No mention of Niagara Falls? Hmph! How 'bout a place like that, where the people- watching competes with the nature-watching, neck'n'neck?

On the walkway overlooking the Falls, one can immerse oneself in the multi-colored diversely-garbed human swarm and water-gaze for hours, without hearing one word of English. East Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, German etc etc etc ... after a while, it becomes like music to your ears.

Easy listening, kinda.

I stood looking across the Horseshoe Falls to the USA for a long, long time yesterday. As those famous mists billowed up, showering the onlookers like a steady gentle rain, a big double rainbow kept appearing and disappearing against the setting sun. Arching over the raging emerald/whitewater, from the 'American side' to the 'Canadian side'. A Rainbow bridge, a promise of peace. Even with one 'foot' on each side of the border, no one suspected it of terrorism, or asked to see it's ID.

That was a comforting thought, somehow.

And the fact that the white inhabitants of North America were actually able to divvy that incredible Power Place up between them so long ago, while avoiding doing each other in over it (although they did give it their best shot for awhile!) is amazing indeed. To me, anyway.

May it always be so.

But if you fo visit Niagara, be sure to bring a cooler full of bottled water and lots of snacks as well as your camera. It's pretty ironic that in a park which draws millions of people from around the world and is home to a sizeable portion of the entire continent's fresh water, there's not one drinking fountain in working order. Not ONE, that I saw anyway!   And a bottle of drinking water costs $3.50 Cdn, or $2.50 US. BUt don't sweat it - there's even vending machines specially made for American one-dollar bills.

It's also the only place in the world I ever saw $15 forked out for a cheeseburger    8~)   Hey, wonder what a burger and a bottle of water costs in Blind River these days ...