Being a Tourist

When I found out that I'd be doing my latest shoot in upstate New York, Tom decided to go along and we extended the trip by a few days in order to visit some of Tom's family. We haven't seen them in about six years and his now 17- and 12-year-old cousins have shot up in height since then. They're a tall family and I felt like I was in a grove of trees whenever we were all standing around together. At 5'7" I'm not exactly tiny, but I was by far the shortest person in the bunch.

After flying all night, we arrived early Friday morning and spent most of the day relaxing, catching up and in my case, napping. We decided to spend Saturday visiting Old Fort Niagara and Niagara Falls. I was really looking forward to it as I haven't been to either one. We took a scenic route along Lake Ontario to the the fort, through small towns and lush green countryside. Tom's uncle went with us and we spent about three hours exploring the fort.

The "French Castle"

Originally built by the French in 1726, it is the oldest structure in the Great Lakes area. It was twice occupied by the British before finally being ceded to the United States after the war of 1812. Located on the shores of Lake Ontario, it's a windy and exposed location and would have been miserably cold in the winter. Just across a tiny inlet is Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada –– a community so close you could practically throw a rock through the windows of the houses there. It was clear enough to see Toronto, 25 miles across the lake.

On the way out, we noticed this groundhog and two babies out grazing on the slopes just inside the fort walls.

After the fort, we drove to Niagara Falls. It was too late in the afternoon to take the Maid of the Mist boat tour that goes to the base of the falls, but we were able to get out on an observation platform that looks like a bridge to nowhere and hangs out over the river. I'm not afraid of heights, but once Tom mentioned that we were basically hanging in space with nothing below us, I could swear that I felt that platform swaying and shuddering every time the wind gusted.

The traffic over to the Canadian side of the river was light so we decided to cross over and see the falls from another perspective. Just before we left the parking lot, we noticed that the bridge to Canada allowed pedestrians, so we left the car on the American side and walked over.


The picture above is taken from the pedestrian bridge, of the observation tower with the falls behind it.

The view from Canada was even more spectacular and allowed us to see the Horseshoe Falls with its enormous plume of spray.


We stopped for dinner at a restaurant overlooking the falls and watched the colors in the sky and water change as the sun began to set behind us.


On the walk back, the moon began rise and by the time we got to the car, we were treated to a gorgeous full moon.