Day 43 - Rest Day at Niagara Falls, NY

Since neither Anne nor Michael had ever been to Niagara Falls, we spent the entire day there. We bought a Discovery Pass that provided us access to these attractions: Maid of the Mist boat ride, Cave of the Winds, Niagara Gorge Discovery Center, Niagara Legends of Adventure Theater and Aquarium of Niagara. We started at 9:30 am and by 4 pm we had made it to all of them.

The highlights were the Maid of the Mist boat ride and walking the Cave of the Winds. For both, we were given pullover rain coats and for the Cave of the Winds, sandals. We still got a little wet, especially on the boat ride that took us right next to the Canadian Falls.

The adventure theater showed us how the falls were discovered along with examples of people going over the falls in a barrel, one boy going over the falls in just a life jacket and survived and tightrope walking the falls. The first to go over in a barrel was a 62-year old woman in 1901 in a barrel she designed. The boy was  thrown overboard from a small fishing boat after the motor stopped working. He is the only one to survive in just a life jacket. All total, 9 people have successfully gone over the falls and survived and 7 have not.

The aquarium had lots of fish to view up close and personal.

We took the trolley around the first State Park of the US that included Goat Island (named after a single goat that survived something) Great Lakes Garden, and all the attractions discussed above. We ate lunch at the Top of the Falls Restaurant.

On the way back to the motel, we had to stop at Denny's for milkshakes!

We took many pictures you can view on the website at https://plus.google.com/photos/102207335230379372875/albums/5891329806057309137

However, here are a few:

Cave of the Winds

Maid of the Mist

We are in the mist and really close to the falls here!

See the rainbow!

There are many nationalities present at the Niagara Falls.

Tomorrow, we ride 86 miles to Rochester, NY, the beginning of our eighth state.