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Our First View: the Niagara Falls
Struggling with our rain ponchos, we clambered around the deck or our boat, up to the prow, and saw this....After a restless last night in Buffalo - lots of street noise, ambient light and spontaneous beeping from charging cellphones and cameras, and a roommate who got up at 5am to spend an hour packing before catching her 6:30 train, we set off north east on the dot of ten past ten to check out a certain famous strait between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario - The Niagara Falls.
Avoiding the main highway to save on tolls, we meandered along the riverside, through the towns of Towanda and LaSalle, to Niagara, where we hastened straight to the bottom of a 200ft elevator shaft at an alarmingly fast rate - I forget the exact statistic the disembodied voice (of doom?) read out, but it was fast. Ju was thrilled she was able to sweet talk the ticket taker into letting her keep her ticket as a souvenier, (to add to her already bulging journal,) and there we were, on the river, boarding a boat and being presented with very fashionable blue plastic ponchos (the photographic evidence is certainly compelling...we're sure you'll all be wanting one too).
To anyone who has never been, we heartily recommend the Maid of the Mist
The American Falls
The so called 'American Falls' Are completely within America. They Face Canada across the gorge of the Niagara River - or as we now know, Niagara Strait. Note all the seagulls. boat ride. It's inexpensive and an incredible experience. We had our first view of the falls from the dock, and then headed up past the American Falls, the Bridal Veil fall and into the Horseshoe Falls, where we were drenched in spray and couldn't hear the narrated commentary over the noise of the pounding, swirling, misting water, and the hordes of gulls swooping like locusts through the spray. Trying to keep our cameras out of the wet proved impossible, as we could not stop attempting to capture the experience in the inadequate form of files on our memory cards. Indescribable and utterly great.
After the ride we walked out onto the jutting promontory of the observation tower at the top of the elevator for more photographs, and then to the lip of the American Falls, where the water glides smoothly to the edge, then hurls itself off like liquid lemmings. A bite to eat later, we decided to walk to Canada, via the Rainbow Bridge. It's so funny to think you can just walk into another country for an icecream, but that's exactly what we did, following the "Pedestrians to Canada" signs, getting our passports stamped at immigration, and
From the Observation Tower
Sideways along the American Falls, up to the Horseshoe Falls - with a massive plume of mist rising up into the sky, the reason for the rain ponchos on the boat! walking along the beautiful parklike promenade on the Canadian side of the river gorge.
I must say, from what we saw the town of Niagara on the Canadian side seems a much more pleasant place to be - perhaps this is why the American side is covered with roadworks - catching up! The riverside here provided a great view of the American Falls, and we walked slowly up, stopping for photographs every few feet, just like every person in sight. Until this point the day had been rather overcast and the water was a sullen grey, with plumes of white - very dramatic - but now the clouds parted and everything was bathed in brilliant sunshine, which created rainbows below us and made the water a bright green blue. We were rather lucky to have had such a day, to see two such different moods of the river, as they were both beautiful.
Stopping for the aforementioned icecream (both girly pink - New York Cherry Cheesecake for Juliet and Strawberry for Jenny) we reluctantly tore ourselves away from the sparkling water and walked back over the border to the United States, where we were welcomed by some cheeky
young immigration officers, who delightedly exclaimed over us being Kiwis (referring to ourselves as such never ceases to entertain our American friends.) It was time for us to be taking to the road once more. Syracuse, NY, was our destination, and exhausted by lack of sleep and the energy of the falls, we took the easy option of the tolled thruway.
The HI in Syracuse is in an old house, somewhat gothic in style, which has not been restored but rather kept freshly painted, with modern(ish) fittings haphazardly applied. Let's just say it was atmospheric, complete with an old man caretaker who was either extremely sweet or rather alarming - possibly both. He showed us around and explained the street parking system - odd days on one side of the street and even days the other, this is mainly to aid snowplowing in the winter - and we settled into our six bed dorm. Happily, we found ourselves to be the sole occupants of the pink room with transparent curtains and late afternoon sunlight streaming in. We had a delicious pasta dinner in the stone walled basement kitchen, to the soundtrack of squeaking floorboards and creaking walls, and were
Ju in the Horseshoe Falls
The Horseshoe or Canadian Falls curve around, and it is a MASSIVE amount of water that goes over them! diligently inspected evey half hour or so by our caretaker. Tuckered out by our long day, we retired early for some much needed rest.
