06 July - Wednesday - Celebrating 30 years Niagara Falls

G'day All,
Today we celebrated 30 years of marriage with a Niagara winery tour which went from 10 am until 4:30 pm with a lunch in the middle. A quite day with a few samples in the belly meant for a relaxing afternoon. Met a nice couple from Columbus, Ohio, Tammy and Ralph, who we enjoyed the afternoon with before going our separate ways after the tour. Hopefully will keep in touch down the track, FB friends already :-)

Wine barrels of course!

Winery Buildings

We had pre-booked into the Watermark restaurant for our anniversary so it was a quick rest before we were having diner overlooking the falls. Great menu and service and the food was excellent. Headed to the room after diner to watch another fireworks show over the falls for the late cruise, something we missed out on last night as the fireworks are on every other day but at least we still got to see it from the great vantage point in our room.

Anniversary Fireworks

Early night tonight as we have to pack and head to the airport at 9 am in the morning to catch a flight to Calgary to spend time with Samantha and Oliver.

Not too much camera time today but I am sure there will be in the remaining days and weeks to come.

Cheers
Gary and Penny

05 July - Tuesday - Niagara Falls

G'day All,
This morning was a nice hot breakfast at the Hilton and an taxi out to catch a ride with Niagara Helicopters, over the falls. Taxi was a little over $17 but it is about a 5 km trip. Penny didn't come for the fly but was more than willing to wave me off :-). she's still not a big fan of flying... I had a ball and tee'd up with the operator to get the best seat for photography which turns out to be the high seat behind the pilot and I think I captured some great aerials. While the DSLR does great videos I really wanted some control over stills so opted to let the Panasonic FT6 do the video and mounted it on my DSLR to shoot a video throughout the flight.

Left to right - American Falls, the small Bridal Veil Falls and Horseshoe Falls

And again - looking from south to north.

The Canon 1Dx with the Panasonic FT6 top mounted via a $2 eBay hot shoe threaded mount.

After the flight we decided to walk back the 5 km to the hotel along the Niagara river stopping along the way to some of the other oddities on the river. The first was the Whirlpool created over 4200 years ago whereby a collapse in the river escarpment created a 90 degree right hand turn in the river which meant a counter clockwise spinning of the water flow to get back on course. A this point there is also a cable car that run across the gorge over the whirlpool, we gave it a miss as we wanted to get back in time for rest before we were out again. A quick look in the reasonably priced Souvenir shop, another view of both falls and then back to the room.for lunch from subway. Arrived back in the hotel a little worse for wear as the temp was getting up to the 30's, but we got there and had a shower to cool off.

Whirlpool Cable Car

Had lunch and were back on task again with a Day / Night tour of the falls. This was hosted by a great young man by the name of Guy (French origin pronounced Ghee), who had a good sense of humour, a wealth of knowledge and a nice guy to boot.

This tour had a list of activities that went from 2:40 pm to 11 pm. Started with a quick history lesson and tour of the falls Niagara falls area, a trip up the river to the base of the Horseshoe falls on the Hornblower, A ride up to the top of the Skylon Tower, back to the Elements on the Falls Restaurant located near the brink overlooking Horseshoe Falls for a three course dinner,then off to another cruise up the river to see the falls lite up with coloured lights and finished off with a tour of the facility that lights the falls and changing the lighting ourselves for the world to see. A big afternoon and tired little tourists looking for bed... except for Mr photographer who wanted to get some better photos of the falls in their night time colours...

Behind Horseshoe Falls

On the Hornblower in front of Horseshoe Falls

American Falls under lights

Cheers
Gary and Penny

04 July, Monday - Toronto to Niagara Falls

G'day All,
Morning Update
I did a little late night photography at midnight and was surprised at how busy the streets were for a Sunday night, at least 50 people at any one time in the street and constant traffic.

Random Toronto Street

CN Tower - Supporting Pride Month

Another Random Toronto Street

Saying goodbye to Toronto today and heading for Niagara Falls. Did the obligatory last minute stuff the suitcases and headed out for one last lap around the block before checking out. Called into Tim Hortons for a "double double" which is a unique Canadian double cream, double sugar coffee that is about $2 but would be double (see what I did there lol) that in Australia. Think it is my new go to coffee at least while here in Canada. At check out we noticed a couple of soda's on the bill that we didn't consume and an extra internet fee but these were very quickly sorted and taken off the tab :-).
Turns out the mini bar has sensors in each position that automatically record removals and add to the bill. The reason for the billing was that we bought a small milk and took two cans out to put the milk in  and this was enough for the fridge to "think" we had taken the drinks...

Fairmont Royal York - Reception Area

Transfers are once again organised through Niagara Airbus, waiting for them to arrive at the moment so jumped on to do a quick blog update....

Afternoon update

Accommodation is the Hilton Niagara Falls and the view from the room is to the falls, we are spending the next three nights here celebrating our 30th anniversary on the 6th July, should also get to see the USA 4th of July celebrations across the falls tonight but will have to wait and see.

The Hilton Niagara - Our room on the shorter building facing the USA falls (not my photo)

All booked in after a slow traffic jammed run to Niagara, took 2 hrs 30 mins, the Hilton computers had gone down so they only had one open and the line was about 20 deep when we got there but all sorted after another 15 mins. We are in a room on the 31st floor facing the USA falls and the Skylon Tower, similar to the CN Tower but about 1/3 the height. Went and had a nice lunch at Applebee's washed down with a large sangria (Penny) and a Canadian 67 (lite beer for me).

Niagara Falls - Horeshoe Falls

Grabbed the camera and set off for a closer look at the falls before heading back to the room to settle down and prepare for watching the 4th July fireworks from the height and comfort of the room. Well the USA certainly knows how to put on a fireworks show and the view from the room couldn't have been any better. The falls all alight, the Skylon tower in colour and the fireworks in between.

4th July at Niagara Falls

Cheers
Gary and Penny