Monday, July 15, 2002
Anne, a relation on John's Mother's side, took the day off work and took them both to Niagara Falls today.
It's funny, but all my English relations want to go and see the Falls, and they rarely come back disappointed. I'm completely blasé about what is admittedly a major natural wonder. My parents and I went to visit it every Easter holiday year after year. The other regular stop there was the Botanical Gardens' Greenhouse, which I got thoroughly sick of visiting as a kid. My favourite part of those trips was when we got to Clifton Hill, where we'd visit places like the Guinness World Records Museum, The Houdini Museum of Magic and The Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. The word "Museum" should probably be in quotes in all of those instances. ;-) As a kid, I was always too chicken to go into the Wax Museums, but at that age (maybe 5 or 6) I was thoroughly creeped out by certain episodes of Space:1999 and even Star Trek, so go figure.
These days when we head down, Erika and I have aimed ourselves primarily at Niagara-on-the-Lake, The Shaw Festival and the various wineries. Our last visit to the Falls was certainly memorable: the Falls lit up a few feet in front of us at night, and high in the sky behind us the comet Hale-Bopp glowing unmistakably in the sky.
As for John and Faye, they went for the tour under the Falls from Table Rock, bringing back their still-wet rain slicks as souvenirs. They had considered doing The Maid of the Mist trip, but the cost and the lineup convinced them otherwise. Both came back clearly pleased by the visit. They also visited a winery while there: Inniskillin. They tried much of their reds and whites, but since they had found the ice wine samples too expensive, I cracked open a small bottle of the premium stuff we had in storage for them both to try out. They both enjoyed it, though I don't think either fully understood what a special treat it was. ;-)
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