NIAGARA, DAY 2

    After getting our first view of the falls, doing a little shopping and generally orienting ourselves, Sherry and I decided to find a restaurant for dinner. We walked a few blocks to the west of our hotel and found a restaurant called Copacabana. It was a Brazilian style steakhouse and after first trying one of these in Cancun in 2003 I have been wanting to find another for some time. Unfortunately, it seems that you need reservations for this place on a Saturday night; so we walked across the street to a T G I Friday's since we really didn't feel like walking anymore.

    We had noticed that there was a hockey match on the television in the lobby at the hotel while we were checking in. At T G I Fridays, hockey was on every one of the various televisions that were scattered around the bar/restaurant. This is a theme that would repeat itself.

    Sherry and I had a fairly ordinary meal; I had a beer. The tab, with tip, came to $94.95, Canadian, ($85.99, U.S.). Mind you, this was not exactly a "premium" T G I Fridays. It was like every other one, everywhere else, except for the prices and the fact that it was in the middle, or at least, center-left, of the biggest tourist trap on the continent. On the way back to our room, after the meal, I decided to grab a 22oz Diet Pepsi in the Hotel gift shop; it cost $3.21, Canadian: just one bottle.

    We decided to rest up and plan out our next day. Sherry decided to that she would get a massage at the Casino and we debated whether to take a package tour that touches all the highlights of touristy things that you can do in Niagara Falls. Some are pretty cool, but since it was going to rain all day, we decided against. Instead, we woke up on Sunday morning and began the day with the breakfast buffet at the hotel. That buffet is served on the 33rd floor where you can actually see both the falls, and you pay for it. The breakfast buffet, with overcooked scrambled eggs and unseasoned made-to-order omelets cooked by kids starting their jobs for the summer season cost about $50.00 Canadian (about $45 U.S.) for the two of us.

    Since it was raining, we went shopping, came back for a nap since neither of us could sleep well the night before on the soft bed at the hotel, and then watched the IMAX movie about the falls at the nearby theater. As I recall, the IMAX movie was about $15 each for a crappy 40 minute movie that Sherry slept through. The part about the various daredevils who have gone over the falls in various contraptions was mildly interesting, but it wasn't really all that impressive. After the nap, we went to the Copacabana: we got reservations this time. I love Brazilian steakhouses. If you are going to pay a lot, you might as well get good food, and we did both.

    Afterwards, Sherry left for her massage and I took off to get some night photos of the falls: they are illuminated from the Canadian side from sundown to around midnight.

American Falls at night

    I stood in the rain and had to use a tripod to get the photo above. There was just so much mist in the air that it was difficult to photograph these falls. The next photo shows that its like taking pictures in the fog with all the mist from the falls hanging in the air:

The eastern end of Horshoe Falls, and the beams of light illuminating it.

    After a few shots, I just gave up and walked around a little. There were still a lot of people out at 11p.m. watching the falls. It is an impressive sight, but I just couldn't do much photographically with all the mist and rain.

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