F is for Frozen!

Yes! Frozen is exactly what the Niagara Falls were in December and even by the end of April when we visited, there were still some bits of ice in the water. This meant we did not get to go on the Maid of the Mist and see the horseshoe falls that I had hoped to. But the bus tour that we went on tried to make up for the missing bits by adding in interesting stuff:

Corning Museum of Glass: Other than the lovely examples of their work we also got to see a live demonstration of how they make an elaborate looking vase - most fascinating!

Glass

And Glass!

Fort Niagara: In typical Indian fashion, I turned up my nose a bit on comparing to our forts ;).. but still it was a small bit of the history of the place and right next to this lovely lake as well, so a nice part of the tour.

Views of Niagara: The first evening, we got to see the falls as soon as we reached but it was drizzling as well so we literally saw, shivered and ran back to shelter. Before we got to saw the falls again later that night, we were armed with ponchos and a lot more comfortable. We also got to see them once more the next morning before leaving the area.

Trying to smile especially me :)

Better with ponchos!

Thundering Water Cultural Show: This was an American Indian show that illustrated the history of the falls, especially about the "Maid of the Mist" Lelawala.

IMax movie: This was an old iMax movie, but it sort of made up for missing the horseshoe falls by the spectacular views and angles that almost made me feel queasy!

Niagara Power Plant: We got to see the power plant that is responsible for supplying a part of the power to New York. The place also had some interesting activities for the kids (and adults!) to try out to understand the concepts of power better.

On the whole, I thought the kids adapted to the whole bus tour experience quite well. This was also because the stops were well-planned including restroom breaks where necessary. I would recommend this tour to those looking for a good value experience as the hotel that we stayed in for the night was also a pretty decent one (Sleep Inn). I can imagine it would only get better if the Maid of the Mist is included. Be warned though that the guides are bi-lingual, and announce all info in English and Chinese to cater to the large percentage of tourists from China. Wouldn't have been a big deal if not for some of them insisting on talking loudly over the English part of the announcements :P.