We then walked back to the car (uphill, mind you), after hunting for a way to get back up to that parking lot besides the steep and scary path through the woods. We needed to make sure what time we were supposed to meet the tour bus. We had about an hour, I think, so we walked up more steep inclines to Tim Horton's, which is a donut and coffee place. Very, very, very yummy donuts for a very reasonable price (about .85 CSD). We ate, felt better, then walked back down to the parking lot to wait. And wait. And wait. And wait some more. We started to suspect we may not be getting picked up, so Beck gives them a call. Whomever she had spoken with had told her an incorrect time but someone would be there between 9:20 and 9:50. They do show up, but the bus driver completely ignored our attempts to approach him and he told some other tourist that she needed to pay cash, not credit card like they were supposed to. That was kind of the last straw, so we decided to just do our own thing.
We went downstairs, grabbed a lot of brochures and sat down to figure out what we wanted to do. Niagara Falls offers a good deal for $39.95, or whatever, for all day transportation around the fall front, tickets to a ride called "Niagara's Fury", tickets to Journey Behind the Falls, tickets to Maid of the Mist and tickets to the White Water Walk. We got our times set and started for the welcome center down the road near the top of the falls where the Fury and Journey were. The Fury is out of a really awesome gift shop with great prices. Really neat stuff that doesn't look cheap, too. So, we are given a plastic rain coat (the ones like trash bags but with a hood and sleeves). We're herded into a round room with only a big screen up near the ceiling. This video starts and it's animated characters and we're of course thinking "what have we gotten ourselves into?" It was actually a really cute video about how the falls were created. Our favorite character was the polar bear because he had the best voice and Canadian accent. We were all cracking up.
Once the video was over, doors opened and we walked into this room that had water under gates and every foot or so there was a metal pole with handles. We gathered around these poles. Tana and Becky were off to the right by the door and Pam and I shared one in the middle, second row. I recommend the second row. The video took us from the beginning (like as glaciers or something) and ended up falling down the falls. Snow fell at one point, and at multiple points in the video, we in the second row got soaked. Streams of water shot out from the ceiling and drenched us. We'd get splashed at our feet, too, because the platform we were on would raise and slam down into the water. It was fun, but not as fun as the virtual roller coaster at the CN tower, I don't think. Tana & Beck only got like sprinkled on while Pam & I were very thankful for our rain slickers.
Next stop was downstairs for the Journey. We were early, so we had to wait, but it was nice to sit for a few minutes (our feet hurt). We get in a long line and get ushered through a door and down a winding hall. We get our next set of slickers (these were yellow, the others were blue), don them, and eventually get to the elevators taking you to the Journey tunnels. We went to the portals first and saw underneath the falls. Very neat. I can't imagine how they accomplished such a feat, though. We were surprised there were no NF workers down there though to supervise or something. We went back through the tunnels and came to the observation deck. We didn't get as wet as I thought we would, but it was a very neat view of the falls.
After we made our way out of the Journey, we had time for lunch, so we headed back upstairs in the welcome center to a really nice restaurant called The Elements. Waited a few for a table and then got seated at a spectacular one by the windows overlooking the falls. We all had burgers, though Pam's was bison instead of beef like the rest of ours. Very thick, very, very yummy. We got full, and then went outside for a bit for pictures before we loaded onto a bus to get to the White Water Walk. It was a long way away, so we were happy for the free transportation, called People Movers, even if it was crowded and even if we had to wait for it. We were early for it, too, so we had to wait.
There we met James, one of the NF workers. He was funny and liked to joke that the elevator we were taking that was built in like 1932 may not make it. It did make it. We went through another long tunnel that was nice and cool, and then out onto an observation deck over the most dangerous rapids in the world (or so we were told). Category 6. There was a very long boardwalk, and since it was made entirely of wood and well above ground, Tana stayed with the observation deck while the rest of us went on the walk. It was really long, but pretty and had some nice observation areas closer to the water. After we made it back to where Tana was (Pam had made it back first), we took the tunnel back to the elevators where James was still trying to scare us and questioned why Tana was afraid of bridges but not a 1932 elevator, that was held onto by one cable by that point. She shrugged, but was a good sport about the teasing.
Next up was something not on our itinerary or in our ticket package: the whirlpool aero car, which is a suspended cable car over the whirpool basin, or whatever it is called. Being the amazing sport and person Tana is, she agreed to go and we lucked out and immediately got on the car. We also lucked out that we were in the center because otherwise we would have had to walk around the car and I don't think Tana would have appreciated that too much. The whole ride was maybe 10 minutes but it was really pretty and peaceful. Once we safely made it back to land, we caught a bus back to the Maid of the Mist. We took the paths down there, then the elevator, got our new blue slickers and after a very short wait we got on a boat. Again, we lucked out and were able to get the very front of the boat like we wanted (Pam wanted to get absolutely soaked). The Maid of the Mist was neat. At first we didn't get very wet at all, but then we got drenched.
We took a bus back to the top of the falls (after waiting forever for a bus), sat around for a bit, but it was rather chilly, so we went inside for shopping and then dessert. Three of us ordered a side and dessert, while Pam enjoyed a big Greek salad. The desserts were very prettily made up with fruit and sauce. We then went outside and saw the falls lit up in color. I immediately got attacked by these gross bugs (one wentinto my pants leg. Pretty sure it bit me), so I went with Becky back inside to the washrooms. We two then went upstairs and looked out at the lights until about 15 til 10. Then we went and hunted down Tana and Pam, who had braved the bugs to keep looking at the lights and falls. A little after ten, the fireworks started. They were pretty. Looked like they were shot off near the Maid of the Mists. When the fireworks were over, we took the trek back to the car, watched a policeman directing traffic gripe a guy who pulled up into the crosswalk after he'd told him to stop, climbed the enormous hill again, and finally made it to the vehicle.
A misled exit and then a real gas exit later, we took washroom breaks and got gas and headed back to the hotel. Try as I could, I did not stay awake, and I fully intended to, so I can't really tell you what happened during that time. Needless to say, we all crashed as soon as we got into bed. It was a really long day, but it was fun, too. Tomorrow Tana will blog about our horseback ride, possibly the race track or Casa Loma, and Medieval Times. This may not get posted until then.
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