August 5, 2017 Saturday
The next good weather window for moving west on Lake Erie is Friday, August 11th so we decided to take a side trip to Canada. On our way, we stopped at Dunkirk to video the lake, we wanted you to see why we are staying in port, going out would certainly be a bumpy ride.
We crossed over to Canada via the Peace Bridge that we had cruised under on Wednesday. We stopped in Canada to see the famed Niagara Falls, created by glacier activity around 10,000 years ago. Rick’s third visit and my first, Niagara Falls is breathtaking. It is actually composed of three falls: American Falls, Bridal Falls, and Canada Horseshoe Falls. Four of the Great Lakes: Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior supply the water to the Niagara River that creates the falls. Once over the Niagara Falls, the water flows for 15 miles where it empties into the fifth great lake, Lake Ontario.
Daredevils have always been drawn to the falls. In 1859, the Charles Blondin walked a tightrope suspended above the rapids to become the first man to walk across the Niagara Falls. The first recorded person to survive going over the falls in a barrel was 63-year-old American school teacher Annie Edson Taylor.
Today the easiest, albeit a bit pricey, way to get up and personal with the falls is to take a trip on either the Hornblower in Canada or the Maid of the Mist on the US side of the falls.
