The Maid of the Mist is a small double-decker boat that heads pluckily into the Horsehoe Falls, getting so close that for several minutes all you can see is the spray of the waterfalls. The fetching blue raincoats are handed out as you head to the boat, and are surprisingly tricky to wear. They keep filling with air, to the point where from a distance we must have looked like a boatload of oversized blueberries. I cannot recommend the boatride highly enough. You travel a good distance along the river, stopping at the American Falls before reaching the larger Horseshoe Falls. The commentary included stories about those foolhardy souls (or lunatics, depending on your worldview) who literally went over the falls in a barrel. Annie Taylor – then aged 63 – was the first to try this out, in 1901. For some reason, a book I looked at later in the gift shop was particularly thrilled about the fact that she succeeded in her endeavour while wearing a skirt. Perhaps bets were placed at the time equating the likelihood of success with her choice of wardrobe on the day.
I had heard about the difference in presentation of the falls on the Canadian and the American sides of the river, but couldn’t see much of the American side’s reputed wedding chapels and general tackiness from where I walked. On the Canadian side, it was all very beautiful – lots of trees and flowers, benches and fountains. There are a couple of big restaurants and a souvenir in one complex – I got some postcards, but sadly had to leave the full-size black bear toy. I kept lunch small – some clam chowder and a glass of local wine – because I had plans to have a proper Thanksgiving dinner; more on that later. The Greyhound bus – chosen because I remember my grandparents’ stories of travelling through America on these buses – passed several vineyards, as well as some orchards, and, to my delight, a large pumpkin patch. If I get back here some day, as I hope to, I’ll definitely book an overnight stay and head to the wineries for some tours.
Tomorrow it is business as usual now that the Thanksgiving weekend is over. If I needed further proof, the chaos that reigned in the Toronto Bus Terminal as I returned from Niagara sufficed. According to some of the bus drivers, it’s all the students heading back to university after Thanksgiving lunch. I particularly loved the fact that almost all of them were carrying pie-shaped dishes covered in foil, as indeed were most of the people on the trams. Tomorrow I am going to have find pumpkin pie somewhere. Today’s Thanksgiving celebration for me consisted of a pumpkin-flavoured coffee – it just tasted spicy – and a turkey dinner at Sin and Redemption – the inclusion of liver in the stuffing was genius, so I may have to try this at home at Christmas.
Tomorrow I’m spending most of my time at the University of Toronto, visiting some of the University libraries, including the Art Department Library, as well as the iSchool and the Centre for the Book. I will then head to the Royal Ontario Museum Library, before seeing out the day in Ottawa, as I fly there tomorrow night for another busy day of meetings.
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