Gorge-ous

Carter had off for Parent-Teacher conferences last Friday and I decided we were past due for a Carter-Mom adventure.  I hadn't been able to hang out with him on his Columbus Day Friday off this year because I had to work, so I wanted to make the most of this one.  The weather finally looked like it might be at least a bit more cooperative than any weekend so far tin October, so I hatched a plan for us to have some time in Buffalo, despite Craig having training camp starting which would potentially leave Jacob alone for some long stretches of time.  But they made it work, and it was great to have some Carter time!  

I came back from my conference with Carter's teacher on Friday morning, wrapped up some packing, and we headed out.  It was a rather breezy day, but it was weirdly warm--the last day of a four-day stretch like that--and relatively pleasant.  As we drove, I was a little sad about the lack of leaves in a lot of spots along the Thruway.  We'd had some frosty nights and a couple breezy days and I think a lot of the reds in particular had dropped.  Usually I get a couple scenic drives, but this year it just didn't really happen.  But we did see these funky clouds along the Thruway.  They were so smooth compared to the higher fluffy clouds.

We decided to stop for lunch at Mighty Taco (of course) along the way.  My mom happened to message me with dinner options as we drove, and I asked her a question about the two possible paths we were going to hike.  She called me back and asked if she could join us, and of course I said yes!  Always good to spend time with her and give Carter some fun grandma time, too.  And on a day like that, how could I say no?  It's not too often you get a sunny 70+ degree day in late October!  We grabbed lunch, swung by the house to drop off our stuff and pick her up, and headed to Niagara Falls!

I had been debating doing the Devil's Hole and Whirlpool trails, but found out the night before there had been a rockfall in between the two trails so the gorge trail between the two areas wasn't open.  So for that reason we probably needed to pick one.  We decided on Whirlpool since it's at a cool bend in the gorge and likely had a couple more options for areas we could choose to walk.  

The immediate view was pretty stunning.

The leaves weren't outstanding, but it was still a very pretty fall scene.

This was looking back toward the falls.  You can see the Whirlpool commuter bridge in the distance.

We got to see the Aero car cross the gorge.  It was SO windy up there that I barely felt safe along the railing, especially while trying to hold on to my phone, so I couldn't imagine being suspended on a cable car over the gorge or being on a tourist helicopter like we also saw fly past. 

The whirlpool area itself was very pretty.  A little color, beautiful water.

Had to get a picture of two of my favorites together!

We rounded the bend in the gorge and headed along the trail.  The gorge walls are so high.  This is looking back the way we came.  The way to the falls is off to the left.  There was what appeared to be a ropes course at the top of where the gorge wall juts out.  That has to be quite the view!

This is looking the other way.  There was a golf course over there, and my mom said that my dad used to tell stories of trying to hit balls across the gorge.  Supposedly he at least made it to the rocks once!  If you look through the tree branches, you can see the hydroelectric plant.

Down the path there was a stairway down into the gorge.  In a perfect world we could have turned right at the bottom to Devil's Hole but we really just had to go down the stairs and come back up because the path the other way went farther past the parking area before we'd hit another set of stairs than we wanted to go.  But oh, there were SO many stairs.  Down wasn't too bad.  We saw some cool fungus...

...and some precarious rocks.  This picture doesn't really do it justice how giant they were and how oddly they were stacked.  I don't know if they naturally fell that way or were excavated to make the stairs, but they were impressive.

Here's Carter in a little cave formed by the rocks.

We saw a Woolly Bear caterpillar on the way back up, and this coloring suggests a fairly moderate winter.

The way back up was pretty slow.  My mom needed some breaks because there were more than 340 stairs and they were steep in spots.  We had to stop every couple minutes to let her heart rate come back down.  Mine wasn't much lower, to be honest!  There was an older fisherman we checked in with a couple times who was taking very long rests as well.  It was quite the climb.  The view closer to the top of the stairs was really pretty with the bright water peeking through.

We also got to see the Whirlpool jet boat driving past.  They would drive up around where we were, swing around, and drive back into the rapids.  We saw it get one really big wave completely over the boat.  I've never done it but my parents have enjoyed it.  I'm not a big water person, as amusement park water rides have shown, but maybe someday when it's extra hot and I need a new thrill!

Back up at the top, we walked back the same path toward the car.  Carter wanted to check out the playground nearby.  It didn't hold his attention for too long, but he did the monkey bars and slides.  I tried a different ladder style that looked challenging (it had an odd curve and some cargo net-ish rungs) and then went down the middle slide on the right.  It was nice and fast but seemed to bottom out too quickly, which made it a rather big jolt at the finish. 

We decided to drive down the road to the old Schoellkopf Power Plant site and walk a bit there.  Carter and I went there with my dad six years ago, but since Carter was really little then, I thought a return trip might be fun.  There's a free elevator down to the gorge that's housed in the same stone structure as the original power plant elevator. 

