Daily Archive for July 23rd, 2008

Impressions of new Table Rock Place development

On Saturday I walked down to Table Rock Place to get my first good look at the completed construction and take some pictures (with my cellphone, so they pictures aren’t the best). I was very impressed. I started on the opposite side of the road so I could walk across the new walkway. As you can see by the picture, they are still doing some work, but it is essentially done.

You enter the building in a big room that has several kiosks selling various souvenirs.

On your left is Niagara’s Fury. When I first got there, the attraction was in progress, and you could faintly hear/feel the vibration. It’s obviously pretty loud in there! After it was done, a lot of people came out, and many of them were quite wet. Almost everyone was smiling. It must be a hit!

As you continue through that first big room, the next thing you come to is the Pop & Lolly candy store. I was surprised at how “dead” the store was. There were half a dozen people working, and very few customers in the store.

At the back of the building (the side closest to the Falls) there is a viewing area. The view is very nice, but the mist dries on the windows, and then leaves watermarks, so it isn’t exactly a clear view.

I didn’t get a picture of it, but beside the viewing area (and also with a great view of the Falls) is the Elements on the Falls restaurant. The food is very expensive, but even with the prices, it was packed!

Overall, the end result of the building is gorgeous. The Niagara Parks Commission and their contractors did an amazing job!

Day Trips Canada - Clifton Hill

The Day Trips Canada site has some basic information about Clifton Hill:

Clifton Hill which is located in scenic Niagara Falls is a famous street with a steep slope that provides tourists with access countless attractions. Located one block from Niagara Falls, the walk up Clifton Hill offers access to over 35 attractions and restaurants, the best specialty stores and retail outlets and a bustling and energy packed carnival like atmosphere.

Brookalicious: Fun, fun and more fun…

Someone with a Blogger blog has posted about a recent trip to Niagara Falls:

On Thursday we drove into Canadia to do all the Falls stuff on that side since Jaime has already done all the stuff on the American side. Plus the Canadia side is better even though I hate Canadians because they come down to shop and they drive like they’ve fallen asleep at the wheel. We did the Journey Behind the Falls, the River Walkway, the Maid of the Mist, and walked along Clifton Hill (which I would describe it as an amusement park on a street).

Cataract’s power at their fingertips

From the Niagara Falls Review:

There are only a handful of people who can claim they do what Doug Rogers does for a living.

But even though he has what has got to be one of the most unique jobs in the world, Rogers is pretty nonchalant about it.

“It’s a good job,” Rogers says while looking out the tinted windows of a small, tower-like building perched on the Canadian bank of the Niagara River just upstream of Niagara Falls.

Rogers and his nine co-workers at the International Niagara Control Works quite literally control the flow of water over the mighty cataracts from a tiny command centre filled with computer screens and closed-circuit television monitors.

The issue is openness, and NPC should remember that

From the Niagara Falls Review:

The issues here are openness and transparency. City council gets it. The Niagara Parks Commission does not.

Monday night council passed a resolution urging the Ontario government to force the NPC to adhere to the principles of openness, transparency and accountability.

Sounds reasonable enough to us.

The NPC is an agency of the province; why should it be able to hide behind vague rules of secrecy simply because it has always been that way?

Horses in Training

I’m not sure what these horses were training for, but last Friday they were walking down Victoria Avenue. The horses didn’t have anything over them saying where they were from. The men riding the horses had shirts on that said “Horses in Training”. Their helmets had a shield/logo of some kind, but I couldn’t make out what it was. However, I assume they were from the Friends of Niagara’s Mounted Police.