Niagara Falls

This is an 'attraction' that I can't imagine ever tiring of.  I don't have much memory of the first time I saw the falls, when Charlie took me in the late 90's, other than crossing over to Canada on the Rainbow Bridge and viewing the falls briefly from that country (we spent more time in the car to and from Rochester than at the falls themselves).  The second time I visited was in 2009, at the end of a bike trip with friends Theresa and Ryan.  We had biked along the Niagara River on the Canadian side and were on our way home, and Theresa treated us to a ride on the Maid of the Mist - it was incredible!  Not just to see the falls, but to hear them, and to feel their power.

When Charlie and I got married, Parker and Paul had intended to squeeze in a visit to Niagara, but were thwarted because of snow.  So when they visited this summer with their daughter Emory (with whom Parker was pregnant at our wedding), while Charlie and Paul golfed, we girls went off to see the falls.
Of course we had to take the Maid of the Mist (this time from the American side), and then we walked up a steep flight of steps overrun with foreign tourists for a better view before braving immigration to take Emory on her first 'trip' to Canada.  Crossing over, our response to the question about how long we would be in Canada was 'about 10 minutes,' and after about 20, we crossed back, paying the $.50 toll to leave the country.  Car traffic on the bridge was crawling, and we felt pretty smug about being on foot until we encountered the pedestrian line at U.S. Customs.  What should have been just be a

formality took way longer, with questions like where we were from, why we had crossed to Canada, and what we had bought and were bringing back in (just maple cream cookies, I swear!).  Still, I can't wait till the next time I get to go back - maybe to do the Journey Behind the Falls or even the Whirlpool Jet Boat?