Maid of the Mist

Maid of the Mist is the boat trip - running both from the US and Canadian sides of the river - to the foot of the Horseshoe Falls and back past the American Falls.

The first photo above was taken from the observation tower.  Once we had travelled down in the lift to river level to get on the boat, the tower looked rather high!

The Maid of the Mist is aptly named.  Still dry and smiling at this point but it didn't last long!  As you can see from my stylish garment, the tradition of boat tours to the bottom of the Falls dates back to 1846 when the boats were smaller and trips less frequent.  It is a big operation now!

It was sunny, cloudy and quite windy this morning so there were clouds of spray coming off the Falls.

It didn't take long to turn us into a couple of drowned rats..

When we arrived back at the dock we were so wet that we didn't think that we had anything to lose by walking up the rocky steps at one side of the American Falls. 

But we soon found out that there is wet and then there is completely soaked to the skin..

At least the weather was fairly warm and as we walked back down there were wonderful rainbows..

Look at the pot of gold at the end of this one..

PS  Having dried out in the sun and wind, taking more photos at the top of the Falls..

...we then embarked on a further trip which went 'under' the Falls - rather more literally than we had realised...will share the pics another day!