The Land of the Thundering Waters (Pictures from Niagara)

Here are some of the pictures we took while we were in Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls actually consists of three separate waterfalls all coming from the same river. The water flows out of Lake Erie and into the Niagara River. The river is separated into different waterfalls by Goat Island. This is a picture of the Horseshoe Falls, aptly named because it looks like a horseshoe from above. We took this picture on our Maid of the Mist boat ride, which took us right up to the bottom of the falls and got us very wet in the process.



The American Falls come from the water that flows on the other side of Goat Island. All of the rocks at the bottom are from a giant avalanche of these falls several years ago. The picture below is also from our Maid of the Mist tour.

The American Falls (above)

Tourists

The Horseshoe Falls from the view of an observation deck.

My one complaint about Niagara Falls is how the people had built it up into basically a tourist trap. Attractions are built right up to the sides of the river, and they sometimes go on for miles. I was hoping that the area would have a really natural feel to it, but it didn't. Even when we were in a boat right in the middle of the Horseshoe Falls, you could still see all the hotels and casinos that had been built next to the river for money-making purposes. Even though the falls were amazing, to me the experienced was cheapened and robbed of its majesty by this.


Can you tell I'm not the real subject of this picture?

The Horseshoe Falls from the view of the Skylon Tower buffet restaurant. That blue dot in the middle is a Maid of the Mist boat.

The American Falls. That small waterfall on the right is the third waterfall. It is called the Bridal Veil Falls. The blue Great Lake in the distance is Lake Erie.


My family next to one of the "barrels" a daredevil used to take the trip over the falls.

The guy who used this barrel survived the fall, but suffocated inside the barrel because the water pinned him to a place under the waterfall. Rescuers couldn't reach him before his air ran out. On the bright side, he took his pet turtle along with him and the turtle lived.

The Niagara River Gorge

The beautiful Toronto skyline.


The CN Tower in Toronto, the tallest observation tower in the world. Really, this thing is huge.

On the plane from Buffalo to Chicago.

Coming home!