Niagara Falls, Frank Lloyd Wright, and home

We are back in Raleigh now and the last couple of days on the road were much like the rest of the trip, we were doing things. After leaving Huron we headed south to the Canadian Niagara Falls.  They are as advertised. Stunning is one word that is appropriate. The number of languages we heard spoken was amazing. People from all over the world were there.  

We were fortunate with our accommodations and with the moon phase too. This is the view from our room the first evening we were there - and that is a full moon.

And in the early, well sorta early morning, the mist and fog from the falls makes a huge shadow.

The boat ride from the Canadian side is not on the "Maid of the Mist" but on the "Hornblower".  The boat gets quite close and despite the rain gear, you're gonna get wet.

The American Falls with Bridal Veil Falls to the right. 

Just prior to getting off of the "Hornblower" 

We also went down "below the falls", loud, is another word, to describe the falls as well as powerful, very very powerful.

The powerful word also describes the the rapids below the falls. They are classified as Class VI Rapids which means they are impossible to survive.

In past years a few thrill seekers, barrel riders have made successful rides through the rapids, several have not. The same is true for going over the falls. Both activities are now prohibited. Shucks!

Rainbows are fairly regular occurrences.

Bridal Veil Falls on the American side has a jagged edge. In a couple of thousand years the American Falls will have eroded back and merged into the Canadian Falls. America, we have a problem— Obama's fault.

In Buffalo, New York is one of the first houses the Frank Lloyd Wright designed in the prairie design.  It was for Darwin Martin of the Larkin Soap Company in 1905 when Buffalo was a big time manufacturing center and Wright was getting started. The prairie design has many features that I think you can see in the house we grew up in in Graham.

The wide eaves, small, inconsequential front porch, lots of windows in the living room to open to a family space in the back of the house, high windows and open connections between rooms. Note the slight opening for the front door entrance in the picture below to the left of the planter in the long brick wall from the left.

These are the across the street neighbors. In Raleigh, they would have had a hissy fit if Wright had tried to build in their neighborhood.

And in south western Pennsylvania just east and south of Pittsburgh is Falling Waters, one of Frank Lloyd Wright's later houses. It was built in 1938.

This was built for Edgar Kaufmann of Kaufmann's Department Store of Pittsburgh. As the name implies, it is over falling water and is some kind of impressive.

And the country side in southern Pennsylvania is pretty. We avoided the interstate a good bit on our drive south from Lake Erie in both Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Both place have lots of pretty countryside, poor looking small towns and a few houses with Trump yard signs.

As stated above, we are home, Kate kept the party evidence fairly well concealed, and other than being dry, all here looks good. We will be here for most of the fall, planning a trip to Panama in October I think, and then it is time to start thinking of 2017. Got places to go.

Lake Huron

Actually this photo was taken from our deck at the B&B where we were staying in Blind River on the shore of Lake Huron - or the North Bay of the lake. 

We went to an island just off the coast to go for a hike and on the road to the trail, we saw a dark animal down the road. It stayed on the road as we slowly drove closer, ...

and finally as we got very close the young bear ran back across the road into the brush. Patt was not too enthusiastic about going very far on our hike knowing mama bear was around too.

We drove up to Lake Elliot just to the north a bit, which was one of the worlds leading mining sites for uranium at one time. It is now just sort of remote.

One reason we were in the Lake Huron area such a short time is that we took a ferry across a good part of it rather than drive around it. As we were loading I enjoyed watching people, especially this group of Mennonites. There are a lot of Mennonite farms in southern Ontario. There were a couple of boys who were fun to watch too as they explored around the ship. (I walk all over a ferry boat so I happen to see others who do the same.)

As obvious in the above photo it was a rainy day and at times quite stormy. As we crossed part of the lake the high (?) front proceeded us here in this photo pushing the rain out of the way.  

So as we got closer to land the lighthouse was visible and not just a light.

and the wind really got fierce, which I enjoyed. Patt took these pictures out of the window in the lounge. I was one of the few who would walk out into the wind. The boys and one of two other men were about it. I also liked looking at the waves being kicked up by the ship. Lots to do on a ferry.

just checking to make sure we are going the right direction.  We were.

