Canada III
In Calgary, eventually.
After a ride in a '61 Healey the first set of Toronto friends handed us over to a couple based near Niagara who, as it turned out, did indeed possess two grown-up children who had long left home, and two spare rooms, but only one spare bed. Fortunately, they had a large, carpeted wardrobe, so I slept in that.
They also had semi-tame bluejays and a chipmunk, whose cheek pouches are prodigious.
Niagara Falls were as crowded as ever, with a disturbing amount of tourist development since the last time I was there. Especially disturbing were the warehouse-sized strip joints on the edge of town, advertising women sold like hot dogs. Ignoring the casinos, giant fake moose/mounties/wooden Indian of indeterminate tribe etc., we paid the extortionate parking fee and shouldered in amongst a flock(?) of Orthodox Jews to see the falls themselves. I did my best not to watch the spectacle through a viewfinder as pretty much all the others were doing, but here is a picture anyway.
...and one of Tesla, who also was there. The Falls no longer make a noise louder than the average Westerner will have heard before from above, though they are very beautiful. We also did a bit of trail-rambling in a local reserve and visited the Buddhist temple, which was far more massive than the foyer open to the public.
Getting to Calgary was a bit rough, since my mother's abililty to summon roadworks meant we missed our internal flight, but we got on the next one without hassle and eventually found our way to another friend of mum's for the night. She lives with her son's family, but the wife and kids are away so I got the princess bed.
After a ride in a '61 Healey the first set of Toronto friends handed us over to a couple based near Niagara who, as it turned out, did indeed possess two grown-up children who had long left home, and two spare rooms, but only one spare bed. Fortunately, they had a large, carpeted wardrobe, so I slept in that.
They also had semi-tame bluejays and a chipmunk, whose cheek pouches are prodigious.
Niagara Falls were as crowded as ever, with a disturbing amount of tourist development since the last time I was there. Especially disturbing were the warehouse-sized strip joints on the edge of town, advertising women sold like hot dogs. Ignoring the casinos, giant fake moose/mounties/wooden Indian of indeterminate tribe etc., we paid the extortionate parking fee and shouldered in amongst a flock(?) of Orthodox Jews to see the falls themselves. I did my best not to watch the spectacle through a viewfinder as pretty much all the others were doing, but here is a picture anyway.
...and one of Tesla, who also was there. The Falls no longer make a noise louder than the average Westerner will have heard before from above, though they are very beautiful. We also did a bit of trail-rambling in a local reserve and visited the Buddhist temple, which was far more massive than the foyer open to the public.
Getting to Calgary was a bit rough, since my mother's abililty to summon roadworks meant we missed our internal flight, but we got on the next one without hassle and eventually found our way to another friend of mum's for the night. She lives with her son's family, but the wife and kids are away so I got the princess bed.