Somebody's Gotta Clean That Up!

I mentioned yesterday that I was impressed at how fast the locks operated at Lockport. When they opened the valves, 3.5 million gallons of water were displaced in three minutes. Well, as usual, God trumps the best efforts of man. We visited Niagara Falls yesterday (I'm writing this on Tuesday morning), and, uh, yeah, that's impressive. Every second, 1.5 million gallons of water pour over the falls. I tend to dislike things that have been so altered by tourism that it's hard to keep your eyes on the beauty for all the trinkets in the way. With Niagara Falls, in spite of man's best efforts to sell junk and move people around in boats, buses, and helicopters, the power and sheer beauty of God's creation shines through. And what's more, I'm going to go ahead and disagree with Darwin and his bunch of hooligans here...He did it in 6 days. Six twenty-four hour days, just like we know now. Genesis 1:31-2:1 says, "Then God saw everything that He had made and indeed it was very good. So the evening and morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished." I can only imagine the delight that God must have had when He completed an especially beautiful part of His creation. When He touched the waters and started things flowing over the falls, I am sure He stepped back and gave Himself a little pat on the back.

The falls are impressive from the topside, but you get a whole new perspective from the deck of a boat that's about 60' away from the bottom of the falls. We rode the Maid of the Mist, which was just incredible. We went by the American falls, and even though we were on the starboard side with the falls on the port side, we could still easily feel the rush of wind and spray that came off the rocks. Very cool. But then the fun started. We were sort of wondering how important it really was to wear the blue rain ponchos--the answer to that question is, "It's important." The captain of the Maid pointed the bow toward the Horseshoe falls, and we just kept going closer, and closer, and closer...until it felt like the bow was buried in the avalanche of water. The spray coming off was like the most intense rain storm I've ever witnessed, and the roiling water bounced the boat all around. We stayed there with our noses into 1.5 million gallons per second for probably a minute or two. It seemed like quite a while. Then we swung around to port and headed back for the dock. Truly, truly, I say to you, the Niagara Falls is one of those things that one just has to experience.

To continue the uniqueness of our adventure, we ate lunch at The Rainforest Cafe. Just as advertised, every once in a while the gorillas would dance, the elephants would trumpet, the lightning flashed, and the thunder rolled. Braden and Brenna didn't care for it initially, but they adjusted. Braden had three mini hot dogs, Brenna had chicken tidbits, Alex had pepperoni pizza, Drew had a hamburger, Valerie had crab cakes, and Mike had an 8 oz. steak and shrimp. The shocker at the Rainforest isn't limited to only the tropical rainstorm...it continues when the bill comes...$136! Oy.

We chose to cross into Canada for our Niagara Falls adventure, which means we had to come back through American customs. Being the gifted prognosticator that I am, I announced, "The border crossing here is really busy because of all the tourists. Let's swing north about 8 kilometers and cross at the Lewiston/Queenston Bridge. There's no way it's as busy as Rainbow Bridge." WRONG! The single lane that fed auto traffic gradually widened to two lanes, then three, and so forth until there were six lanes of cars going through the border. We sat in traffic for over an hour, and when we eventually made it to the front of the line, got checked, and were cleared to go through, I said to the border agent, "I thought it would be faster here than at Rainbow bridge." His reply says it all, "I wouldn't come through here on a dare." OK, lesson learned.

Drew and I went to a Buffalo Bisons baseball game last night, and as luck would have it we got there on half price night, for a double header no less! We paid $14 and got to watch two AAA baseball games. The popcorn was $1. There is just nothing like minor league baseball.

Day two of The Big Trip is in the bag, and we're off to a good start.

Incidentally, I would very much appreciate a comment from everyone who is checking out this blog. Yes, everyone can see what you write, so don't reveal any trade secrets, but thus far I'm getting consistent comments from my good friend Kevin Kaluf and the occasional comment from my mom. I sure hope more than two people are checking this thing out, considering the amount of time I'm putting in! It's a lot like being the FCA leader at KV, as Kevin and I can both attest. You spend a lot of time putting together something neat for the kids, and nobody shows. I remember going to a football game at Purdue once with FCA. I paid for a bus with FCA money because I really thought the kids would enjoy seeing Purdue play Michigan State. As it turned out, there were six of us on the bus, including three teachers and Drew! So, to make a short story long, I would very much enjoy a comment from everyone who made it here. It's very easy and you don't need to be profound.

And now, on to Troy.