Toronto Trip: The Niagara Falls

A few weeks ago, Bogdan had a conference in Toronto, and we decided about a month earlier that I would take a few vacation days and join him. Neither of us had been to Toronto (and my only previous Canadian experience was crossing over from the tip of Michigan into Canada where I spent the whole time scrounging up as many Canadian coins that I could to add to my slowly-growing international coin collection).

We rented a car (it's about an 8-9 hour drive from Frederick) and headed up through Pennsylvania, across New York, and over the Canadian border. The drive was absolutely beautiful-the foliage in Northern Pennsylvania had obviously reached their peak and the small mountains covered with autumnal colors offered the perfect distraction to the long drive.

One main reason for driving was we wanted to stop and see Niagara Falls, and we were told that the Canadian side was the optimal vantage point for viewing. We pulled up to the border agent and despite Bogdan's immediate freezing up and forgetting where we lived, "Maryland!" I reminded him, we got through and were only about 20 minutes from the falls. The surrounding area of Niagara Falls on the Canadian side is absolutely revolting--casinos, high rise hotels, cheesy tourist traps--but once you drive into the "state park" where there's trees, green spaces, a winding road, and amazing views of the falls, all the other stuff fades into the background.

I was halfway expecting that we'd walk up to the falls, look over at them, and utter a "meh." I don't know if that was because when we were recently in NYC it felt like everything was smaller than it seemed it should be, having seen images of central park, times square, the empire state building ad nauseum from basically birth. But no meh's were uttered from these lips. In fact, it was more like "ooh" "ahhh" and "wow!" These falls did not disappoint.

Much like standing at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, you suddenly feel very small, very microscopic, and very very vulnerable. The power of the falls and the rushing water spilling violently over the edge gives you the completely unfounded fear that you will somehow be swept off this concrete viewing platform and slammed down the falls, disappearing in the mist that rises at the base. We viewed the falls for a while with this mix of awe and fear, which interestingly is the biblical way we're supposed to view God. And without fail, when I find myself absorbing nature, God's creation, I really feel like it's an authentic form of worship.

At one point while I was staring at the falls mesmerized by the power, I was snapped back to reality by an Asian man who, in his best English, stuck his thumbs in the air, pointed at the falls and said with a huge grin on his face, "wow!" I smiled, and then suddenly he wrapped his arm around me, motioned for his wife to come over and snap a photo and click, the shot was captured. Then the man took the camera from his wife, gently nudged me aside, grabbed Bogdan, put him next to his wife and snapped another photo. A little confused we both waved goodbye as the man triumphantly walked away with his wife toward their tour bus, camera dangling around his neck.

We spent a few more minutes at the falls, taking some more photos, and then we too walked back to our car, camera dangling around my neck. We then continued our drive to Toronto.