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

30 June 16 - Thursday - Brisbane Overnight

G'day Everyone,
These last couple of weeks seemed to fly past with a lot happening on the home front prior to our departure :-( We seem to have been pretty organised for this trip and only cut it fine with last minute deliveries of Canadian cash this morning and our free Global Sim card delivered by snail mail an hour before we left home to get to the hotel. We are taking a few items (an entire suitcase) over to Samantha and Oliver as well as some Aussie gifts for friends but all in all managed to pack a suitcase each for the trip. Was difficult to judge what we would need due to it being a Canadian summer but with a chilly trip to Alaska thrown in.

To avoid possible Friday traffic during the school holidays we decided it would be a nice idea to book into the Novotel Brisbane Airport the night before we fly out as we had a free night's accommodation to use. Emily dropped us off and we had one last meal together before we headed back the hotel and Em headed home.

So tonight will be time for last minute checks, not that there's too much we can do if we've left something at home :-). Although I get the feeling the locks won't be coming off until we get to Canada. Novatel run a shuttle to the airport every 30 mins from 5 am to 9 am so we've booked a ride to the airport in the morning @ $5 a head, much better than a taxi ride or long term parking, hoping it will mean a more relaxed check in. All going well we will lift off from Brisbane @ 10:40 am direct to Vancouver (13.5 hr flight) with 1 hr 45 mins to get through customs and catch the connecting flight to Toronto which will more than likely be the next opportunity for a blog update.

Just knocked back a couple of complimentary drinks at the Novatel and now chilling watching TV until sleepy time.


Until tomorrow...
Cheers
Gary and Penny