I Was Having a Good Hair Day Until...

...we went to Niagara Falls! We got a slow start out of Rochester but got to Niagara a little before noon. We decided to do Cave of the Winds first. I'm not sure what possessed us to do that one first, but it turned out to be a good decision. We really didn't know what we were getting ourselves into, which may also have been a good thing. We got in the very short line for tickets as we watched people come out of the building with bright yellow ponchos and sandals with Velcro. (I should have taken a picture of that.) We both understood (and could read the signs) that we had a great possibility of getting wet.

Tim bought our tickets, and we moved down the line to receive our ponchos, sandals, and plastic bags to hold our shoes. From there we could see people changing into the sandals and putting the ponchos on over their clothing. We did the same then followed the signs to a very short line (that never stopped moving) to get on the elevator down to the bottom of the falls. As we got off the elevator, we walked down a long corridor out to the sidewalk at the base of the the falls. The closer we got to the falls, the mistier (is that a word?) it got. By the time we reached the series of stairs and landings, it was down right raining. The roar of the falls covered the squeals and laughter of all but those standing closest to us. On one particular set of stairs up to the actual Hurricane Deck, we felt like we were in a movie, on the deck of a ship, in a violent storm at sea (only the boat wasn't moving). Sheets of water hit us in erratic waves; you never knew when one would hit. As we got to the top of the deck, there was a woman standing at the far end of the deck getting pummeled by the water. She came back and said, "You gotta' do that!" She was right. Tim and I backed into the pounding water, the pressure so great, it ripped my poncho in places. It was cold, wet, and exhilarating! We stood there for a short time, then walked back down to drier ground at which point we took off our ponchos and assessed the damage, grinning and laughing all the way. We both had huge wet spots, some from rips in the poncho, some, who knows how they got there! It was just warm enough that it felt good to be a little damp (with the exception of Tim's feet that were cold).

We went back to the car, changed back into our shoes, then walked to the observation deck to get a better look at the Falls. The sheer power is hard to take in. In fact, as we were crossing a bridge to get to Grand Island, Tim looked to his left and thought something was burning because there seemed to be a huge billow of smoke rising from the skyline. Once we got there, we realized, it wasn't smoke, it was mist from the water, crashing on the rocks below. From the observation deck, you can see both the Canadian and American Falls. It would have been interesting to see them both from the Canadian side, but alas, we did not have passports.

After that, we took a trolley to an area from where we viewed Horseshoe Falls (the Canadian falls). We watched as the Maid in the MIst boat inched its way to the foot of the falls. We opted not to take that ride, having had our fill of wetness from the Cave of the Winds. As we walked back to our car, past the elevator down to the Cave of the Winds, the line snaked around the building, almost back to the ticket line. We were glad we had not waited until the afternoon--we would have been standing in that line.

At that point, we had toured our way right through lunch and were starved. We had a place in Buffalo in mind and decided we could wait another 30 minutes to eat. We drove to Anchor Bar, home of the original Buffalo chicken wings (or so the story goes). We ordered 20 wings between us, and Tim ordered a burger. He wasn't sure he wanted to gorge on chicken wings. I was sure I did. : ) I'm pretty sure there were 25 in our order because by the time it was said and done, there were 5 wings left on the plate. I know I ate more than 10, and Tim ate 6...the math just didn't add up. You could order them mild, medium, or hot. I opted for medium so I could actually taste them--if I ordered again I would do half medium, half hot--the medium weren't too hot. They were awesome, though--crispy but covered in hot sauce, no breading, thank you!

From there we got in the car, planning to drive until we were tired. It started raining pretty hard about 45 minutes north of Columbus, Ohio, so that's where we stopped. We will head home tomorrow, hoping to get there before it gets too hot. It's been a long, wild ride!