{"id":1262,"date":"2015-02-23T20:21:20","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T01:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/?p=1262"},"modified":"2015-04-02T22:56:16","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T02:56:16","slug":"frozen-in-february","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/?p=1262","title":{"rendered":"Frozen in February"},"content":{"rendered":"

We thought last February was pretty cold, with Lake Erie freezing over between Ontario and Michigan.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Some might say it was reckless of us to head out, but we do love a road trip, despite any challenges.\u00a0 Needless to say, our 1-hour drive was considerably longer but half the fun is getting there, no?<\/p>\n

The best part of the falls \u2013 Canadian or American \u2013 is how the city (Niagara Falls, Canada) lights them up after the sun goes down.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 And, if we were going to have wine, we shouldn\u2019t drive home, so we booked ourselves into the Sheraton Four Points for Saturday night.\u00a0 See how this works?\u00a0 Impromptu mini vacation!<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a fabulous steakhouse in the Hilton that we\u2019ve enjoyed before \u2013 which is conveniently attached to the Sheraton \u2013 called Brasa Brazilian Steakhouse.\u00a0 Would you believe that at 5:30 on a Saturday afternoon, the wait was an hour?\u00a0 No food is worth waiting an hour for.\u00a0 We ended up back in our own hotel at Ruth\u2019s Chris Steakhouse.\u00a0 Those of you who have had the pleasure are now probably thinking we are independently wealth.\u00a0 Wrong! \u2013 just innocent\/ignorant of how the other half eats out.\u00a0 Let\u2019s just say we won\u2019t be doing that again.\u00a0 Our dinner was nice \u2013 nothing exceptional \u2013 and, in my humble opinion, no food is worth that price (although Steve insisted on paying with his debit card so I wouldn\u2019t know exactly what it cost)!<\/p>\n

Back in our room, I got my tripod system ready\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Getting<\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve never seen the falls at night, at any time of year, you\u2019re missing quite the spectacle.\u00a0 Five different coloured flood lights rotate through cycles on both falls and the results are stunning.\u00a0 This year, with the masses of ice formations, it was especially beautiful.\u00a0 I have to say, though, that the American falls were much prettier because they\u2019re smaller and, therefore, there was more ice to soak up the rainbow of colours.\u00a0 Fortunately, the snow had stopped so we were able to get some pretty good pictures of them \u2013 some that looked more like giant fluffy marshmallow\u2026<\/p>\n

\"1.American<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"1a.American<\/a><\/p>\n

\"1b.American<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"1c.American<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2013 as well as a few others when I turned around and looked in other directions.<\/p>\n

\"2.Ferris<\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0 \"3.Tower<\/a><\/p>\n

\"4.Casino<\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0 \"5.City<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing like a couple of hours in the cold, and a good walk there and back, to make you feel like you\u2019ve earned the right to be tired.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Back to the falls \u2013 this time, both of them. Because of the way the lights hit them last night, or didn\u2019t, it wasn\u2019t easy to see the beauty that awaited us today. Mounds and striations and crevices and pools and spray! Oh, the spray! Doesn\u2019t matter what time of year, it\u2019s the spray that will get you all the time.<\/p>\n

\"untitled-0212\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"untitled-0194\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"untitled-0241\"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a>\"untitled-0267\" \u00a0 \u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\"untitled-0287\"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a>\"untitled-0273\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"untitled-0304\"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a>\"20.American<\/a><\/p>\n

\"8.Frozen<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"untitled-0274\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, there\u2019s more to appreciate than the falls themselves\u2026<\/p>\n

\"4.Ferris<\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0 \"untitled-0200\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"untitled-0138\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"untitled-0162\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"untitled-0072\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"untitled-0300\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"untitled-0192\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And, we made some new friends\u2026<\/p>\n

\"11.New<\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0 \"10.New<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the frigid temperatures, Niagara Falls always draws a crowd so it was time to head home\u2026<\/p>\n

\"untitled-0354\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Did I mention it was cold?<\/p>\n

\"untitled-0094\"<\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0 \"untitled-0119\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"untitled-0197\"<\/a>\u00a0 \"untitled-0351\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, that was fun \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"untitled-0326\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We thought last February was pretty cold, with Lake Erie freezing over between Ontario and Michigan.\u00a0 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 Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,7,67,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-close-to-home","category-niagara","category-niagara-falls","category-winter"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1262"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1305,"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262\/revisions\/1305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maureensmusings.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}