From July 31

We drove to see Niagara Falls today. Our campground is probably 50 miles from the falls, though there aren’t any mileage signs pointing the way to the falls, and we’re separated from them by narrow and scenic country roads. Of course, everything is in Km, which requires that you multiply everything by 0.6, to convert to mph. 50 Km/hr is really 30 mph, and so on. Fortunately Mary has a Km indicator on her speedometer, but it’s hard to go 30 mph on a straight and deserted road, but it is pretty to look at while you're passing everything slowly. One of the reasons we love Canada is that it is so neat and clean and orderly. The houses around here are modest but all sit on large lots and all have large lawns. Each lawn is bright green, neatly and perfectly mowed, and bordered by impeccably groomed flower beds. The houses are recently painted and the windows sparkle.

We viewed the falls from the Canadian side where a nice park borders them. You can tell when you’re approaching the falls because the river, which is at road level and pretty calm suddenly becomes choppy and then shows full-blown rapids for a couple of miles. A couple of jettys have been built upstream to capture the hydroelectric power (I think that’s the purpose), then suddenly the rapids get huge and foamy and then you can see the void, then the mist, where the falls go over. It’s pretty cool. We parked behind the space needle thing behind the Sheraton and walked to the viewing area on a sidewalk along the falls. We could see both the American and Canadian falls. It was a good day for viewing, a little hot, but the mist cooled everything off, sort of like those swamp coolers in Phoenix. Then we had a nice lunch at a sidewalk area just across from the falls. Doogie even enjoyed some extra attention from passersby.

Tomorrow we go to my sister, Joani’s cabin (called a “camp” in upstate New York) on Lake Ontario. We’ll get to see her son and daughter-in-law’s baby, Colbi, whom we haven’t met as yet and hang out on the deck. We will be staying at a nearby campground but spending the weekend days with them. It’s always great to see them.

We’ve been without internet or phone for 3 days, so we’ll be anxious to check messages, especially as we haven’t checked our home machine in a while. And, we’ll get a mail delivery!