This is the 3rd of a series of posts dealing with my 2024 trip to Eastern Canada. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports (typos, bits I don’t feel like making public). Also, I’ve added additional thoughts with the hindsight of a year later or to add further clarification. These are indicated by “NOW”.
I should mention that my place in Wilson Hall is on the 4th floor and you can normally see the CN Tower. I found the soap and towel that comes with the room so used that last night. The soap package says face and hands but I don't think there's any soap police if I use it beyond that.
As I've said before I don't do great trips, I do interesting trips. Today is a good example, especially in the afternoon. I had insomnia for most of last night. At one point I turned on my Chromebook to check on something and learned that the transit strike had been averted, so I pushed the phone alarm forward a little. I finally got to sleep less than two hours before the alarm did wake me up. On the 510 streetcar (Toronto Transit) a guy was chatty but friendly. I accidentally got off prematurely so didn't have time to walk to the waterfront but I did have a nice walk anyway to the Union Coach Terminal. On the 2nd floor, I caught the Megabus to Niagara Falls, Ontario. There's minimal legroom and the woman in front of me wanted to push her recliner way back so I had to tell her I have long legs. There was only one stop before Niagara Falls Bus Terminal (St. Catharines). The bus continued on to closer to the falls but I wanted to get off at the terminal anyway.
I walked along the main downtown street, Queen St, both directions, then took the Olympic Torch Run Legacy Trail to near the tacky Clifton Hill District, which includes the street of the same name. The district is playfully tacky, with lots of haunted house type exhibits and other exhibits. A sign shows the Frankenstein Monster eating a Whopper. I got breakfast at the Tim Horton's on the avenue and ate outside. Some sparrows tried to mooch food and ignored my best efforts to try to convey I wasn't feeding them my breakfast biscuit. One even tried to fly directly to the biscuit. I covered it and wolfed it down. I then walked the short distance to the Falls themselves. Two of then are just on the US side but you can see them better from Canada. The third spans both. In order from left to right on the Canadian side: American Falls, then a slight gap like a missing tooth, then the thinner Bridal Veil Falls, and finally a little ways away the Horseshoe Falls. As I approached the latter I put up my umbrella because that one tends to generate its own rain.
Walking back. I paid the $1 toll (either currency) and walked across the Rainbow Bridge to Niagara Falls, New York. There's a sign indicating the International Boundary Line. I cleared Customs and after briefly getting on the wrong street, passed a small war memorial and visited a Rite Aid then Walgreens near a nice Little Italy sign. I walked back to Niagara Falls State Park where the Falls are and got some shows of the American Fall before. Nice but you're away from the main falls. Would s. I walked to Goat Island, then Luna Island, where you can get some nice shots of the Bridal Veil and American Falls close up. Back on Goat Island there was the same rain issue by the Horseshoe Falls. I walked to Three Sisters Islands, which I hadn't been to before. Nice, but pale in comparison the areas where you can see the bigger falls, though you can see smaller falls there. I got some more shots of the Horseshoe Falls at Goat island then worked my way back the way I came. I spent US $1.25 to go on the Observation Deck which hangs over the Niagara River. I got some shots and then crossed the Rainbow Bridge back to Ontario.
I was going to immediately repeat the walk along the falls I did earlier, but it started to rain and even with my poncho I was wearing for the first time it started to come down pretty hard. I turned off my camera and let the poncho cover it while I walked to the Wendy's at Clifton Hill. As I was leaving I saw that I had torn the poncho when I took it off. I did that walk along the falls, briefly taking shelter at the building which has Journey Behind the Falls etc due to rain. As I was finishing the walk back, it started to rain, and my battery died. I quickly grabbed the first battery I could get my hands on and rushed it into the camera so I could protect it, only the battery was damaged and fit too smugly, something I would have noticed if not for the rain. I tried to enlist people at businesses to get it out including at Clinton Hill but not luck, and it soon lost its charge. I walked along Victoria Ave becoming Ferry Ave becoming Lundy's Lane figuring that was my best bet to find a place. Finally a woman at St Vincent de Paul pointed out a place that fixes things right across the street. They got the bad battery out in less than ten seconds, So I finally had a working camera again and I could get the shots of this area like I wanted, albeit just one direction and not both. Back at Clifton Hill I bought a new poncho from a souvenir place and then took photos of the dinosaurs at Dinosaur Adventure Golf from outside the attraction. There's even a fake volcano.
[NOW: The store that fixed the battery issue was We Buy and Cell.]
I started to do one more pass of the Falls but then a thunderstorm struck. I put up my umbrella yet a again and rushed on the new poncho before seeking shelter with others. It finally subsided. It appears it had cleared Customs and was bugging the New York side. I walked pretty close to the Horseshoe falls, but reached a place where the walkway had turned into a creek and didn't want to wreck my shoes. I doubled back and left the falls. It started to rain again. I grabbed dinner at the same Tim Horton's as before but saved it for later. I walked back along the Olympic Torch Run Legacy Trail and returned to the bus terminal, very thankful I had bought that umbrella. The handle came off at one point but that's the part I care the least about. Waiting for the bus, I cleaned up there. Like every washroom in the Golden Horseshoe area so far this trip, there were no paper towels, just hand dryers; maybe the locals don't wash their armpits? I had my dinner there. A guy apparently had Tourrette's Syndrome. Sitting outside, a Coach Canada bus turned up and I knew from a previous trip it was essentially the Megabus back to Toronto. Again St. Catharines was the only stop. I started to enter a partial dream state but I've found that I still manage to take the photos when that happens to me. Getting off at Union, I took another 510 Toronto Transit streetcar back to Wilson Hall.
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