The next day we drove to Niagara Falls , not the actual falls but the town named after the falls.  After setting up we drove to North Tonawanda and walked begining  on the Erie Canal Trail which then becomes The Shoreline Trail. I had served in  Hunter Ligget Military Reservation, in Jolon,CA  with a young man from North Tonowonda back in 1963 havn't a clue if he is still alive and wouldn't know him if I met him in North Tonawanda . Two ships passing in the night.

town of North TonawandaEirie Canal Terail
The Erie is a 291 mile New York State work in progress when completed it will be a 360 mile trail from Albany County to Niagara County. I am partial to this trail because it borders and is named for the Erie Canal AKA Clinton's Ditch. Not that Clinton but De Witt Clinton the New York State Governor who proposed and built the Erie Canal and opened America up for commerce in the 1800's and for whom the Bronx high school I attended was named for.


Old train bridgeboat garages
that's not flooding those are boat garages

 At one point the trail began to look familiar and realized  we had walked there before begining on the other end in 2016 on our way to Canada. On Friday we drove to Grand Island and walked on West River Parkway trail which is also part of the Shoreline Trail,  a 24 ft wide trail with 2 bike lanes and one pedestrian lane that was formally an actual parkway.

Shoreline Trailview of Canada from Shorline Trail
Yup that's Canada (we didn't cross the border this trip)


That evening we went on a Bedore Tours tour of Niagara Falls. I would definitely not recommend that tour to anybody. I can’t speak about the other tour lines or even other tour guides at Bedore. I am not even sure that a passenger issue didn't delay us and also put our guide, a pleasing enough and somewhat entertaining older lady,  off her game. None the less I definitely did not get the value I expected and would not recommend it. Interestingly enough that was not apparent on the evening of the tour.


                                                                                        The next morning Debby looking at the brochure commented that we hadn’t gone to Whirlpool State Park and therefore hadn’t seen either the lower rapids or the Giant Whirlpool
                                                                                        Then on Monday we returned to the park on our own and walked from Goat Island to Prospect Point and I realized that we hadn’t been there either
                                                                                        I also realized that we had been on the N.Y.S. Observation Tower you can’t get to the Maid of the Mist without going on the Tower or at least the front part,
                                                                                        the guide never mentioned the tower and rushed us out to the gift shop exit. I took the time to take a picture because of the view not realizing I was on the tower.
                                                                                        I also noticed that many people leaving the Maid of the Mist went to the base of the falls. This option wasn’t on the trip and wasn’t offered to us but it would have been nice too do while we were there.                                                                                                Unfortunately when we returned Monday we couldn’t go down to the bottom and base of the falls without a ticket so we just went on the tower for the view and and the opportunity to take more  pictures.                                                                                            We then returned to Goat Island and walked around counter clock wise to Luna Island which we hadn’t been to prior although it was on the tour list.
                                                                                       This time we walked to the Bridal Veil falls overlook, and the Tesla statue where we had stood to watch the fire works and lights on the tour, 

 

 On the tour we went on the Maid of the Mist.
Maid of the MistNiagara Falls from the Maid of the Mist


Went to Wind Cave, saw the night lights and fireworks as well as a movie explaining the history of the falls and Nicola Tesla and George Westinghouse involvement with both the falls and its electrification and subsequently the electrification of the world. Since then I have read "The Last Days of Night" by Graham Moore a historical novel about the fight between Westinghouse and Edison called the "Current War" which explains the early battles for electric lights and electricity in general.


On Saturday we went to the Buffalo history museum to see the Ararat stone laid by Mordechi Manuel Noah in his aborted attempt to to create a Jewish homeland on what is now Grand Island,
Corner stone for Arrarat a Jewish Homeland that never was


Interesting museum with lots of sports memorabilia from Buffalo Teams and Tim Russets office. Tim was a native of Buffalo and they have a replica of his NBC or home office from his time on Meet the Press in addition to the stone and local history including Native American stuff. Amazing as a native New Yorker we were not taught more about the five tribes called the Iroquois a powerful Native American federation of tribes had great adaptability and are still existent in New York. We followed that with a visit to the zoo which was disappointing although they did
have the prehistoric dinosaur exhibit that is making the rounds


DinosaurLions


and then we went to the Buffalo Niagara trail heritage village a living museum in nearby Amherst. Unfortunately we go the re to close to closing time so as enjoyable as it was we didn’t get enough time there and my return someday.

Little Nash Ramblerold barber shop

outdoor bread oven
Bread Anyone?

 
We followed that up with a walk on the Erie canal which will  be a 348 mile rail trail from Buffalo to Albany along Clinton’s ditch or what remains of it.Not the Clinton who was president but the Clinton who was governor of NY and the person my high school was named in honer of.

Erie Canal PathErie Canal




The next day we went to Old Fort Niagara followed by a walk in  Whirlpool State Park with a view of the gorge,rapids and whirlpool.

Fort NiagaraFort Niagara

Whirlpool


 Originally we had planned to leave on Monday but Debby wanted to return to Goat  Island and walk around the island so we staid another night which worked out fine as there were plenty of sites. It seems the Niagara Falls area is very busy on the week ends but not so much during the week.
On Monday we returned to Goat Island, walked to and over the pedestrian bridge to Prospect Point and then onto the Observation Tower before returning, crossing Green Island to Goat Island around to Luna Island on to Terrapin point , continuing to the Three Sisters, The Sister Islands were named after the three daughters (Asenath, Angeline and Celinda Eliza) of General Parkhurst Whitney, who was an American commander during the War of 1812 the islands a re connected by small bridges. We then returned to the truck in the RV Parking lot.
The TowerFrom the Tower

The FallsThe falls


On our return to the campground we stopped at the Di Camilo bakery and bought a bread and Triple Chocolate Biscotti Diprato which I understand is sold in Sterns in the City. The bread wasn’t so good but the Biscotti were very good. From the bakery we stopped at Dee Dee’s Dairy and had some Perry ice cream made by a local manufacturer the iced cream was among the best I have ever had.

On Tuesday we drove to the St Johnsville Campground and Marina on the Eire canal although at this point it’s actually the Mohawk River which parallels the old canal. After setting up we went on the Canal trail and walked North for our daily walk
Erie Canal path

The next morning August 14 we hooked up and drove to Croton on Hudson. We remained in Croton until Monday October  21,2019 visiting friends and ,family seeing out doctors and dentist before heading back to Florida.

Croton Point Park in the Fall

Next


Back to Florida by way of Shenandoah National Park


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