Niagara Falls, ON and Toronto, ON

06/22/2019 - Today is a touring day at Niagara Falls, Ontario.  We first drove to the Skylon Tower for a complete view of the falls and surrounding area.  The Canadian side is bustling with many high rises and lots of activity.  We went up to the observation deck.  Here are some great pictures from the Canadian side.


American Falls from the tower

American Side

Maid of the Mist into Horseshoe Falls, Canada
 

Left Skylon Tower and drove to Table Rock area for the 'Journey behind the Falls' tour.  First we had to take a rail incline (sort of like a tram) ride down the steep hill to the edge pf the water below.  Table Rock building houses a lot of entertainment, including the tour we were looking for, as well as many eateries.  We bought our ticket for the 'Journey behind the Falls' and figured that we had time for lunch in the meantime.  We went to the restaurant, got a seat right in front of the glass windows, and ordered our lunch.

Coming down the rail incline

 

Lunch at Table Rock - Horseshoe Falls in the background
 

The view was spectacular, of Horseshoe Falls.  Our lunch was wonderful, but about half way through it, we ran out of time and should have left for the tour.  The waitress said that happens a lot, and that we could move our tour time up so we could enjoy our lunch.  Tom went out and changed our tickets so we had about 1.5 hours more.  Now that we could relax, we ordered a glass of wine and sat back and enjoyed the view.  It was a great lunch! 

Went down to the entrance to our tour.  Sometime in the late 1800's, engineers tunneled through the rock behind Horseshoe Falls to see what they could find.  Today, we were able to walk through those tunnels and walk out to the edge to see the waterfall over our heads.  It was cold and very wet.  They gave us plastic ponchos to cover us.  Here are some pictures of the tunnels.

Inside the tunnel
 

Tunnel outlet to the Falls

Than we walked out to the observation deck, right next to the Horseshoe Falls.  The power of the water was immense. 

The edge of Horseshoe Falls

Back up the rail incline....here is a  better picture of it. 

The rail incline

We walked back to our car (a couple of blocks, and I was done).  We drove to the IMAX theatre to see a short film on all the stunters that used the Falls for their stunts.  TRUE STORY--a 63 year old teacher, Anne Taylor, decided to go over the falls in a barrel in October 1901.  She was the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls.  You can read all about her on Wikipedia. 

Back to the RV for dinner and rest.  It was a very good day!



6/23/2019 - Drove from Niagara Falls to Milton Heights, about 45 minutes west of Toronto.  There are no campgrounds near the city, so this was as close as we could get a spot.  The campground was large and spacious - lots of grass and trees.  We arrived rather early, as it was only 65 miles from Niagara Falls to here.  We spent the time studying the brochures of Toronto trying to see what sounded like things we would like to see.  Clearly, the big attraction downtown Toronto is the CN (Canadian National) Tower. 



06/24/2019 - Toronto is a very big city (about 2.5 million people), and capital of the Ontario Province (Ottawa is the National Capital and is also in Ontario).  We decided to go to the Museum of Illusions first.  We stopped at this building first, as I thought it was the museum.  Turned out, it was not, but the painting on the building was fascinating. 

Great painting

Next to this builing was a city fountain.  Needless to say, Toronto was very dog friendly.

Dog fountain

Although we had a problem finding it, we finally got parked and went in.  What Fun!  Lots of illusions to trick your eyes.  Here are a few pictures of the fun,

 

These were taken in the same room 

Tom in a little chair

Do these look like the same size?

Holding up a comparison

Again, same comparison - They ARE the same size!

Tom playing cards with himself

The Upside Down room

Now, off to the CN Tower.  It was the tallest free-standing building in the world from 1974 to 2008 (over 34 years).  It stands over 183 stories tall.  The elevators to the top observation deck took less than a minute to the top.  The observation deck was an open air platform and a bit windy, but great views of Toronto. 

CN Tower

Toronto Skyline to Lake Ontario in back

Tom laid down on the glass floor ( he was a little shaken) and my picture isn't very good, but you can see behind him straight down.  There was an Aquarium below also.

Tom on a glass floor 183 stories up

The Aquarium below us --those orange sticks are big buses
 

The Blue Jays' Arena--see the banner on the left

The fans

After leaving the tower, we passed by the Arena where the Bluejays play (baseball).  The artwork on the outside was different. 

We took the scenic route to go back to the campground.  We drove through some very up-scale neighborhoods.  Also, lots of new apartments and condos.  The prices were a little daunting.  The sign said $3 million - I don't know if that was for a condo or a house, but they were all pretty small, and a big price (Canadian Dollars).  We stopped for a few groceries and back to the RV for meatloaf dinner. 



06/24/2019 - Left the campground on the way to Brighton, ON to meet up with our friends from our Alaskan Caravan trip 2 years ago.  They are Canadians from Victoria.  They convinced us to sign up for this caravan with them, so we are looking forward to seeing them again.