{"id":16106,"date":"2013-06-25T09:00:55","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T13:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/accessniagara.com\/blog\/?p=16106"},"modified":"2013-07-01T19:48:38","modified_gmt":"2013-07-01T23:48:38","slug":"an-eventful-niagara-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/accessniagara.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/25\/an-eventful-niagara-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"An Eventful Niagara Visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been gone for a little while – wait until you hear why. \u00a0I actually managed a trip to the Falls. \u00a0I traveled alone in mid-April. \u00a0My husband couldn’t get away from work and I didn’t want to bore anyone while I fiddled with my camera settings and lenses.<\/p>\n

So, I get to the Falls and make a run to Niagara-on-the-Lake, then head to Queen Victoria Park. At around 3:00, I get out of the car in front of Victoria House. That’s when my back seizes up a bit. \u00a0Let me remind you – I’m alone! \u00a0Determined to get the shots I came for, I grab a hefty backpack of equipment and head into the park.<\/p>\n

Here’s a couple of shots I managed to get before…..<\/p>\n

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

… needless to say, the more I pushed the issue, the more my back pushed back. \u00a0I went back to the hotel and took some pain relievers and hoped for some relief by morning. I was having trouble getting up from chairs at this point. By morning, I knew I had to leave a day earlier than planned or find out what a Canadian ER was like.<\/p>\n

I managed to pack my bags but lifting them was out of the question. This is where I have to give a shout out to the staff of the Courtyard by Marriott! \u00a0After explaining my situation, some of the staff helped me pack my car. I settled in for the 4 hour drive to Pittsburgh… and was pulled over at the border for a random check. Just what I needed. Of course, I had nothing to hide, but it was pretty inconvenient to have to get out of the car in my condition. \u00a0They could have decided to detain the nut-job using her time in the waiting room to do back stretches …. but I was free to go.<\/p>\n

After that, I decided to head over onto Goat Island and park at Three Sisters Islands (my favorite spot) to check that my luggage and equipment hadn’t been disturbed too badly. I saw that there were some areas under construction on the island, but none so extensive as Three Sisters. I had heard that there was a plan for renovation there. From some comments I’ve seen on the web, a lot of people are concerned about this idea.<\/p>\n

Here are some pics:<\/p>\n

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

In the middle shot, you can see the first bridge on the right. \u00a0They formed a dirt bridge over the upper rapids to get equipment to the next island! \u00a0I read a PDF online outlining the plans. \u00a0I am trying to stay positive on it and trust that the changes won’t be too intrusive. I like the natural state of the place – especially that last rocky island. But even I have to admit that it needed some tidying up. Those invasive purple flowers needed to be taken care of, too.<\/p>\n

Here is my favorite shot at Three Sisters from a few years back…. taken approximately where they now have that temporary dirt bridge…..<\/p>\n

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

It was late evening and the sun was just perfect – I was just about to turn away when I saw this Mom and her baby ducks. \u00a0 \u00a0I’m just so disappointed in that blunt-cut log. I guess that is some of the clean up I was talking about.<\/p>\n

So, while I’ve been off the radar, I’ve been rehabbing my back. \u00a0I am finally feeling even better than before this whole thing happened! \u00a0I’m looking forward to scheduling my next trip… with a traveling companion this time.<\/p>\n

But back to the Falls… I know we normally talk Canadian affairs, but what do you think about the construction going on across the creek? \u00a0Do you have concerns that it will be overdone or do you think it’s long overdue?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been gone for a little while – wait until you hear why. \u00a0I actually managed a trip to the Falls. \u00a0I traveled alone in mid-April. \u00a0My husband couldn’t get away from work and I didn’t want to bore anyone while I fiddled with my camera settings and lenses. So, I get to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16,382,2,76,39],"tags":[66,235,65,549,8896,651,8898,115,41,2336,242,144,721,5598,7990,1699,416,8897],"class_list":["post-16106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-niagara-falls-attractions","category-niagara-falls-border","category-niagara-falls-news","category-niagara-falls-parks","category-niagara-falls-travel","tag-attractions","tag-canadian-niagara-hotels","tag-construction","tag-courtyard-by-marriott","tag-favorite-spot","tag-goat-island","tag-luggage","tag-marriott","tag-niagara-falls","tag-niagara-falls-courtyard-by-marriott","tag-niagara-on-the-lake","tag-niagara-river","tag-queen-victoria-park","tag-rapids","tag-three-sisters-islands","tag-tourist","tag-victoria-park","tag-waiting-room"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/accessniagara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/accessniagara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/accessniagara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/accessniagara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/accessniagara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/accessniagara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/accessniagara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/accessniagara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/accessniagara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}