amanda and i were going to go to toronto last weekend, but we were lazy and sessile and decided to hang about home instead. amanda probably has not had more than 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep in weeks, so she took full advantage of her two days off.
on sunday, we went up to niagara falls to check out the new gorge trail system. there were many many people there for the labour day holiday, but, as expected, very few people hiking about. after a short hike up one of the trails, we ran into a person fixing his bicycle, and he suggested taking the trail down into the gorge and hiking back to the maid of the mist landing and taking the elevator back up.
the hike itself was interesting. there were quite a few cars down by the trail (and parts of road and guiderails). some of the cars looked quite old. the lookout by the aquarium looked cool, too… very fantasy rampart/castle like. of course, since the trail was not officially opened yet, it was not really maintained and there was a considerable amount of trash about. there was also a bit of a funky smell, but maybe that was just the water.
once we got under the rainbow bridge (what a stinky place), we were at an impasse as it was not obvious that we could get to the maid of the mist landing (which was still out of sight). we had passed two other hikers who had turned around also; they could not find a way either. we probably could have gotten to the landing, but the journey onward would have been annoying on the steep screelike slopes, and amanda and i were not really dressed for the occasion, so i thought the best course of action would be to turn around as we hadn’t been hiking all that long. i briefly thought about climbing up the rainbow bridge (via a maintenance ladder), but customs and immigration probably would not have liked that.
amanda got really pissed off at me at this point due to the current results of our hiking day and my preceived role in it, but perhaps the road to abilene was more of a factor here. regardless, the hike was still interesting and backtracking was not really that big a deal.
we ran into two more hikers trying to make it to the maid of the mist, but we warned them off. we all wondered what that guy with the bicycle was thinking (having guided many people down to the rainbow bridge), but i prefer to think that he wasn’t being evil and was just misinformed.
once back up to the top of the gorge, amanda and i looked about the falls and the area from the american side and then walked across the rainbow bridge to the canadian side to look about and eat dinner. while i have been over the bridge many many times, i have never walked across it.
we ended up eating at the hard rock cafe, and amanda got a coffee beverage at starbucks while we were waiting for our table. the dinner itself was ok, the service was pretty bad (slooooow). dinner was interrupted by a fire alarm that took the building forever to shut off, and apparently some fire doors slammed shut between us and the kitchen, so perhaps it was not completely the restaurant’s fault.
the falls were lit up as we made our way back. the pink sheen was not doing it for me and amanda, but we agreed that purple and white looked much better.
i was surprised that canada charges 50 cents to cross the bridge back to the us (i presume that all bridge revenues are shared). the customs guy on the us side was very jolly, perhaps the most good natured one i have ever run into.
amanda: so what are you looking up about us?
customs guy: if i told you, i would have to kill you.
amanda: i see.
custom guy: i guess i have been watching too many movies.
apparently, they are not supposed to say anything about their jobs; it’s all a Big Secret(tm). they had one of those privacy guard things over his monitor, so i could not see what he was doing. ah, well.
on our way back home, we got trapped on goat island, but we eventually found our way off… i would never have thought that “exit” meant exit off the island as opposed to an exit off the main road. i blame society!