Monday, March 16, 2009

Yours 'Til Niagara Falls










This past weekend, your obedient scribe and her men visited the land of the maple leaf.

We decided to go to Toronto, intrepid travelers that we are, to visit our friends Jan and Michael. I was last in Toronto as a bridesmaid at their wedding in 1990. Jan and Michael have visited us many times (Michael is originally from the U.S.) and we have often threatened to return the favor, but never quite managed the trip.

This time, however, Jan was celebrating a significant birthday, and of course no distance is too far for us to go to attend a party. The route we decided to follow took us up through New York State to Niagara Falls.

Niagara Falls....slowly I turn...

Spencer had never been to Canada, although he has visited England twice. Norm and I thought it was time he met our neighbors to the north. We also wanted him to see one of the great icons of tourism and North American natural phenomena.

Norm and I had both experienced the falls before, I as a child of about nine, and Norm during his college days. I remembered them as being impressive, especially at night with colored lights playing on them, but was anxious to see them again as an adult, because pretty much everything impresses a nine-year-old.

Michael and Jan were to meet up with us, since the falls are only an hour and a half from Toronto. Repeated cell phone calls were necessary for us to find each other, because for a while we were looking for them on the American side of the border (makes you wonder how we learned to tie our shoes, doesn't it?) It turns out that there is a town called Niagara Falls in Canada as well as in the US.

Finally we crossed the border, where we found the fabulously tacky town of Niagara Falls, Ontario and our fabulous, un-tacky Canadian pals. Then, it was off to the falls themselves.

Which did not disappoint. They are, in a word, magnificent.

Niagara Falls is the most powerful waterfall in North America; 4 million cubic feet of water goes over the falls every minute, on average. They are a great source of hydroelectric power.

We were especially lucky to see them in March, when the spray from the thundering torrent turns to snow, covering the huge rocks in front of the American falls. The Niagara River was partially frozen, with large floes of ice slowly breaking and moving in the deep blue-green water. Ice from the perpetual mist glistened on everything around us on the promenade that faces the falls - every bush, every tree, all of the iron railings and benches (it was quite cold, perhaps 30° F at most).

We walked down the promenade, past the American falls to the Canadian Horseshoe Falls (shaped like a horseshoe, don'tcha know.) These falls are much larger than their American counterpart, and you can get very close to the falls themselves, where ten feet of clear green water pours over the crest at 20 miles per hour.

As we approached Horseshoe Falls, we could clearly see the stunning half-circle rainbow created by the spray, stretching between and linking the two waterfalls, American and Canadian. It was a scene of almost unimaginable beauty.

Spencer and Michael seemed to be in a competition to see who could take the most pictures.

As we contemplated the immensity of water and foam, it was hard to believe that someone went over the falls just last week - and survived. Without a barrel. Or clothes, apparently.

After our visit to the falls, we went back to the town of Niagara Falls, and had a late lunch at another Canadian icon, Tim Horton's. Then we dragged ourselves away from the splendor of the Movieland Wax Museum and made haste for Toronto, just around Lake Ontario from the falls.

We settled in to our bed and breakfast, and had a late dinner at the Keg Mansion, a steakhouse located in a stunning 1867 townhouse built by Arthur McMaster, and later owned by the Massey family (Raymond Massey, the actor, spent time there). Apparently some of the Masseys still haunt the mansion, but the only spirits we encountered were Jim Beam and Jack Daniels.

Saturday we walked through Greek Town, and helped Jan turn fifty at her favorite Italian restaurant, Casa DiGiorgio.

Toronto is too big a city to see in a weekend, but it is a lively and multicultural place, with great ethnic cuisine, and friendly people. Now that we have ventured north, we plan to return and spend more time.

What's not to like, eh?

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