Maid of the Mist - Niagara Falls, New York - 2021/10/04

During all of our walking around Niagara Falls, both kids wanted to do a little something extra. There were two different choices, either Maid of the Mist or Cave of the Winds. After discussing it between themselves, they chose to go on the boat ride. Awesome! I'm glad that's the one they picked. 

It was super busy here over the weekend. These queues were filled with people waiting to buy tickets. I'm glad we were able to come on a Monday when the crowds were down. We walked right up to the ticket booth. 

Tickets were $25.25 for adults, $14.75 for kids 6-12 years old, and Alli was free! And she still gets her own ticket. 

We started by walking out onto the Niagara Falls Observation Tower. We'll check that out on the way back up. For now, we're taking an elevator 282 feet down to the Niagara River below. 

We dropped our tickets into a bucket, then at the next tent we all got ponchos. 

Instead of the typical blue Maid of the Mist ponchos, these are pink for Breast Cancer Awareness. Alli loved them!

There's another reason I was really wanting to come on a weekday. Look at all the room we have on this boat! The boats we noticed over the weekend were packed like sardines! We spoke to the boat captain when we got off and he said they were running 2 boats over the weekend and each can hold 600 people! On their busiest days they will do 18000 guests! 

Theresa has made sure we're not going to get wet. Rain jackets with ponchos on top, and we all changed our shoes and swapped them out with flip flops. 

The first stop was the American Falls. 

Take a good look Ian! This is the best view you're going to get!

There was a bit of a breeze and spray coming off the falls at this point. 

The American Falls is on the left, with the tiny Bridal Veil Falls on the right. 

Next though is the big one. Horseshoe Falls is going to be wild. 

It was great to have a spot right on the edge of the rail, and no one was pushing or shoving to get a spot. 

And we were truly starting to feel the power of 675,000 gallons of water coming over the edge every second. 

Alli loved it. 

So did Ian. 

This boat ride really is the best way to see Niagara. 

On the way back, the boat does a quick 360 by the American Falls again. Total round trip time was 20 minutes. 

One other benefit you get to coming down here is a small hike up to the Crows Nest. 

Here's a good look at the Observation Tower. 

We're by the base of the American Falls. Not quite close enough to get wet though, at least not with the current wind direction. 

Still a fun place to stop though. 

Let's take the elevator back up to the Observation Deck. Ian was reminded of the Seoul Tower we visited on our trip to Korea where the elevator had a video playing on the ceiling. This was just a regular elevator ride back to the top. 

The Observation Deck provided a great view of both the American Falls and Horseshoe Falls. 

Beautiful. 

Niagara Falls was a great stop! I'm really glad we came here. 

As you leave, you exit through the gift shop. There's stuffed animals covered with raincoats, which were cute. The kids got to touch the wheel of the Maid of the Mist. 

The sign says it's the Maid of the Mist I, but that's actually for this company that was formed in 1884. Before that, from 1846-1860, another Maid of the Mist, two paddleboats, holding up to 100 passengers ferried people from the USA to Canada. 

Since we're here already, we might as well go see the falls from the top too. 

They do love climbing on things. 

The leaves on this tree were wild! Red, Yellow, and Green all at once!

We still haven't been to the Visitor Center here. We ducked inside to see what it had. 

There was a bit of history of the falls. Did you know the water stopped entirely in 1848 for 40 hours when an ice jam upstream blocked the flow?

A look at the trail system. We did a few of the trips on the rim of the canyon, but didn't hike down the edge. Perhaps on a future trip we'll do that. 

It's our last night here. Of course we're going to stop by the falls at nighttime. 

Theresa popped popcorn, the kids brought halloween candy snacks, and we watched the light show coming from the falls. 

And even though it was 8:30pm on a Monday night, we had the American Falls all to ourselves for a few minutes. 

Just us. 

The walk back to the parking lot was a pleasant one. We've been able to get a lot of hiking miles in over the last few days. It's been great!

The Beast was the last one in the parking lot.