Niagara Falls

I hadn't been to Niagara Falls since I was eleven years old. The only memory I have of it was being on the Maid of the Mist. I wonder if this year during our visit, we rode the same boat? In my mom mode, I made mental notes of the location of the life jackets, knowing all the while it was a futile (and in the end, unneeded) thought.


In those days, they issued yellow rubberized rain coats to each passenger, and I remember not wanting one. I wanted to get soaking wet. When we neared the Falls, everyone went to the side of the boat to look and the boat tilted dangerously, prompting the captain to ask people to spread out and that the boat would soon turn, giving everyone a fair chance to see the Falls.

This didn't happen this year, when I returned to ride with my children and mother-in-law. We were issued what amounted to sticky, disposable garbage bags to keep us dry. Just like when I was young, my girls and William all enjoyed the spray, and put back their hoods to get their hair dripping wet.

The Cave of the Winds didn't disappoint us for sheer fun. Again, we were issued garbage bags, this time yellow, and took an elevator down to the bottom of the American Falls. People screamed and laughed and had the most fun having the water cascade over them. If only we could experience more of the pure joy of living in daily life! We did not ever figure out why they called it the "cave" of the winds, as we didn't enter any cave unless you count the tunnel to the elevator (man-made) to be a cave.

Here is Lauren and William (to her right) getting a drenching: