Tour du Nord-Est USA

Tour of North Eastern USA.

Although this is a tour of Niagara Falls and 1000 Island's; it was more like touring the North - Eastern parts of US. We traveled around 2500 kms in about 56 hours. So much of the time was spent in the bus itself; I think about half of it atleast. The journey was extremely tiring even though the roads and vehicles were very smooth.

The Travel Plan:

Fairfax --> Washington DC --> New York City --> Cornell --> Niagara Falls --> 1000 Islands --> New York City --> Washington DC --> Fairfax

Why is the title of this blog in French? This is best left unanswered.

New York City again

Due to unavailability of any direct tour from DC, had to travel to NYC. Reached there at 3.30 am. Nothing much to do there.

4 am @ McD's

We took the Tour Bus from NYC at 8 am for this 2 day tour.

Cornel Glass Musuem

I had selected a tour which would not visit this place. But unfortunately, my tour was combined with some other.

Cornel Glass Musuem is a factory that demonstrates production of non-standard shaped glass articles.

Niagara Falls

Niagara falls are situated on Lake Ontario on US- Canada border. There are 3 parts - American Falls & Bridal Falls on US side and Horseshoe Falls on Canadian side. Out of this the Horseshoe falls is the best because is very huge compared to the others

Much of the water in the falls is used for hydro electricity generation. So the intensity of the falls had reduced. Hence now, the water in falls is shut at night, so that more water flows out for tourists during the day.

First views of American Falls:

That's Canada on the other side:

Just use this bridge to cross over to Canada:

In the farther part, you can see the Canadian Falls:

Maid of the Mist

Maid of the Mists is the ferry service that takes you near the falls.

This was the best part in this entire travel. Much of the experience here is to be felt rather then seen; hence no amount of photographs and videos will do justice to it. Anywayz, let me describe as much as possible.

Before starting for journey, I had seen the weather forecast as high chance of precipitation and completely cloudy skies. Such conditions would have ruined the scene. But thankfully, the cloud cover cleared as soon as we took the ferry.

As we neared the American falls, the mists from them caused many rainbows to be formed. I could see 4 different, distinct rainbows at the same time. Infact 1 of them was too big , nearly 270 degree curved. I could somehow click a few photos without making the digicam wet. Sushant took much more photos.

The Best Photograph:

Click here for a Panaromic view of the American Falls

Near the Canadian falls, the amount of water gushing into the boat would have been enough to sink it had we been there just for 2 mins. Hence the boat hardly stayed there for 2o seconds. But those 20 seconds where the pinnacle of the experience at falls. Sorry, no close up photos; there was absolutely no chance of clicking here.

Cave of the Wind

The tour guide did not have any plans to take us here. But looking at what we saw from the ferry, we were determined to go there.

So while the rest of the people in the bus went to see some stupid IMAX movie related to falls, we went here. Come on now, you come to Niagara to watch a movie, gotta be a fool to do this.

Cave of Winds is a pathway to the smallest of the 3 falls - the Bridal falls. You can't stand under it obviously bcoz of the force, but still can get a huge quantity of water falling on you.

On the way to the top of the falls:

Rainbow there as usual:

Kindof looks Unreal:

Niagara at Night

At night, lights are focussed from Canadian side onto the American falls. The one and only reason I wanted to see them was that one colour !!!!

Milky River:

Colours in transition:

1000 Islands

The tour guide had clearly instructed that all of us get up at 4.30 am, so that we can start by 5.30 am.

But we showed our Indianess of not being on time (the only time). Imagine, we woke up at 5.45 am and finally boarded the bus at 6am. Making the whole bus wait for us for half an hour. Surely people would have been cursing us.

The 1000 Islands is a region in Ontario River along US - Canada border. The area is actually known as Alexandria Bay and there are roughly around 1,800 islands.

Most of the islands are owned by the rich of these two countries who have constructed their homes on them complete with docking station for yatches .

There is a cruise along this river that gives you some close-up of these islands.

How the heck can anyone live in there. The water just needs to rise a little bit to come inside your home.

If 1000 islands was nearby it would have been fine to visit. Since it was far, I don't think it was worth the amount of pain of travelling.