Niagara Falls & our first Great Lake

July 26, 2012

We leave our magical bivouac in the Thousand Islands around 5 a.m. The fireflies have gone to bed. The sun is rising. The road is gorgeous. The kids are asleep.
We knock out the 370 miles in the early morning, Nespresso cup in hand and cigarette dangling from our lips! On the road again!

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Niagara Falls

That's it! We've officially left the French-speaking province of Quebec. We're now in... Ontario! Time to switch back to English.
And here we are at THE tourist hot spot: 12 million visitors a year! These are the most visited falls in the world. The crowds are insane!!!
We're just a few yards from the US border. The Stars and Stripes flutter on the horizon. You can visit the falls from either the United States or Canada.
We discover THE chutes (sorry, The Falls)!
Where the waters of Lakes Erie and Ontario meet, the power of the water is truly impressive: about 92,000 cubic feet per second... And to think we'll have to fill up KIFONS's tanks at the end of the day (80 gallons of water, all the same)!
Erosion here pushes the falls back more than 3 feet a year. At that rate, they'll be gone in 25,000 years. Good thing we came today.
A little cruise aboard the famous Maid of the Mist: we spend 25 minutes inside a washing machine, all dressed up as Smurfs! We come out soaked, refreshed and happy. Mind you, it's close to 95°F outside.

We leave this tourist park at the end of the day and head for "Niagara-on-the-Lake," an overrated little town on the shores of Lake Ontario: apparently retirees come here to enjoy a wonderfully gentle way of life.
We take the ice wine route to try to restock our "Made in France" wine cellar. Honestly, everything good is outrageously expensive. For the past 5 years, the Japanese have been buying up every quality bottle, automatically driving up the price of Canadian ice wines.
We feel like we've seen this somewhere before (the Chinese with our Bordeaux wines).
Decision made.
We'll just keep drinking from our forbidden stash (Do we need to remind you that we loaded KIFONS with some forty good French bottles? The only problem is, there aren't many left already...)

First Swim in the Great Lakes: Lake Huron!

Next stop: Bruce Peninsula National Park!
We decide to take the ferry across Lake Huron between Tobermory and South Baymouth: saving 500 miles of driving is an offer we can't refuse!
After 3 hours on the road, swimming is mandatory for everyone. We're hot, and boy does it feel good!
So Georgian Bay gets the honor of our first dip in one of Canada's Great Lakes. The (fresh) water is 70°F.
We think about spending the night here. Around 5 p.m., we decide to keep going to Tobermory, so we can check on ferry reservations.