Niagara Falls KOA ON

 

Woke up this morning around 9am and had our breakfast.  We had some of those fresh peaches we bought yesterday on our cereal… Very tasty.    We checked our emails and lazed around our motorhome for the rest of the morning.

We went to the Flying Saucer Restaurant for lunch.  As the name implies, the restaurant is in the shape of a flying saucer.  This is also a Roadside Attraction so I get to put a tick mark on my app that we have visited here.

 

Neither of us were too impressed with this place.  The food was mediocre at best and to pay $30.00 for lunch seems rather on the expensive side for a roadside diner.  This place gets good reviews on Trip Advisor, but those reviews seem to be mostly about the breakfast meal.   I think we would have been better off to have come earlier and try the breakfast menu rather than the lunch menu.  The milkshakes were not even all that great.  We didn’t get to meet any aliens either.

We went back to the motorhome and I dumped the grey and black water tanks.  We have full hookups here at the KOA so I just had to pull the valves and let the stuff flow through our sewer hose and into the campground sewer system.  I will dump the tanks once more before we leave in a few days.

Around 3pm we took our rental car back to the rental office and handed it in.  We won’t need the car for the duration of our stay here in Niagara Falls.  We will ride the WeGo Transit System.  The bus stops right here at the KOA and it will take us directly to the Falls.  It is just a one bus ride, no transferring involved.  Our plan tomorrow is to go and spend the day at the Falls.

For dinner I fired up our Weber Q bbq and cooked us up some steaks.  Also did up some potatoes and onions with butter and spices wrapped up in foil.

 

I also got our campfire going so that we could make some S’mores for dessert.

 

First you roast a marshmallow.

Then you take two graham crackers so that you can make a sandwich.  In the sandwich you place a piece of plain chocolate from a chocolate bar and your roasted marshmallow…    Squish them together and enjoy.   Apparently these acquired their name because you can’t just eat one.. you will always be asking for (some more)  … s’more

 

Karen is smiling and she would like s’more…..

After that blast of sugar and calories we take a walk around the KOA campground till it started to sprinkle rain and we headed directly back to our motorhome for the evening.

Niagara Falls KOA ON

We got up and moving a little late today, had a late breakfast and then ate a light lunch shortly after the noon hour.  It is threating to rain, so before that happens we decide to take a drive to Port Dalhousie Ontario.

The attraction for us is an antique carousel located at the Lakeside Park.

At 5 cents a ride you can’t go wrong.  What can you get for 5 cents these days..

This is an especially nice antique carousel.  Hand carved by Charles I.D. Looff.  He manufactured over 50 carousels in his lifetime and one of them is right here in Port Dalhousie ON.  This one was carved between 1898 and 1905.  The carousel has 68 animals, including horses, lions, camels, goats, giraffes, and four chariots. The music is played by an antique Frati band organ which uses a system of paper music rolls to serenade the riders. Each animal has been hand carved and the horses still have real horsehair tails. The carousel animals have all been carefully restored by the Friends of the Carousel, who continue with annual maintenance and repair work to keep the carousel in sound working order.

 

The main attraction of the carousel is the carved Looff Lion.  The Looff Lion on the Lakeside Park Carousel is one of five existing Looff lions in all of North America and it is the only one that has its head turned to watch onlookers as it circles by.

We walked down to the beach after riding the carousel and saw the Maccoa, a Bulk Carrier, built in 2009.  She was sitting there at anchor.

Leaving Port Dalhousie, we drove to the very end of the Welland Canal Parkway.  This is where the ships enter the Welland Canal from Lake Ontario.  This is where Lock #1 is located.  No ships in the lock at this time.

Here is the end of the road.

 

We can see the Sea Eagle II (a pusher tug) just leaving the protection of the canal break walls and heading out into Lake Ontario.

 

We can also see the Michigan (a pusher tug) is tied up to the shore wall.

By now it is pouring rain as we cross over the canal on Lift Bridge #1 and headed towards Niagara on the Lake ON.

 

We pass by this very uniquely designed McDonalds.  Not your typical design.

We are in search of a roadside fruit market so that we can buy locally grown peaches.  As we drive along we pass the War of 1812 Bicentennial Garden.   It is raining too hard to be getting out of the car so the photo is taken as we drive by.

It continues to rain as we drive through the downtown section of Niagara on the Lake.  Again photos are taken as we drive through.

 

Here is the popular Prince of Wales Hotel.

We did stop and get a basket of freshly picked peaches.  Then we stopped again to see the Tiny Church.  According to Roadside Attractions, this is the Worlds smallest Church.   Several weddings have taken place here, obviously not inside.  It is reportedly less than 10 ft x 10 ft and has 2 small pews inside.

 

We continued along the Niagara Parkway.  The Niagara River is on our left hand side and way down deep in the gorge.