The site is significant to our family because my great grandfather and great uncle (his son) both worked at the power plant.  In 1956, the plant sprung some leaks and very shortly afterward the plant and gorge wall collapsed down.  My great uncle was one of the last out, and apparently his father had worked closely with the one man who died.  There are bits and pieces of the plant scattered among the rocks and foliage.  I posted this spot before, but how amazing is this piece of steel?

When we were back in a rather rugged trail, I found this snake-like piece of rebar coming out of the cement rock.  It sort of blended in with nature but also looked pretty crazy.

The gorge itself was so lovely.  Those were probably the best leaves we saw all day. 

There was a Maid of the Mist boat docked by the site.  I'm not sure if it was waiting to go into dry dock for the winter or not, but the main functional dock that we took the Maid of the Mist from in 2020 was down a bit from there, just past the bridge in the picture above.

More steel in the rocks...

Carter liked the metal sightings but wasn't too thrilled with this trail because there were millipedes everywhere!  We saw one or two on the other trail but they were all over the place in this area.  I think they liked the dampness, being so close to the water.  You could barely walk without worrying about stepping on one.  We thought the sticker added to this sign (top left) was pretty funny...

Here was a view back at the top of the elevator.  It was such a lovely day, especially considering it snowed just a few days after this!  I always marvel at how much different Niagara Falls looks from when I was a kid.  It used to be the three observation towers were visible from afar and not much else.  Now there are hotels galore (including the Seneca Niagara Casino, which is on the American side off to the back left of this shot). 

On the way home we stopped at Gratwick Park for a moment to catch a glimpse of the relatively new Tesla Coil monument there.  Nikola Tesla did a lot in this area with the hydroelectric power so there are monuments and statues scattered around.  This one went up a year or two ago, and an old transformer station in North Tonawanda was just renovated into a little pocket park honoring Tesla's legacy.  Since Carter has seen the Tesla coils that make music at our science museum, I thought he might enjoy seeing this.

We stayed close to home for the evening.  We had a delicious shrimp pasta dinner, watched some TV, spied on the Halloween party next door (seeing a bunch of people in costumes standing around a fire pit is actually slightly creepy), argued with my dad (ugh), and unfortunately dealt with my parents' garbage disposal biting the dust.  My mom had set the dishwasher to run after dinner, and when she came back in the kitchen she noticed the floor was wet.  I have been in that same situation before so I knew to open up the lower cabinet, and sure enough, water was pouring out of their disposal.  Both sink sides and the dishwasher drain through there, so we had to shut down the dishwasher and the sink was off-limits.  My disposal had only leaked due to clogs, which we initially thought might be the case because my mom had to clear a slow drain with the disposal after washing dishes, but upon Googling it appeared a seal had probably gone.  That was only the second disposal they'd had in that house in 38 years (!), so probably not too unreasonable that it was time for a new one.  My mom emptied out the cabinets (always shocking how much fits down there!), dried up the mess, left a message for the plumber, and we eventually headed off to bed before a busy next day.  

I'll just cover Saturday morning briefly here because I think my next post will be a longer one!  On Saturday morning, Carter, my mom and I headed out to the St. Matthew Bazaar.  I know I've mentioned it before.  It was one of my very favorite things as a kid, and while it's a mere shadow of its former self, it's always nice when I get a chance to go back.  When I was a kid, there were few things better than Bazaar Friday.  We'd eat lunch in our classroom, which was always a novelty, because we usually ate in the basement where the bazaar was.  When school let out, I'd run downstairs, find my mom, then usually stop to see my grandma, who always ran the Green Thumb booth with all her plants.  She'd give me my $5 to go shop, and I'd be off--although I'd usually buy some cute little plant or shell creation from her booth, too!  We'd make our own novelty buttons with magazine cutouts, stickers, or colored ditto sheets.  I found about four of them in my room while I was there--Gizmo from Gremlins, Smurfette, Strawberry Shortcake, and one other I can't recall.  I remember making school spirit ones when I was a cheerleader later on.  I'd check out the trinkets at the Sunday School bookstore booth, look through the Attic Treasures (essentially a garage sale of household goods), and stop at the candy/baked goods booth.  There was holiday decor booth and a sewing booth as well, not to mention a full kitchen serving food.  It was always a fun couple days.  Now it's just one and the quality of the booths is a bit less due to a much smaller church and pool of volunteers.  But it was fun to see the church ladies who have known me since I was tiny.  One of them told Carter how she was my teacher for a while--she filled in as a long term sub when my third grade teacher got tuberculosis, and she was actually so great.  I will never forget the amazing space unit we did with constellations on the lights and planets made out of sports balls and papier-mache strung from the ceiling.  We also ran into my sixth grade teacher and her husband, who are now good friends of my parents at their new church.  My mom bought a cheap puzzle and fudge and Carter and I just got some goodies.  

We headed back to the house and arrived to their plumber having a bit of a fiasco installing the new disposal, but we didn't stay long because Carter and I were off to our next adventure!