A u g u s t   1 3 ,   2 0 0 6   -   N i a g a r a    F a l l s

I've been wanting to take a trip to the Niagara region for a while, and i was prompted by a new circus at the Falls, so i decided to make a whole day of it.

First stop, Hillebrand Winery. In the Niagara-On-The-Lake area, there's a winery almost every kilometre, and probably on every road. I've been wanting to do this a while, though driving myself meant i was limited in what i could consume. This is the front of the buildings from the parking lot, welcome centre to the left, boutique in centre. I couldn't buy any wine to take with me because it would bake in my car all day.

This is looking south, towards the vineyards, from in-between the two buildings above. The restaurant is to the left, and the barrel room is further into the same building. The processing from grapes to juice to wine is in the building to the right. You can barely see the stand in front of the vineyards. This was where i did taste testings on the tour. I tasted 3 kinds of wine: a white sparkling wine, made with chardonnay and pinot noir, methode classique, a red blended wine, using cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc (was there a third?), and an icewine. I've never had icewine before. Although they started in Germany (eiswein), they're a Canadian specialty, mainly because we have more reliable frosts. The grapes are picked frozen (and they've shrivelled almsot like raisins), so they're high on sugar, low on water, and very expensive. The one i had, made from vidal grapes, tasted like lychee - in fact, if you'd told me, i would've believed it was lychee juice. I only sipped these, to avoid getting drunk.

I actually took these photos after, before i left (letting the alcohol wear off a bit). They only have two acres of vines at the winery, the rest being brought in from their own vineyards and contracted out farms in the area. In dead centre, you can see some blank spots where the vines were killed by the winter.

This is a zoom shot of the vines, and you can see the Niagara Escarpment away in the background, not sure how many kilometres away. People who are from Hamilton and area, like me, call it 'The Mountain'.

A reverse shot, looking north, restaurant and barrel room to the right, processing building to the right, welcome centre dead ahead, boutique just around the corner. I was lucky on the tour, as there were only 7 of us - i saw a later tour that had 15 or so in it.

These are barrels of wine aging in oak. The barrel room is pretty dark, like a film printing room (the 'darkroom' that has a light in it), to prevent light from affecting the wine, and pretty cool - 15 C (60 F) - it was about 25 C (77 F) outside, a beautiful summer day.

There's some light coming in, in this case from the restaurant. I ate there for lunch, having the prix fixe. I had a tomato bisque, that had a dollop of i think it was sheep's cheese (sheep and goat cheese, not controlled by the dairy marketing board, are becoming popular artsical products in Ontario). The main was free-range capon breast, with forked fingerling potato, goat cheese and green beans with Riesling onion marmalade. It was odd - the beans (which looked yellow to me) were stacked upon the potato, and the capon on top of that. The presentation looked great, but you have to disassemble to eat it. Dessert was roasted pecan crème caramel resting on pecan cake with candied pecans and caramel Riesling reduction. I had a glass of the white sparkling to go with it.

After lunch, and some photos, i then drove on through Niagara-On-The-Lake, which was really packed, both the sidewalks and streets . It's a pretty little town known for the Shaw Festival (theatre). I kept driving down the Niagara Parkway, and found a few places to stop and take photos. This is the Niagara River, and across it is the United Snakes of America.

The boats are carrying potential terrorists. Even though i'm still below the escarpment, there are significant cliffs along here.

At another stop, there was a path to follow down into the woods.

I decided to check for teddy bears, and maybe steal a picanic basket.

There were plenty of joggers around, and the whole area is very pretty - the river is just over the fence, and down about 15 metres.

This is looking up river, south, at the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge (do they call it Lewiston-Queenston in the US?).

This is a zoom shot. Queenston is where you start going up the escarpment.

This is from a look-out point half way up.

Another shot from the same point, with a little context.

This is a composite of two shots, from under the Q-L bridge, from the west side of the road.

This is an animated GIF of shots from the east/river side of the road. First looking straight out, then down a bit, down a bit more, and then straight down. Yipes!

This is looking at one of the hydroelectric plants on the U.S. side - the huge Canadian one is to the right, on the other side of the road, but hydro plants are boring, so i didn't take a pic. See how deep the gorge is now? The Niagara River dug the gorge over the past 6000 years, moving 10 kilometres from Queenston to the current location of the Falls.