We stopped to view the Floral Clock, always a popular photo opportunity.  The rain let up enough that we could get out for a few minutes.

 

There wasn’t much point in continuing along to view Niagara Falls in this rain.  We will come back on a nicer day to enjoy a day at Niagara Falls.    For now, we just headed back to the motorhome.   It is still raining at supper time, so we just popped some frozen dinners into the microwave.  We worked on photo naming and editing this evening and got this blog written.

Niagara Falls KOA ON

We actually got up early today if you can call 9am early.  We had a quick breakfast and then we were on the road by 10am.

Today we are going to drive around and see different parts of the Welland Canal.

We start off by driving to the last lock (#8) and the entrance to Lake Erie.. The town of Port Colborne ON.

There is a nice viewing area here at lock 8.

 

We made the extra effort to get an earlier than usual start so that we could watch the Rt. Hon. Paul J. Martin lock through into Lake Erie.  Here she comes, right on time.

She was built at the Collingwood Shipyards and launched in 1973 and was originally named the H.M Griffith until 2000.

 

Once she is in the lock, the water level only needs to rise by about 2 feet in order to be at the same level as Lake Erie.

 

Once she is secure in the lock, a couple of crew members and their luggage leave the ship. 

 

In no time at all, the lock door is opening and the Rt. Hon. Paul J. Martin exits and heads out into Lake Erie.

 

These board displays may help you to better understand the ships and the Welland Canal.

 

 

We got in the car and followed the ship out of the Canal as it headed into Lake Erie.

Then we drove to another vantage point to watch as she went past the Port Colborne break wall.

While we were in Port Colborne, we stopped by to visit the Historical & Marine Museum.

 

There are a few marine related displays, but mostly this is a historical museum for the area.  I was expecting a strong marine presence.  We did wind up buying some nautical place mats for our table at home.  Plus I got a pin for our wall map.

 

There is a small village set with a blacksmith shop, a school etc.

 

Since it was after our usual lunch time, we wound up our visit to the museum quickly and then headed to the nearest Subway for a sandwich.    After our lunch we drove to Welland Ontario.

To get there we drove under the Welland Townline Tunnel.  One of 3 tunnels that passes under the Welland Canal.  Trains also pass under the canal in the tunnel to the right.

  

Next we passed under the Welland Canal again.  This time through the Welland Main St. Tunnel.

  

We drove through the downtown area and parked at various locations to get out and photograph the murals.

  

We wanted to visit the Welland Marine Museum, but it was closed.  Nearby there was a nice little waterfront area.

 

We left Welland and headed to the Lock 7 Viewing platform.  We are going to watch the Thunder Bay enter the lock.  This is actually pretty exciting to see the Thunder Bay as she is the newest Lake Freighter on the Great Lakes.  She was delivered on May 16 2013 to the owners CSL (Canada Steamship Lines) from the builder in China.

 

We learn that the Thunder Bay is behind schedule and is still in Lock #6 so we drive the short distance and find a place on the side of the road to park and watch as she exits the lock.  She is 225 meters long (739 ft).

 

We can see that the Lock 7 doors are open and ready for the Thunder Bay to enter.

The Thunder Bay is now moving forward preparing to enter Lock 7.

 

If it wasn’t for the fencing, we could reach out and touch her.  For a brand new ship, she has some fairly major scrapes and bangs along her hull. 

 

I can now see why she is so scraped up as she rides her hull along the shore wall to get lined up into the lock.  I suspect there is a problem with the bow thrusters, but this is certainly not the normal way for a ship to enter a lock.  This ship is so advanced that it even has stern thrusters, so there is no excuse to be this badly scraped.

 

We drove back up to the Lock #7 Viewing Area to watch the Thunder Bay enter that lock.  It is a tight fit.

 

That is enough ship watching for today.  We decide to go and find the murals that are nearby.  They are located on the walking/biking trail that runs the length of the Welland Canal.

Here are some of the murals we saw.

  

We have about wore ourselves out today, so we decide that enough is enough and we head back to our motorhome.

Along the way we pass through the Thorold Tunnel.

 

After dinner we drive to the Falls to watch the nightly lighting of the falls & the fireworks show.  Unfortunately we could not find a place to park the car.  We could have parked at the Table Rock parking lot for $20.00, but that seemed excessive for an hour or two to watch the show, plus it is quite far from where we would want to be to view the show.  I got discouraged with driving around so we headed back to our Motorhome.  If you have ever driven in this area, you know what I mean, the traffic is nuts.  Our plan now is to ride the WeGo transit bus to Niagara Falls one of these evenings and not worry about figuring out where to park the car.  There is a bus stop right at the KOA where we are staying in our motorhome.   As it turned out, the fireworks part of the show was cancelled because it was too windy.