Frozen in February

We thought last February was pretty cold, with Lake Erie freezing over between Ontario and Michigan. But this year, lots of folks were talking about the serious sections of Niagara Falls that have frozen so we made a last-minute trip down the road to check them out.

Of course, it couldn’t be an ordinary drive – we woke up to falling snow that started sometime during the night and continued until after we arrived in Niagara around 5pm. Some might say it was reckless of us to head out, but we do love a road trip, despite any challenges. Needless to say, our 1-hour drive was considerably longer but half the fun is getting there, no?

The best part of the falls – Canadian or American – is how the city (Niagara Falls, Canada) lights them up after the sun goes down. So, if we needed to be around after dark, we needed to have dinner there and, if we were going to have dinner there we would have to have wine. And, if we were going to have wine, we shouldn’t drive home, so we booked ourselves into the Sheraton Four Points for Saturday night. See how this works? Impromptu mini vacation!

There’s a fabulous steakhouse in the Hilton that we’ve enjoyed before – which is conveniently attached to the Sheraton – called Brasa Brazilian Steakhouse. Would you believe that at 5:30 on a Saturday afternoon, the wait was an hour? No food is worth waiting an hour for. We ended up back in our own hotel at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. Those of you who have had the pleasure are now probably thinking we are independently wealth. Wrong! – just innocent/ignorant of how the other half eats out. Let’s just say we won’t be doing that again. Our dinner was nice – nothing exceptional – and, in my humble opinion, no food is worth that price (although Steve insisted on paying with his debit card so I wouldn’t know exactly what it cost)!

Back in our room, I got my tripod system ready…

If you’ve never seen the falls at night, at any time of year, you’re missing quite the spectacle. Five different coloured flood lights rotate through cycles on both falls and the results are stunning. This year, with the masses of ice formations, it was especially beautiful. I have to say, though, that the American falls were much prettier because they’re smaller and, therefore, there was more ice to soak up the rainbow of colours. Fortunately, the snow had stopped so we were able to get some pretty good pictures of them – some that looked more like giant fluffy marshmallow…

– as well as a few others when I turned around and looked in other directions.

There’s nothing like a couple of hours in the cold, and a good walk there and back, to make you feel like you’ve earned the right to be tired.

Sunday started with breakfast at a deli in the Fallsview Casino complex, immediately followed by half an hour of inexpensive entertainment at the quarter slots before we were obliged to return to the hotel to check out.

Back to the falls – this time, both of them. Because of the way the lights hit them last night, or didn’t, it wasn’t easy to see the beauty that awaited us today. Mounds and striations and crevices and pools and spray! Oh, the spray! Doesn’t matter what time of year, it’s the spray that will get you all the time.