I decided to visit the Butterfly Conservatory just north of the Falls.

Uh, it was packed in here. This is the entrance, just after the little informational video. There were dozens of butterflies in this shot, but you can barely see any of them.

Some of them eat pollen, others suck on fruit. These ones were super bright blue on the tops of their wings (there's one below).

This one stopped on a guy's shoulder. Despite the constant reminders not to touch them, idiots kept trying to touch them. The powder from their wings are scales that enable them to fly.

Most of them were in constant motion, and were pretty flaky hosts. Some species never stopped so i could have a good shot.

I like the depth of field on this.

A lot of them have battered wings. Wonder what causes that?

How rude!

Butterfly porn.

The palce is something like a giant greenhouse, with raised areas. It kept misting inside too.

It's good i took a ton of photos, because there were a lot more that didn't turn out.

I hope those smudges don't represent people having touched them.

The conservatory is in the middle of a botanical garden, but i couldn't hang around. It was about 4 o'clock by now.

I took some photos of the Falls, in day light and night, went on the Maid of the Mist, and saw Cirque Niagara's Avaia.

I'm in Niagara Falls now, and found a place to park at the Skylon Tower, 10$ for the whole day, which seemed okay, until i stepped out of the lot, and found another for 5$. Oh well. This is a walkway 'with uneven pavement' from where the Skylon is to the Niagara Parkway, along the Falls' edge. This is looking 'up' the walkway - you can see the stairs at the top.

This is looking down - you can't actually see the bottom. Going down was easy, but at the end of the day, going back up was a killer.

It looks like there are hardly any people around, except there were people EVERYWHERE. The street is behind me. There are hotels and businesses on the other side. Everything on the river side is all public park. This is looking across a garden at the American Falls.

The American Falls are the easiest to see. You can see the rainbow, a constant feature on the area. There's a very fine mist spraying me, from the falls. The bushes in front go all the way down the cliffs of the escarpment.

The Horsheshoe Falls, so named because of their very deep U-shape - hence the big cloud of mist in the centre. You can see the tour boats, all called Maid of the Mist coming and going in the river.

A composite of 4 shots, obviously warping perspective (the river is straight).

Another Maid.

Looking north (American Falls are to the right).

Looking south (Horseshoe Falls at right), and down a bit. I think i was partway down the cliff.

Standing in line, having walked down and taken the elevator to the dock. Wearing plastic in the sun makes it feel... hottter! Yes, you guessed correctly.

We approach the American Falls. It took me a few minutes to adjust to the rolling of the boat.

Down here, the mist and the wind cools us down quite a bit.

The Horseshoe Falls - east side. They are shaped more like an irregular deep V, and we were at the entrance at the top of the V.

I had to take these photos fast, because the huge amount of spray (as the wind changed you got a chance) - i didn't want to get my camera wet. We couldn't go in any deeper, because of the rocks, and there's no visibility in the centre.

The west side (Canadian side) of the Horseshoe Falls.

We hung out in the centre there for about 10 minutes, rocking and being sprayed. Now we're on our way back.

There's a street, Clifton Hill, that goes up from the Falls that is tourist zone central. It's like a carnival/fair, with tacky rides, exhibits, fun houses (most of them spooky - see the Dracula sign?), fast food, etc. Buried within, and around are hotels and motels of all kinds, and these days, a Casion on either side. You can't seee the giant Hulk in this shot. By now i was very hot, very thirsty, hungry for supper, and tired of pushing through crowds.

Talk about tacky - not 'Madame Tussaud's. Ha! See the mannequin on the wire, emulating people who've done that across the falls?

After having supper (just a burger and fries at a streetside patio), i drove to south of the Falls, across from Marineland for Cirque Niagara. I didn't take any photos - you can't inside anyway.

The Cirque finished at 10, but i didn't have enough time to go see the fireworks at the falls (every Friday and Sunday night). They started when i got to my car, and finished jist before i parked (for free, at the 5$ place). The American Falls, showing various stages of the lights.

The Horseshoe Falls.

You can see the beams of light shining at the falls, in the mist.

The Skylon tower, from the Fall's edge.

After this, i had my heart-attack-inducing crawl back up that wooded walkway (twice-down, first time up), and it took about 2 1/2 hrs to get home, by 1 am. Nice drive, though.