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Tuesday July 31, 2007.
F - Niagara Falls.
I took some pictures of one of the Maid's of the Mist boats before
we took the People Mover bus to the boat landing for our boat ride.
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We are going to ride the Maid of the Mist from the Canadian side. We bought all-day
passes good for both the People Mover buses and Falls Incline railway. This is our
day to do the rest of the falls attractions. The right-most picture with the rainbow
was from the day before: rainbows don't form until the afternoon. It's extremely hot today.
Think of a whole day standing in lines next to sweaty tourists.
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Here the tourists (think cattle) are herded through winding passages down to the river level
and the boat landing. The wait wasn't torturous.
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During the winter the boats are pulled up these rails for storage. The brown foam you can
see on the river is a natural result from tons
of water plummeting into the river. The brown color
is clay, which contains suspended particles of decayed vegetative matter. This combination
of foam ingredients comes in via the Niagara River
from the shallow eastern basin of Lake Erie.
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Already from the boat landing you get a great view of all three falls.
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The American Falls and Bridal Veil falls, magnificent in their own right, are reduced
to a sideshow as we anticipate getting close to Horseshoe Falls.
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Straight-on for Horseshoe! We managed to get at the very front of the boat on the top deck.
Two strangers VERY KINDLY allowed my two children to squeeze in beside them so they could
get a great look from the boat.
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It's tough to get overawed these days - this boat ride will do it to you. Imagine, this is
only 75% of the water that could be coming over this cataract.
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I have to time these pictures - at some point the camera's going to get wet and I won't
be able to take pictures. I make a glove out of clear plastic to try and take pictures
in the spray from the falls, but at this point it's "oh hell" and I'm not using it.
I think this is the best picture, you can see the rocks under the falls and the water
hurling itself from the riverbed.
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Now the glove is on and these are the few pictures in which you can make any details out.
The whole trip back every tourist has a wide grin on their faces. This was assume!
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