Day 29

Were up and at 'em early this morning and it was straight out on the 'Maid of the Mist' on the Niagara River. These are boats that go pretty close to both the American Falls and the Canadian (Horseshoe) Falls, and damn, close up the power of the Horseshoe Falls was impressive. There are 154 million litres a minute pouring over those falls and they are a sight to behold and well worth a look. To be honest the American Falls are prettier but the Horseshoe are just awesome. We took a couple of other side trips, one being a walk behind and right beside the Horseshoes and another being a walk along the river rapids downstream. There's a heap of power (literally) pouring out of those Great Lakes. With some time to kill in Niagara and not to interested in the cheesy Ripley's, Haunted Houses, Mini Golf, and badly done Wax Museums we stumbled upon the Jetboats that went up the Niagara river (Grade 5 rapids), so totally unprepared (Ruth in jeans and me without a change of clothes) off we went.

These boats were doing 60mph up the river and combined with the river doing 30+ mph in the opposite direction there was a bunch of water being chucked up in the air and being dumped on us (soaking us to the bone, through the 3 layers of outfit they gave us!). We were pretty much unscathed in terms of the big dumps until the last few minutes when we got smashed by water twice, Ruth resembling a drowned rat as she gasped for breath through these, there was so much water getting thrown at us it was like being punched in the chest...and yes we paid for the privilege! So now me and Ruth have matching blue Whirlpool Jet shorts, as we had to buy these as all the clothes we were wearing were soaked, but damn it was fun!

The night was topped off with our second oversized feed of the day, follwed by the weekly Sunday night fireworks display with a backdrop of the American Falls all lit up...not bad.

Tomorrow we're off to New Jersey.