Summertrip to Niagara Falls, NY!

I was super excited for weeks in anticipation of my new friends visiting me, and now I can say we had a blast while they were here! I met Deanna on Facebook through our shared love of Digital Scrapbooking, and we became fast friends. Though we have chatted online and know one another for quite a few months, the distance between us prevented us from actually meeting. Until this week! Like me, Deanna loves a road trip, so she and her daughter decided to make the long trek up from Savannah to stay here in Erie and let me show them the sights! Plus, we had to go the extra hour and a half to see Niagara Falls! We had so much fun while they were here. We did all sorts of things, but this post, I'm focusing on our trip to The Falls!

I had been once or twice before, but they had never had the experience. I couldn't wait to see their faces! Deanna was so generous and made sure we all got tickets for the ultimate Falls experience! We took a guided tour...blessedly, on an air conditioned tour bus! (Of course we are having a heat wave the only week I have Southern friends visiting!) We started out getting on the Maid of the Mist boat ride first. The Maid takes you right up to the foot of the Horseshoe Falls, past the American and Bridal Veil Falls. It's amazing, as you float past Canada, to see the Falls from the bottom. It's a life changing experience to see how awesome God's creation can be at it's peak. Just breath taking...

The American Falls as seen from The Maid of the Mist

Thanks to Deanna for the pictures by the way...I took some but I am completely unable to upload them to my computer at the moment. She did a beautiful job! )And you can probably check out more soon over at her blog, Searching Savannah!) I can barely remember all of the awesome facts we heard, but one jaw dropper is that a whopping 150,00 gallons go over the Falls every second!!! And that isn't all. Since the United States and Canada both divert water from the Niagara River to produce hydroelectric power, the amount of water going over the Falls is usually only twenty-five to fifty percent of what could be flowing! The falls have moved over thousands of years, because of erosion, and actually started 12,500 years ago seven miles further up the Niagara River where the Whirlpool is located currently. We took our air conditioned bus to the cliffs above the Whirlpool. Just WOW! I was expecting a small pool...maybe the size of a large building. The Whirlpool is huge! We didn't stay there too long...we headed back to the main part of the Falls for the Cave of the Winds tour!

There are no two ways about it...you will get wet! Sure, you get a snazzy yellow rain poncho, and some awesome shoes to wear, but you will still be soaked when you get back from The Cave of the Winds! I wish I had more pictures, but to tell you the truth, I would have ruined my camera and camera phone if I took anymore! We were dripping by the second deck...I have no idea how anyone actually got out there to build those things! But here is what Deanna shot, and they are great! I wish you could hear the Falls from the decks...everyone should experience that tour!

The very top deck, behind that green rock on the very right side, is called The Hurricane Deck. Because of the way the Bridal Veil Falls has eroded, there is a lot of wind pushed from the cave behind the water fall. Yeah...there was no taking a picture on that deck...there was barely any talking! Talk about wind! I wish they had rated it by the scale...but I would say it was a Category One, or else one couldn't get off the deck at all! This tour ended the up close and personal part of the tour. We were taken to Goat Island (named for the lone goat that survived a harsh winter in the 1800's) and stood on US soil, next to the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. We stayed all day and finished up our experience with the fireworks show over the Falls around ten p.m. Just beautiful! 

Everyone should experience Niagara Falls at least once! It was amazing my first time, but walking the Cave of the Winds was definitely amazing and I will never forget it...and all while getting to know my new friends! I want to thank them for coming and having fun with me, and for sharing such an amazing experience!

See the Maid of the Mist in the far right hand corner? Looks small, but that's one big boat!

Me with my new friends from Savannah! 

Thanks for stopping by and reading! I'll try to edit more of the pictures I got and that Deanna gave me...and hopefully, I'll post about our other shenanigans soon!