Last stops in Superior - Red Rock and Sand River

Our last days north of Lake Superior were spent near the small (they all are) town of Red Rock, Ontario.  On the clearest of the days, we hiked along the Nipigon River, below, along the railroad, across the power line cut, and up a pretty steep hill - a scramble aided by well placed ropes to assist the climb and a pretty long stair case.  

The view from another overlook toward the Red Rock "harbor". In the prosperous years of the past it was a paper mill town. Now it is a town of ''well, we might try tourism" and salvaging scrap from the paper mill.

That is me making Patt nervous. I like to look over cliffs. Patt does not choose to get close to cliffs.  The guy sorta close to me pretends to like to look over cliffs. Oddly enough and surprisingly he and his wife are from North Carolina. Their car at the trailhead with its NC license plate marked the first NC plate we had seen since probably Virginia. And later that day pulling into a provincial park in front of us was another NC plate on a RV.  We Carolinians were a real crowd in Ontario this week.

Patt coming down a stretch of the hill, rope and climbing stick assisted. Good thing we heard there had been no bear sightings on the trail this year or Patt would have jumped faster.

We have seen some green tunnels — and some nice lake views too, but lots and lots of tunnels and not much traffic.

Neys Provincial Park has a small stream that enters Lake Superior at a sandy beach. And cold water.  There was a woman and her son knee deep in the water when we first got down to the shore and then just Patt and me. Again, Patt decided against wading. I did find a rock for Eric.

From 1941 to '46, this park was a POW camp for Germans captured by the British during WWII. The POWs sent here were all from the German Luftwaffe or submarine forces, most were officers. There was a small museum about the camp here. Of the 33,000 German POWs interned throughout Canada during the war, 25% eventually emigrated to Canada after the war. (We keep telling you all Canadians are friendly.)

On one of our many pretty waterfall hikes, this one on the Sand River, there is the Trans-Canadian Highway behind Patt and of course the Lake, Superior that is.

Some of the many waterfalls we walked around and past on this hike.

A feature of this hike was being able to actually walk up the river bed a pretty good distance.

Then of course the stream gets narrow or the last glacier here left some big rocks in the way as opposed to just scaring the bed rock.

Now on to a bit of Lake Huron then to Niagara Falls.

North Shore of Lake Superior

That is one reason we came, heard this place was pretty, and indeed it is. North Shore of Superior in Minnesota and Ontario is just as pretty as promised. The lake is huge - the largest fresh water lake in the world - containing 10% of the entire world's fresh water resources. Our first two nights we stayed in the US and hiked in Minnesota state parks, then on to Thunder Bay and Red Rock Ontario.

Split Rock Lighthouse, according to state historical sites people, is one of the most photographed sites in Minnesota. Don't know about that but Matt and Laura have a similar photo. So that's makes two.

The Gooseberry Falls State Park hike probably will be one of our all time favorites. The series of water falls on this river running into the lake were both dramatic and beautiful. A couple of them, in narrow gorges, had a tremendous roar.

Also hiked the Cascade River State Park trail which has a series of water falls leading to the lake (under the bridge).

We went down to the rivers edges several places and to enjoy some cool shade, as for a change we were having a hot day. Talking low 80's so you know we were uncomfortable.    

In Thunder Bay at Fort William, a reconstructed historical trading post for the Northwest Company and later the Hudson Bay Company, there were historical actors and reconstructed buildings of the old trading post.

One of the most interesting buildings housed the birch bark canoe building operation. They were actually building real birch bark canoes. In the early days of the fur trade, large canoes would go between Montreal and Thunder Bay in six weeks with 8,000 pounds of trade goods. Paddled and portaged by 10 to 12 men, strong men.

The highway did not always follow the lake shore, it occasionally turned inland into thick forests,

or wheat fields. According to local newspapers, Canada is having a good year of grain production.  The North Dakota farmers will have some competition in the world market for wheat.

Had lunch here, walleye sandwich. Locally caught from Lake Superior. I am getting to really like walleye or pickerel as it is also referred to. It is the prevalent offering on the menu when "seafood" is available.

And this is where we are staying in Red Rock, east of Thunder Bay. We had a glass of wine and read yesterday evening in those white chairs, feet on the orange bucket. Tough duty.