One Of The Craziest Things

You can do at Niagara Falls is visit the “Cave of the Winds.” The “cave” was filled in and rendered inaccessible long ago, but standing right underneath Niagara Falls is close enough, I guess.

Flash back some years:

That’s me, back center, with the glasses. Two things I remember: the guy taking the photo saying to me “the young lady can stand back here,” as if he could tell with the rainhood on. And once we got there being totally blind because of the spray on my glasses. So, that’s why I’ve got rather sour look on my ace.

The first crazy thing you do is stand in line for two hours. Oh well, the company was nice as F., her son E. and myself hung out and chatted. Then you take a quick elevator ride down, walk through a tunnel, and you’re basically at the bottom of the falls.

Walk up the deck a ways:

And at the very top is the “hurricane deck.” Even with contacts, I still couldn’t get very close to it. But at least I could see.

The “Bridal Veil” falls is crashing down onto a boulder the size of a house, and these people are standing right under it.

I have a then-and-now photo to match up with the black-and-white above, which I’ll post after I download it from my camera. When it was taken I don’t really know, though the arch behind us was dedicated in 1967. In 1976 Yugoslavia donated a statue of Nicolai Tesla which sits in the space between us and the arch.

Today when you go you don’t get a heavy rubber slicker, which is just as well because it was pretty hot, you get a thin poncho. And those weird bootie-things are gone, too; instead you get a pair of plastic sandals.

But you still get really wet. These are cellphone camera pix — I took a few from further back with my Nikon, but I didn’t want to pull it out in the conditions you see here!