Woken with a shock at eight am by our jailer (the old man had an odd aversion to giving anyone keys to the house...) banging on the door and shouting "time to get up ladies!" we set off to see the sleepy little town of Syracuse, but finding a library were immediately distracted by internet access, and it was some time later that we emerged, blinking in the sunlight, ready to drive through the Adirondacks Park. (Handy guide - it's "add-ih-RON-dax" or even "ad-DIRRIN-dax" but if you say "ad-eye-ron-dax" you will not be understood!)
This state park is one of New York's oldest forest preserves, and although Jenny noted the trees looked a little younger than she would have expected, the place was beautiful, filled with tiny towns perched on deep blue lakes, with rushing streams and rivers and lots of trees. We did not see any huge monster crocodiles at Lake Placid, which is a touristy town, boasting its claim to fame as having hosted two winter Olympics on all its many roadsigns.
Back downstream
Looking back through the mist you can see the Observation Tower above our Jetty, and further on the Rainbow Bridge connecting Niagara, USA and Niagara, Canada. Up through the park and northwards, we turned east just two miles before Canada and crossed into Vermont. The Green Mountain state declared its independance rather than becoming part of New York or New Hampshire, and is of course famous for its skiing and forests. Montpelier, the pristinely picturesque capital, was where we laid ourselves to rest in the most expensive beds of the trip so far, after much driving around and lamenting the Vermont reluctance to dirty up their roadsides with anything so useful as advertising for lodgings.
The drive south through Vermont the next day was very pretty - hillside forests that looked just like impressionist paintings, with their painterly blobs of soft colour and strangely flat aspect. Crossing into New Hampshire we had a sunny picnic lunch in the park outside their City Hall in Concord, the Capitol gleaming in the sun behind monuments and cherry trees in full blossom. Watching the young family at play, the wedding day photo session and the wind in the trees was a lovely distraction from the interstate, and after checking out the statues of some of New Hamphire's finest, we hopped back in the car for the trip
Jenny in Canada
Jenny finds a cute wee waterfall in Canada... to our chosen destination - Portland, Maine.
Portland began with a series of grey concrete freeways over industrial estates and budget motels - but this soon segued into a pretty park-filled small city, the treelined streets and hilly nature of which reminded us not a little of our home town. With expectant smiles on our faces, we headed through town for... our first sight of the Atlantic Ocean! We had made it from one coast to the other of North America, and feeling this was no small acheivement, promptly drove past the lobster and clam eateries dotted along the harbourside, and parked our car to sample the ale at the famous Gritty MacDuff's Brewpub nearby the wharf. Quenching our thirst made us eager to fill our bellies too, so our next stop was Becky's Diner, right on the dockside, where we filled up on cheeseburger, beefsteak and fries, feeling very authentic for so doing (and not too guilty for not trying the local delicacy of lobster... seafood is fine by us if it doesn't start with shells or tentacles!)
After a night in a nondescript motel just out of the city center, we drove back in to track
Canadian ice creams!
Standing in front of the Rainbow Bridge with our girly pink ice-creams. down the library, and explore Portland's delightful cobbled streets and quirky little boutique shops, nestled cosily above the harbour. Sadly the library was shut for the day, but we consoled ourselves by spending a good deal of time in a little independent bookstore called Longfellows, enthusiastically exclaiming over the giftcard collection (a number of which featured stuffed monkeys posed in front of landmarks. If you were one of the few to receive a monkey card, consider yourself spoiled! We desperately wanted to keep them, but we love you too much!)
The sun climbing higher in the lazy blue sky, we felt it was time to be on our way, and took the coastal route through the New England states on our way to Boston, visiting Lenny the lifesize Chocolate Moose, before winding arduously through pretty seaside towns which bristled with motels and holiday homes. With great foresight, we stopped along the coast before we got to the densely populated Hampton Beach, and dipped our toes in the icy water, clambering back over the granite rocks and seasnail shells and seaweed to enjoy our customary marmite sandwiches - possibly the first ever eaten in this spot! Judging by diversity of
Behind the Falls
Standing behind the lip of the Canadian Falls, looking back down to the American Falls... and a rainbow! the cars' number plates, it seemed most of New England had come to the beach for their sunny Sunday afternoon, with good reason (although we did think that some surfers in full wetsuits in the freezing cold water should have been kept inside by their mummies). Sun-sleepy and full of fresh sea air, we drove south through the afternoon sun, heading for the city.
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Skerzug/Kevin
non-member comment
Syracuse
Man I wish I knew you where going there. I would of sent you to Dougs Famous Fish Fry. Best fried fish I have ever have is right there in downtown Syracuse next to the finger lake. Mottville, a sleepy little 2 street town to the west(?) of Syracuse is where my mother's family is from.