A couple of camping tips:
1) When draining pasta (that just took 30 minutes to cook over your 50 year old camp stove) be sure to drain over something clean like an aluminum pan. Because even though you are using your beautiful new $99 camping cookware, if you lose your firm grasp on the lid with built in strainer, your organic whole wheat linguini will end up in the mud.
2) When packing food for an extended road trip which may last up to two weeks, for the love of all that is holy: don't pack the entire menu's worth of food. Your cooler likely isn't up to the task and ice in Niagara Falls is $2.99 a bag.
2a) Morningstar Breakfast Sausages do not come in a waterproof bag and if they are at the bottom of your warm cooler, you really don't want to see the end result.
Possible environmental change: The Earth's surface is definitely getting harder over the course of years I've been camping, especially directly under my sleeping bag.
Touristy Tidbits:
Niagara Falls is breathtakingly beautiful. The surrounding tourist area however is nauseatingly garish.
There are no fewer then 7 tattoo and piercing establishments within the 2 miles from our campground and the actual falls.
At Niagara Falls, "Mist" = "Deluge"
Memories:
Danny: We saw a horse and buggy for hire at Niagara Falls. I remember when we were pretending to fly when we went under the waterfall in the Niagara Fury. I fell asleep on the bus home from the illuminated Falls.
Grace: The big thunder storm at the Niagara Fury Theater. Seeing the illuminated mist of Niagara Falls at night. When my chicken got all covered in spaghetti.
Therese: Taking the Maid of the Mist to see the falls up close. Dumping the pasta in the mud. The chilly mist in the evening.
Gordon: Getting snowed on in the Niagara Fury Theater. Watching the water pour from the upper deck when we went under the falls.
The run down:
We went the total tourist route and bought the Niagara Adventure Pass. We also sprung for a 24 hour bus pass rather than battle the traffic near the falls. Our attractions pass is good for 48 hours.
We took the Maid of the Mist boat right up to the falls and got to experience the awesome spectacle first hand. This included a lot of mist and spray. Even with the raincoats, we were soaked!
Next we went to see the 4D movie experience reliving the evolution of the falls called "Niagara Fury". The kids LOVED this. The show included actual snow during the ice age portion of the show. Of course there was also a lot more mist and another set of complimentary rain coats.
We also did a lot of walking along the park over the falls.
After dinner at the campsite, we headed back to see Niagara Falls all lit up at night. Quite beautiful but of course this included more mist. The bus dropped us off at our campsite at about 10:30 pm. Danny was out cold!
Pictures:
First a link to a short video I took from the top of the falls.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V81oEs6YLB4&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Now the pictures once again not in order...
All the dark ones are of the illuminated falls on a beautiful night with a full moon overhead.
A couple day time views including a look at how close the Maid of the Mist gets to the waterfall.
#3 is Grace posing in front of one of the many tourist attractions on the hill leading down to Niagara Falls.
You see a number of before and after pictures of us in our raincoats preparing to be misted.
Finally, a couple of pictures from the bus: probably the friendliest bus drivers on the planet!
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