Niagra Falls

As much as we hated to leave Croton-on-Point and New York City, it was time to move on to the next adventure. Since the weather had turned a bit cooler, we decided to spend our first evening in one of our favorite “campgrounds” – Wal-Mart! The next morning, we drove about 15 miles to Corning, New York and stopped to see the Corning Museum of Glass. It was plenty cool to leave McKenzie in the trailer (hard to believe in August) so she did her guard duty, consisting of protecting our truck, trailer and all our possessions, while we took the tour.

For those of you who have not been there, the museum is very large and contains several different facets such as the Glass Innovation Center, the Art and History Galleries, the Sculpture Gallery, the Steuben Factory and the Hot Glass Show. It contains over 45,000 glass objects that traces 35 centuries of human experience with glass, starting in ancient Egypt’s 18th Dynasty when the search for perfectly clear crystal began. You can watch master glassblowers create glass pieces while a narrator explains each process, with the Steuben Factory as a backdrop. You can also look through the glass windows to see the engraving process that makes Steuben glass so unique and valuable. The engraver first coats the glass with protective shellac, then transfers an image onto its surface with India ink. To cut the design, the engraver presses the glass upward against as many as 50 different fine copper wheels on a rotating lathe. Intricate designs may take 300 hours to engrave. You can explore the optics gallery and follow the story of optical glass, from the first microscope to today’s optical fiber.

One of the contemporary pieces in the Sculpture Gallery was entitled “It’s Raining Knives” by Silvia Levenson. It was conceived in 1996 in response to her personal experiences during the Videla dictatorship in Argentina. It has since become a thought provoking commentary on the threat of terrorism in general.

Still another interesting piece was a chessboard made entirely of glass. The chess pieces are made to the form of Jewish and Roman Catholic religious figures. A Jewish rabbi and a Roman Catholic bishop (kings) join a group of holy men and women holding Judeo-Christian symbols of faith, including crosses, Torahs, menorahs, and single candles. Each chess piece has the appropriate costume, hairstyle and accessory of its rank.

We especially liked the exhibit featuring the story of the Harvard Glass Flowers, which is an exhibition about two men, Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka and the glass models that made them famous. They were born in what is now the Czech Republic in the 1800’s and over a 70 year period, created models of more than 1500 species of invertebrates and plants. The models were designed to be substitutes for living animals and plants, and they served as museum exhibits and teaching aids for professors of natural history. In 1886, a professor of botany at Harvard was struggling to assemble a teaching collection for the university’s new Botanical Museum. After examining the Blaschkas’ models of invertebrates, the professor realized that life-size three dimensional glass models of plants might be the solution to his problem. He persuaded the Blaschkas to make glass models of plants, with an emphasis on economically important plants that are used in everything from food to medicine. The Blaschkas also created three additional series of models, which show the life cycles of non-flowering plants, insects and pollination, and diseases of fruits. This diseased apple looked so real, you could almost smell it.

After leaving this museum, we took the shuttle up the street to the Rockwell Museum of Western Art. This museum was much smaller and exhibited paintings and sculptures of American Western and Native American subjects.

By 3:30, we were heading out of Corning to our destination which was the Elks Lodge at Lockport, New York. Here we were very pleasantly surprised to find concrete pads with water and electricity hook ups. This would definitely be a nice place to kick back for a few days and to stay while we viewed Niagara Falls, which was about 35 miles away.

As we wanted to see the night colors at Niagara Falls, we decided to go across the border to the Canadian side around noon and spend the day just looking around. All we can say about the Falls is, WOW! The sound is like thunder and the sight is awe-inspiring!

First a few facts about the Niagara Falls:
Less than 10% of the water flows over the American Falls with the balance flowing over the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. It’s the massive volume of water that flows over the Horseshoe Falls that gives it its green color.
The average depth of the water below Niagara Falls is 170 feet, which is as deep as the Niagara Gorge banks are high.

The water that flows over Niagara Falls comes from four of the five Great Lakes: Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior. From the Falls, the water travels down the Niagara River and finally to the Atlantic Ocean.

Originally, 202,000 cubic feet per second or 5.5 billion gallons per hour of water flowed over Niagara Falls. Now, however, half of this water is diverted for power by the United States and Canada.

Our first adventure was to take a ride on the Maid of the Mist. They provided everyone with rain ponchos as the boats cruised to the base of the American Falls and then to the basin of the commanding Horseshoe Falls. Our hearts were racing as we confronted millions of gallons of water crashing like thunder onto the nearby rocks all around us. The roar was deafening and we definitely needed the rain ponchos to keep us dry from the mist and spray. This is North America’s oldest tourist attraction and millions of visitors have enjoyed the boat tours since they began in 1846.

Well, as if we didn’t get wet enough from the boat trip, we decided to also take the Journey Behind the Falls. Once again, we were given rain ponchos prior to stepping into the elevators that descend 150 feet through bedrock to tunnels that lead to the Cataract Portal and the Great Falls Portal which is one third of the way behind the massive sheet of water, then on to the Upper and Lower Observations Decks at the foot of the Falls. Along the tunnels there are tidbits of information about the Falls, such as the story of the 7 year old boy who fell out of a boat with just a life jacket on in 1962 and was swept down the river and over the falls and lived. Being on the Observation decks was like being caught in a horrendous downpour as the mighty Horseshoe Falls tumbled from 13 stories above.

After experiencing both of these attractions, we have to say the Maid of the Mist was by far the better of the two. Perhaps the second would have been better if we had opted for the audio tour which provided informative commentary, but basically you walked through a cement tunnel and at the portals, there was nothing to see because tons of water gushed over the falls at these spots. The observation decks were spectacular, as you were right next to the Falls, but we thought the experience from the boat was much better. So, if you only want to do one, take the Maid of the Mist.

The Canadian side of the Falls is landscaped beautifully with lots of flowers and plants. Clifton Hill is a street which reminded us of Las Vegas with all the lights. All types of attractions, shops and eating establishments are here, as well as an amusement park with one of the tallest ferris wheels in existence.

We also watched the Prince of the Air, Jay Cochrane do his skywalk with the mighty falls as his backdrop. He was born in Canada, is 63 years old, and is the world’s most celebrated high wire acrobat holding a long list of world records.

There are many other attractions to see and do on the Canadian side of the Falls, but since we had already done a lot of similar things on our trip this summer, we decided to pass. There definitely is something for everyone from the Butterfly Museum, the tropical bird kingdom, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, a wax museum, a ton of eating establishments,and a sky ride to Old Fort Erie.

Every evening, beginning at dusk, the Falls are lit in the colors of the rainbow. Lighting the Falls was first attempted more than 140 years ago. In 1997 and 1998, new fixtures replaced the outdated lamps and fixtures, doubling the intensity of the lights on the Falls. Currently a total of twenty one xenon lights are used to illuminate the Falls in a rainbow of color. It was breathtaking and as usual, the pictures don’t nearly do justice to actually being there, but we did want to share it with all of our friends and family.
A few days to rest up and we’ll be on the road again, this time heading down toward Goshen, Indiana. We are going to take about a week to visit some of the fifthwheel manufacturers and take their factory tours. From there, we will head over to Illinois to see our son, daughter-in-law and two great grandchildren (and of course, some great grand-dogs too). Though a lot of the touristy stuff is done, we will still stay in touch with all of you thru our blog so you know what we are doing and where our next stops will be. Who knows what we’ll find along the way – but whatever it is, you can bet that you’ll be included. Til then, be kind to one another and remember “Life is Good”.