New York is not just the Big Apple

The Falls - Niagara, to be exact. The classic honeymoon destination. It was about a 2 hour drive from our location on Lake Chautauqua - and it turned out to be a wonderful day.

This photo was taken on the American side.

And this photo was taken on the Canadian side.

The tower on the left is the observation platform and the elevator down to the Maid of the Mist boat trip to the falls.

We took our little folding bikes out and rode along the American side and then decided we wanted to ride our bikes to the Canadian falls. This is the Rainbow Bridge - the way you get into Canada.

Passports in hand, we began our ride. We intended to walk the bikes across, but they wouldn't let us take them on the pedestrian path. We had to ride them in the traffic lanes.

I think this is one of my favorite photos - Ed on his little bike behind a tour bus. Drivers kept asking us if we had our passports. We were the only cyclists on the bridge.






















This is the Maid of the Mist: a 30 minute boat ride right up to the falls. Well worth the time because you get a true sense of the power of the water.

































We began by donning our blue plastic ponchos. Ed took this photo as we were approaching the falls. It got too wet as we got closer. It's loud and powerful and we watched a duck fishing right in the midst of all that commotion. As soon as he caught a fish, his partner tried to steal it from him. Go figure...










Before leaving the area, we stopped at Fort Niagara. It's a 17th century French fort taken over by the English and later by the Americans in the Revolutionary War. It guarded the approaches to the Great Lakes from Canada. It's well preserved and beautifully presented.















We began looking for a place for dinner on the drive back. We decided that we'd stop only if we found a place that looked interesting. We found it! Welcome to Aunt Millies. Home cooking, outrageous pastries, tons of people. Perfect!

Ed ordered "the cobbler" for dessert and they put this in front of him:

It's taken him almost a week to finish it...

It was an all around wonderful day!!!