During our trip to USA in May 2008 to visit our family Michael, Kim and Oliver who were residing in New York at that time, our son Michael arranged a 3 day trip to fly to Niagara Falls on 9th-11th May. We stayed 2 nights in a motel in Buffalo after arriving late in the first day on Friday afternoon.

On the Saturday, we explored the Canadian side of the falls which included the spectacular (and very wet) “Maid of the Mist” boat ride to the base of the falls and then the tunnels under the Horseshoe Falls. In mid afternoon we managed a brief additional excursion and drove by rental car (100 kms) to nearby Toronto and had a glass of wine at the top of the 553 meter high CN Tower. We stayed overnight back at Buffalo and next day explored the USA side of the Falls and also fitted in a pleasant Mother’s Day lunch in a lovely restaurant overlooking the falls. We arrived back in New York in the early hours of Monday morning after a security scare at Buffalo airport which delayed our departure for several frustrating hours.


Now some natural history facts. Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the State of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, also known as the Canadian Falls, which straddles the international border of the two countries. The smaller American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls lie within the United States. Bridal Veil Falls is separated from Horseshoe Falls by Goat Island and from American Falls by Luna Island, with both islands situated in New York. Formed by the Niagara River, which drains Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, the combined falls have the highest flow rate of any waterfall in North America that has a vertical drop of more than 50m. During peak daytime tourist hours, more than 168,000 m³ of water goes over the crest of the falls every minute.

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