August 27 - Niagara Falls

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We had a lot on our agenda this day; first thing was retrieving our mail from the nearby Model City post office, which we did easily enough.  Then, on to the famous Erie Canal, part of which was located not far from us, in Lockport.

Lockport preserves 2 of the Erie Bargeway locks -- the Bargeway replaced the canal in the early 1900s.  Almost none of the original canal exists any longer -- several widening projects have obliterated most of the original.  However, at the time of its completion, it was an unparalleled engineering feat: over 300 miles of hand-dug ditches through wilderness; tree stumps by the thousands pulled out using teams of horses and mules.  All done in only 8 years.

 

We were fortunate in that when we got there, several boats were using the locks, so we got to watch the locks operate.

Here, Jordan is inspecting one of the huge locks, watching as the water level rises -- about 1 vertical foot every 5 to10 seconds.  They can completely fill or empty one of these locks in 4 minutes -- somewhere between 25 and 50 vertical feet of water.

Most of the lock traffic these days is tour boats carrying loads of tourists through a few locks.  However, while we were there, several small pleasure boats were negotiating the locks as well.  It costs between $21 and $100 to navigate the canal between the Hudson River and Lake Erie, depending on the size of the boat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After watching a tour boat move up through the 2 locks, we went down to the Museum to see what they had to offer.

This is a shot up a spillway adjacent to the locks, just to give you an idea of how much height is involved.

Apparently the Museum operators had learned all they knew about proper exhibit design and arrangement by carefully studying the efforts of the National Parks Service.  This was undeniably the worst museum we had seen to date, and that is really saying something.  Needless to say we took no pictures.  Since the tour boat was due to return back through the locks soon, we headed back up to observe.

 

And then we drove to the Canadian side of the falls.  We all unanimously agreed that the Canadian side offered the best viewing.  Here we are at Horseshoe Fall.  Photo by Remy.

This was my first time to see Niagara.  It was magnificent.

We took the "Under the Falls" tour, which involved navigating through some tunnels.  Here we are midway.

There is a very wet view platform at the bottom of the falls.  We all enjoyed the invigorating spray.

This odd photo was taken through my yellow poncho, since it was too wet to have the camera out in all the mist.

And here we are exiting the viewing platform.  Looks fun, huh?

The next day we revisited the Canadian side, and Jody and Jordan walked back across the Rainbow Bridge to the US.  Jordan posed midway.

That night, we visited the American side, and took this.

August 29 - Geneva on the Lake