Raining again, during the night and off and on most of the day. I headed over to the laundry at 7:00 a.m. with my laundry basket, but someone else had gotten their first, and there was only one washer. I was going to wait her out, but then I saw her coming back to the laundry with another load, so I decided we would go find a laundromat. So Joe and I took off, and with Lucille's help, we finally located a laundramat in Ridgeway. Along the way, we saw this sign, so it looks like we are in euchre country.
We got the laundry taken care of, then went to find some breakfast, which was not easy because it is a holiday here, and it is 11:00 a.m. After 2 failed attempts, we did locate a nice restaurant and enjoyed a very good breakfast. But in the course of our search, we ended up at Crystal Beach, right on Lake Erie (they didn't serve breakfast). We meant to drive back out here after breakfast, but it was raining so we skipped that, and I didn't get any pictures of that beach. It looked like a good place to look for flat rocks too.
Then we drove around the town, dodging the raindrops, for a while before heading back to camp to put away the laundry. The other 4 Ruskateers had gone to Fort Erie for a tour this morning, so we did that this afternoon. Very interesting, and it didn't rain on us until the very end.
Although this was originally a British fort, during the war of 1812 the Americans won the battle here and flew the American flag.
The musket demonstration was interesting, and our guide's musket misfired twice but he finally got his shot off.
Then we toured the buildings. First was the soldiers barracks.
Then the officers quarters, a little more plush.
Then the officers kitchen where we were treated to lemonade (made from lemon grass) and freshly baked shortbread cookies.
Outside were various pieces of armory including this cannon.
This fort is right across the Niagara River from the beautiful city of Buffalo, New York.
Upstairs in the fort were other exhibits, including the quartermaster supply room, the surgery and an Iroquois encampment.
As we left, Joe took his "ready" position.
We finished this tour about the time the rain decided to come again. On this drive, we were also checking out our route out of here tomorrow because there is a low overpass (11'9") along the Niagara Parkway. We found that bridge, and turned to locate another road, and we found one just up the street with a taller bridge but it wasn't marked what the clearance was. So after our Fort Erie tour, Joe decided he needed to measure the bridge to make sure we would fit under it.
(It's a wonder we weren't arrested). But it is 14'8", so we are all good to go. We are somewhere between 12'3 and 12'6 (we measured it a long time ago but forgot what the magic number is, and of course I haven't found where I wrote it down). Remeasuring is on our to-do list, but it requires someone on a ladder (Joe is not allowed, but he still gets on them to wash windows), and a board, and a tape measure. We don't have the board at this time.
We got back to camp, had dinner, then headed back to the Falls to watch the fireworks since today is a big holiday here, Canada Day (like our July 4). This is such a beautiful sight that you can't help but take pictures. Joe even thought about leaving the camera in the car so he would just look at the scenery, but of course, he rethought that idea.
The rain had finally stopped, so all we were getting wet with was the mist from the falls. Although the sky wasn't completely clear, the moon was trying to peep through as it got dark.
And downtown was beautiful with all the city lights through the mist.
The American Falls was light up well tonight, and the Hornblower boat offered "illumination cruises" to watch the fireworks from the water, so we saw two of their boats lit up down on the river.
Finally, the fireworks went off, but they were down the river a little, not over the top of the falls where we had situated ourselves. But it was easy to see them out over the water, and although they only lasted about 10 minutes, they were pretty spectacular.
We were parked across the road again, in the $20 lot (thank you, Mazie), but getting out of there took a long time. Traffic was really deadlocked for a while, but eventually we got on our way and made the drive back to camp. I think it was about 11:00 when we got back. We haven't seen the Brundiges yet to find out how their evening went with their fancy dinner overlooking the falls. I'll have to report on that tomorrow.
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