Eastern Escapades: Day 2--Niagara

After getting ready and eating our free breakfast we hit the road. We had decided to start in Palmyra and end in Kirtland on this trip, hitting the sites chronologically. We started in Ohio, drove along Lake Erie through Pennsylvania, and ended in New York. We ate at a local burger trailer along the way (again, mom didn't like her chicken) and the weather was absolutely perfect. I love New York's landscape!
Next we stopped to see Niagara Falls. I see why they are such a big deal--it's because they really are all that. They are amazing!!
First as we were driving up we could see the spray. The Niagara River itself is pretty big, so the amount of spray was impressive. Then we parked and walked through a park that overlooked the falls. It looked even more awesome. There is so much water moving over the edge every second, it is amazing.

In the Park.

So much water!

Then we decided to pay some money to go on the observation deck that hangs out over the river downstream of the falls, and then to ride the boat "The Maid of the Mist", which gives a better view from the river down below.
The observation deck was pretty cool. It was very windy. What ginormous falls! They kinda blew my mind.

It was windy!

On the Observation Deck.

Then we went down for our boat ride. They gave us complimentary blue ponchos--one size fits all--which we thought was kind of them (little did we know), so the boat looked like it was covered in blue smurfs or something. Accross the river we could see Canadians with the same ponchos. They looked silly, so I suppose we did, too. Having swarms of blue people looks pretty rediculous.

Blue Ponchos

 There were all sorts of people there. We saw Jewish families, Indian (from India) families, Chinese families, and what looked like Nepalese families. It was cool.
We got on the boat and claimed a spot on the front railing. The falls look way more impressive from below. It was still very, very windy, and the spray made us glad for the ponchos.
There are two parts to the falls. The U.S. owns one (the American Falls), and Canada owns the other (the Horseshoe Falls). I think the Canadians got the better end of the deal.
The boat started on the American side under the observation deck, went along the American Falls, and paddled right up into the middle of the Horseshoe falls. It was amazing! There was waterfall on three sides of the boat, entirely filling my vision! It felt like it was raining really hard. There was so much water flowing and boiling and falling and spraying!! It looked like we were in a boiling pot. It was clear the boat was doing all it could to just tread water and not head downstream. It was awe inspiring. I've never said "WOW!" so many times in my life not sarcastically. Totally worth the money.

The American Falls

Getting Wet

The Maid of the Mist

Sadly, we were getting too wet to take pictures of the Horseshoe Falls up close.

After we got off the boat we were a little damp and just thrilled that we had decided to do the boat ride. There is a set of stairs that goes right along side of the American Falls, so we decided to hike up them to get a closer look. We could tell they were getting a little wet from the spray, but it looked fun anyway. Silly, silly us. We hiked the stairs, carefully avoiding puddles so that our shoes wouldn't get wet and headed closer to the falls. The closer we got to the top, the more spray there was. By the time we got to the top we were being pounded by a thunderous deluge. It was absolutely nuts. I couldn't see anything unless I was looking down with my hood on. It was more forceful than any rain I've been in! Our shoes were as wet as if we had stood in a lake. As we were getting pounded, we just laughed and laughed. We laughed the whole way down, nearly sightless, and very soaked. I felt battered. The ponchos had helped (thank goodness for the ponchos!), but as we walked my shoes squelched out puddles of water. It was hilarious. I highly recommend it next time you go. :)

The Stairs of Doom

People getting pounded

My very wet shoes.

Dad has a picture like this of when he and Willie came here in 2005--this is in memory of Willie, who is in Arkansas on his mission right now, so he couldn't come.

 Then we drove to Palmyra. We checked in our hotel, the Palmyra Inn, which is adorable, but maybe not worth the price. Rachel and I had separate twin beds, and she was pretty happy about because of my cold. We ate some local pizza, and crashed really hard again that night.