Visit to Niagara Falls

11 - 12 October 2008

Finally, I got to visit Niagara Falls! This is a long-awaited trip! :) Especially when NF is such an icon of Canada and yet I am such a lagger!!! As lucky as I am, the weather is perfect for the weekend trip, which is also a long weekend with the Thanksgiving holiday on the Monday.


Cirrus clouds = fair weather :) took this picture while waiting for the Zipcar to come...


One of the main sights to catch is the colour change of the forests and leaves. Canada has very distinct seasons, and the nature gives distinct indications as well. So I really love the colour change: red, yellow, purple and green...very impressive! :)


On the way walking towards the Falls, and passed by the Rainbow Bridge, the steel bridge that links between Canada and US, just like the causeway...


Here you are! This is part of the Niagara Falls. The 1st picture shows the American Falls because it is on the US side, which is a smaller part of the Falls. We took a boat tour (called "Maid of the Mist") which brought us right infront of the American Falls. The gush of the water, together with the sunshine produced the beautiful rainbow, right infront of our eyes! So amazing!!!


The boat then slowly moved towards the other one, known as the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. This is the bigger one and the most impressive one. It seems pretty scary to be moving towards the Falls, it is like being engulfed in that huge mass of water steam/mist! Haaa...

Skylon Tower by the evening...


Our B&B: Bedham Hall, victorian style, homely, cozy, clean, with character, best homemade breakfast, friendly lady and family, 2005 Trillium Award, 1st, Best Bed & Breakfast Category! wow!


We went to the casino too! played poker, won some, lost all!


Sunday morning, we went to the nearby town called Niagara-on-the-Lake. The tower is the Royal Goerge Theatre. Peaceful little town. We went to Epicurean for lunch, I had an apricot grilled chicken burger, loved that! :)


Next activity on the list is horse-riding! :D Really looked forward to this one! I like horses! They are so strong, fast, good-looking! So my horse is called Brock, I think so... We went through a tour in the forest. Along the way, 2 horses started snaring at each other, and this caused bit of a commotion. Apparently, these 2 horses are not so friendly with each other, and they can't be put too close together. 原来，动物也有所谓的不合。


Another must-do thing in Niagara, is to go on a winery tour. Winery visits are fun experiences. We went to the Jackson-Triggs winery tour, which brought us behind the scene to understand about the wine-making process, and gave us a tour from the havest of the grapes, to the barrels that contain wine in fermentation.

Information that I brought back with me...
~ Grape trees are planted in the direction of North-South, so as to maximize the amount of sunlight they will get, given that Canada has long winter and little sunshine. And sunshine is need for the fruits to grow and accumulate sugars.
~ We observed that grapes were left laying at the bottom of the trees. The staff then explained to us that grapes were purposely dropped off. This is to allow Mother Nature to focus all energies in nurturing the better ones, and producing high quality grapes.
~ Red wine and white wine can be made from the same grapes. Red wine is red because the skin is added to the fermentation, which gives the red colour. Without the skin, it will produce the white wine.

At the end of the tour, we had wine tasting. I like the Riestling White Wine the best, very crystal crisp, sweet favour and full in aroma. The ice wine are very nice too, maybe because I like anything sweet. Ice wine is like a dessert wine, best served chilled.


The last winery we went...by then it was dusk...the evening sun, we just sat and rest and think, and took pictures...


We headed back to the town in Niagara-on-the-Lake, had our dinner, and then back to Toronto. I had a turkey Thanksgiving dinner set. Reached Toronto almost midnight on Sunday. And that's it!

So that's my trip to Niagara Falls. This was the most enjoyable trip I have been, and little do I know, it was also considered a farewell trip for us..........it was like a clock, ran out of battery, somehow, its needles just stopped short and froze in that position...forever...somehow, the memory is like that, it just froze and stuck in that part of the time zone...forever too...