Sunday, October 19, 2008

Niagara Falls and Kingstons, Ontario, Canada

Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada: 2-3 September 2008




i never imagine Niagara Falls will be a place look like Las Vega or playground.
In my mind, it should be a place like Taman Negara or National Park.
To our surprise, around the Falls, the town is just look like a big playground, with things like: hunted house, different theme of wax musuems, casiono ...



At night time, spot lights are "shot" on the falls. (The greenish thing at the left side of picture.)
One of the building at the right is a Casino while the other one is some kind of viewing tower.



The fall at the left is called American Fall (at the American side) while the one at the right is called Horse Shoe Falls.
Horse Shoe Fall forms the misty clouds at its "curve" and it is the famous "Maid of the Mist".
In fact, i was a bit dissapointed because the falls are not as huge as i imagined.



Across the Rainbow Bridge is the American side.



In the boat heading to the "Maid of the Mist".
A close encounter with the American Falls.
Most of the people wore the blue raincoat which came with the boat ticket, but we prefered to get the showers from the falls.
This is where is got my engagement ring as well, right on the boat, in front of the falls.



The American Falls.



The boat drove right to the middle of "Maid of the Mist" and everyone took a real shower from the falls.



Horseshoe Fall, which forms the Maid of the Mist.
Beside from boat for you to get near to the fall, there are trips to walk behind of this fall as well.



Seeing the speeding water "falls" down.
The sound and the height and the speed of water gave a very powerful imprint in my memory.





The nearby small town, Niagara-on-the-lake (it is beside of one of the America 5 big lakes, Ontario Lake).
In contrast with the Las Vega liked Niagara Falls, this small town is touristic yet peaceful.
We feel almost like in Europe.



Niagara-on-the-lake is famous with its ice wine, thanks to its weather and soil.
There are many fruits farms and vineyard along the way to the town.
But the grapes to make wine don't taste good to just eat like that.



i do not remember what river is that, but the opposite side of the river belongs to the America.
At this point, i think i realised that, Canada and America do share a very long border!
There are many rivers or lakes or parks which are shared by both.
i haven't really get the "feel" of this in Montreal.


Rockpoint Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada: 3-5 September 2008



Erie Lake, one of the big 5 America Lakes.
We had 2 days camping at Rockpoint Provincial Park.
We arrived from Niagara Falls to there at 9pm. Basically we just drove around the wood in the darkness, trying to find our campsite.



One of the interesting of Rockpoint Provincial Park is the fossil by the lake.
The lake is so big that one would think it is the sea.


Kingston. Ontario, Canada: 7 September 2008




The beautiful and historical town hall.
Kingston is a small town by the lake (or river, couldn't really remember now), between the big city, Toronto and Montreal.
Many of the old buildings are made from limestone.



The Sunday market.
There are some street performance as well.



There is a large prison in Kingstone (i suspect that is due to the limestone produced by Kingston, the material to build the prison.)
So, there is an interesting small prison museum.
Things display in the museum, including the weapons and equipment created by the inmates using very basic material, such as tooth brush, fork ... , for the purpose of escape or "self protection".