Niagra.......

6:37 am - Sunday - May 6th - Lockport, NY - 53º F, 72% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the south......cloudy with a forecast high of 65º F.

When I was in Lockport some 12 years past doing my bike ride we had a rain day, so my friend and I drove over to Niagra Falls.  I had never been there before, and although it was raining on and off most of the time we were there I enjoyed being able to see this natural wonder I had only read about previously.  At the time we did not pay to go out on the viewing platform......

.....or pay to take the cruise on the 'Maid of the Mist' vessel.......

 'Maid of the Mist' under the rainbow

......now that we were back in Lockport and the weather forecast was promising I was determined to return, this time with TLE, and do everything.  We left home around 10:30 am to drive the 26 miles over to Niagra Falls arriving just after 11 am in parking lot #2 on Goat Island.....

......within minutes we had walked to the observation area on the US side of Niagra Falls......the weather was perfect and the falls were roaring, as well as putting off enormous clouds of mist......

......Lake Ontario in background, and the flow into Niagra Falls........

 

......on the other side of Goat Island is American and Bridal Veil Falls, and the observation deck (in the background).......

.....it was quite windy in the observation areas which combined with the clouds of mist made things very cold, but 100 yards away from the falls it was quite comfortable. Next up was the 'Maid of the Mist' tour.....we had bought our tickets online the night before so it was just a matter of showing the ticket lady our bar code, which she quickly scanned.......

.......each passenger on 'Maid of the Mist' is given a free poncho to wear on the 15 minute cruise, and you need will need it.  Without the poncho you will be soaked just from the mist that comes off the falls, and on this cruise you get quite close to the falls......

 American Falls from river level

 Bridal Veil Falls from river level

 Covering our heads....we are getting close!

There she is

 Retreating from the falls

 The international bridge into Canada

 The Canadian side

......our view from the observation deck of American, Bridal Veil and Niagra Falls in one shot.....

......after taking a few pix off the observation deck only one thing was left....it was about 12:30 pm and every good outing deserves some good pub food, so we were off to The Griffon Gastropub in Niagra Falls.  Yelp gives them 4 stars on 85 reviews, and Tripadvisor gives them 4.5 stars on 691 reviews!  This was a TLE find and she hit a homerun......

......I immediately ordered a pint of their Buffalo Brewing Co. 1813 Porter-New York American Porter (5.7 abv) and TLE ordered a pint of their Ithaca Nitro-Super Stout-NY-American Stout (5.2% abv).  For an appetizer we ordered their onion rings.......

....for entrees I ordered their Bacon Jam Burger (OMG), and TLE their Shrimp Po' Boy.....

Yes, that is a fried egg poking its head out from my burger (foreground)

.....we sat there sipping our brews, taking bites of our entrees and uttering the occasional 'ooh', or 'ahh'......we would rate the service, ambiance and food as a straight up '5'.  The fries would have made a meal all by themselves.....we both ended up taking home half of what we ordered.  I will thinking about this meal for some time!

We were home by 3 pm and immediately lapsed into food comas (naps) for about an hour.  Finally, around 4:30 pm we ventured outside to take a 2.1 mile out and back walk along the Erie Canal, which is just a few hundred yards from our site......

TLE provided the details of our walk

.....we walked from the Day Road bridge to Canal Road bridge and back........a perfect way to end the day, and I hope we were able to shed a few of the calories from our great meal at The Griffon Gastropub!

Thanks for stopping by!

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