USA Niagara and wine country

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Geo: 43.775, -79.4119

Again a relaxed start to the day and we walked from our hotel to Goat Island to view the falls from the American side.

Then we drove across the northern Lewiston Bridge back into Canada and had a very pleasant drive around the smaller roads in the Niagara-on-the-Lake wine country. It was a warm and sunny day, lovely.

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Photos

To Three Sisters Island
A small island, upstream of the falls and reached from Goat Island. A very pretty area with lots of cute black and grey squirrels busy on filling their winter larder.

Upstream Rapids
I was curious that the falls had a drop of 57m but the locks in the Welland Canal catered for a 100m height difference. The answer of course was in the gradient of the rapids above and below the falls. We were told that these were Category 6 rapids; too dangerous for even extreme sports.
In 1960 a boating accident resulted in a seven year-old boy getting swept over the falls! He was wearing a life jacket and survived the experience - the miracle of the falls.

Terrapin Point
The USA end of the Horseshoe Falls.

American Falls
And, in the foreground, the stream feeding Bridal Veil Falls.

Convertible driving
Great for rubber-necking on a fine day. A bit small and uncomfortable for touring, though.

Icehouse Winery
Ice wine is made from frozen grapes, hand-picked at night in Jan/Feb when the temperature drops below -8 degrees C! The grapes are left on the vine after the normal Oct harvesting period. When the leaves fall off, the dehydrating grape bunches are covered in netting to keep the birds out. Crushing the frozen grapes only produces a drop or two of concentrated juice per grape, compared to 8-10 drops from a normally-harvested grape. The resulting wine is a very sweet dessert wine, of both red and white varieties. Very good, but pricey at $60 for a half bottle.

Comments

[Jan Scott]

Love reading about everything you are both getting up to. Enjoy the rest of your trip. Lucy good, not problems.

[Rhona]

I'm enjoying looking at the photographs and reading the stories/information. Thank you Selwyn for your entries. :)

[Morag]

Wot the hell, looks damned fine to me

[robselclark]

Thanks to all my readers...