High wire performer Jay Cochrane still dreams of one day walking across the Niagara Gorge.
It won’t happen.
Cochrane, 63, a North Bay, Ontario, native, has been walking twice daily this summer between two 20-story towers near the Skylon Tower. Children’s charities are benefiting from the dramatic crossings, he explains.
Cochrane is bound to encounter stiff opposition, however, from the parks agencies along both sides of the Niagara River when he applies for permission.
“We’re really not interested in any type of stunting near the falls,†said Mark Thomas, the new regional director of the state parks commission. (That rules out any chance for him to start or end the walk in the state park.)
While I was watching Jay Cochrane last week, I noticed a mural on the back of the IMAX Theatre that I hadn’t seen before. I don’t really go down that section of Fallsview Blvd that often, so I’m not sure how long it has been there for, but it’s definitely new this year. The mural shows scenes from the movie.
I was at Marineland again on Monday (my 4th time… that $5 extra for a season’s pass is great!) and we saw that there was a new baby Beluga whale. It was born last Thursday (July 19) and seems to be doing well. They haven’t picked a name yet for it. When we were at the underwater viewing area, there were 2 people who were sitting there and were monitoring how often the baby nursed.
I mentioned that on Friday there was a link to my Jay Cochrane Petition in the Niagara Falls Review. I kept checking the petition throughout the day expecting the number of people who “signed” to increase dramatically. However, throughout the day it only grew by a couple of people and I couldn’t understand what was wrong. At about 5 pm I was looking at the paper again and it hit me… the URL was too long, and the publishing system had wrapped it automatically and put in a hyphen ( - ). The people saw the URL had to type it in themselves (since they obviously can’t click on an physical newspaper) and I’m sure they tried to put the hyphen in. Unfortunately, that URL with the hyphen doesn’t exist. Here is the paper.
I contacted the online petition site and asked if they could make both URLs for me, but I never heard back from them. I also contacted the Review with a shorter URL they could put in the paper, but they didn’t get back to me either.
For those who aren’t aware, this all started because a week ago today I saw Jay do one of his skywalks, and it was great. I went home and created the petition. I’ve also created a Jay Cochrane Petition page on the site with a link to the petition and banners to place on your site.
This is a strange one, and I’m not really sure where to start, but it does have to do with Niagara Falls. Are you familiar with the term “fursuit“? These are costumes that people where either as mascots, or sometimes just for fun. Well, apparently some people who like to wear them for fun were in Niagara Falls last week on the HOCO properties. One of them, cornwalldragon, blogged about it:
we were greeted by security and told us that we had to leave.
Thinking that crossing the road to the north would be alright and getting ready to go to the Dino Park Mini Putt we were greeted by security again. They told us that the owner was fuming and wanted us off the property right away. So without getting into any arguments we made way back to the wagon.
So apparently these people got into their “fursuits” and wanted to go mini-putting. These people may be very kind and innocent, but come on, how can you think you’d be allowed to be there like that?! A company doesn’t know for sure if you are innocent or a creep preying on children. There is no way they should let you stay dressed like that. It is just common sense if you ask me.
So, did you see the fireworks on Saturday? They were awesome! I had been out of town earlier in the day and didn’t get into Niagara Falls with my wife and 2 sons until about 9:45 pm. The traffic was bad but we were moving. Here are some random thoughts/impressions:
I parked in the back of the Comfort Inn and we made it down to the Falls just before they started.
The show started promptly at 10:00 pm and ended at 9:29 pm.
The Niagara Falls Review said there were 10 different spots where fireworks were set off from, but there were mainly 2 areas; right in front of the police station, and at Table Rock.
The majority of the fireworks were star bursts. My favourites were the ones that were star bursts with a ring around it (see the first picture in the second row below). My son said it looked like Saturn.
As impressive as the fireworks were, the sound was also equally loud! My youngest son had his ears covered the entire time.
We took the Jolly Cut down to see the fireworks and back up to the car. There were a lot of people!
It took me 15 minutes to get out of the parking lot and 15 minutes to go down the street. After that the traffic was fine.
I’ve put pictures up in the 20070721 Pizza Pizza 40th Anniversary Fireworks gallery. There are 21 pictures. These thumbnails are just a preview. You can see more thumbnails and the larger versions in the gallery. As a side note, the gallery now has over 2100 images!
I’ve also put up a video of the fireworks display. It’s actually several clips put together into one longer movie that is about 4 minutes long.
The new Niagara Falls: It’s not your grandparents’ quaint honeymoon haven anymore.
While Marilyn Monroe might have put it on the map in her 1953 movie “Niagara,” it is the wondrous walls of water that are the timeless stars millions of people from around the world come to see year after year. Water, water, everywhere; a natural phenomenon of breathtaking beauty ceaselessly plunging, churning, twisting and flowing that forever leaves tourists speechless in its wake.
For decades, Niagara Falls has been known for honeymoons and family-friendly fun, but this popular Canada destination has another side–an adventurous one. From dare devil shows to whitewater rapids, visitors looking for a real thrill find plenty of Niagara attractions to satisfy their heart-stopping desires.
Highwire performer Jay Cochrane wants to do what no man has done before — walk on a wire more than half a mile between the American and Canadian side of the falls.
The performance of such a feat is currently prohibited by both the Niagara, Ont., Parks Commission and the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
But there may be light at the beginning of the walk for Cochrane, albeit so slight. The Niagara Parks Commission said Friday it would “entertain a formal proposal from Mr. Cochrane for a proposed walk next season.â€
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