist hit us. It was everywhere. And when the temperature is hovering around freezing, mist turns into, well, frozen mist, I guess. It was frigid. Biting. For a bunch of Mid-westerners, it was full on winter. ”Look there's an observation tower. It's inside, and has a great view!.. Just a quick walk over a little raised bridge.” Where the winds were even fiercer. Sub-Arctic. Top-of-Mount-Everest cold.

...step by step...

Twigs the Snowman

Niagara Falls was massive. We were seriously impressed. Cold be damned, their allure was unavoidable. They were literally awe-inspiring. I was inspired with awe. Now, they weren't massive in a tall way. They're kinda' short, really. (At least when compared to the rest of the world's largest waterfalls) They're survivable-if-you-go-over-them-in-a-barrel short, actually. And they weren't massive in that they stretched on and on. They are wide, for sure. Just not that wide. No, Niagara Falls are massive in a that's-a-crap-ton-of-water kind of way. With a world's best rate of 150,000 gal. per second flowing through them, the amount of water is super impressive. Indescribable. Until you see it.

In a master stroke of vacation pre-planning, our hotel was within earshot of the falls. We could hear them from our room. That night was filled with short walks back to the falls, snowball fights, and even snowman building. It was definitely still winter.


The next morning we did the one thing I would insist everyone does when they visit. The Maid of the Mist boat tour has been sailing to the base of the falls since before the Civil War. And for good reason. Armed with ponchos and anticipation, we boated right out to the base of both the American Falls, and eventually the Horseshoe Falls.






Seeing them from below was a whole other experience. The water. There was just so damn much of it. It was so amazing. So worth it.

That's some white noise machine.

...inch by inch...


After our journey below, we hiked across to Goat Island, in the middle of the falls, to finish up our stay. More views of the falls were to be had here, but again work was being done everywhere. Construction. Improvements. Maintenance. That much water has to do some damage, right? It does. Every year the falls erode 1 foot. If that amount seems high, it has actually been slowed down (thanks to engineering) from 3 feet per year. They say in 50,000 years, the falls won't even be there anymore. So, if you haven't been, hurry up and get there while you can.

And take the boat tour.

In the summer.


For now, so long Niagara Falls.

NIAGARA FALLS!!!

Slowly I turned...