M&M&M's adventures - tour day 2

In the morning we returned to Niagara Falls. We went on the Maid of the Mist boat. It was quite windy so there was a lot of spray from the falls. They give you free poncho raincoats but even with this on, I could feel the water getting into my clothes. There are actually 3 falls that make up Niagara Falls - American, bridal veil (American side) and horseshoe (Canadian side). The falls seen from the observation deck are the American falls. The boat takes you further around and goes between the bridal veil and horseshoe falls.

After disembarking from the boat, you can catch the elevator back up to the observation deck or walk up some stairs that are in the rock at the side of the American falls. We also saw people going down Luna island (the bit that separates the American falls from the bridal veil falls). It was cold, we didn't have much time and visibility was zero because of the wind blowing water everywhere so I decided to take the elevator up. 

After leaving Niagara Falls, we drove to the Glen Watkins state park and did a hike that was just over 1km through a gorge track. 

I really enjoyed the rock formations and natural beauty of the park. 

After the walk, we had a long drive to our hotel just outside Washington, D.C. which is where we will be going tomorrow.

I have been glad of a bit of a rest and I wouldn't have liked to drive all the way to Niagara Falls but I am pleased that tomorrow is our last day of the tour.

Our guide has been good with shepherding people to places on time. His English isn't great and I've had to do a little bit of wiki reading up on places to catch up a bit. I feel bad for the poor driver who must have driven 10-12hrs today. We did get into the hotel very late 10.30/11pm-ish... And we have early starts so I hope he's ok.

The people on the bus are beginning to grate on me. For example the whole lot of china people who have no manners and just push you. There are a bunch of Indian people who I don't think have heard of deodorant... Especially the two ladies sitting across from us. I've had to spray perfume around to help cope with the smell. It's tough today cos it's been so hot and we did that hike through the gorge. They smell very badly of Indian spice and their body odour is rank. 

There is also a group from Thailand. I thought Thai people were meant to be nice and polite but these are the worst, pushy people you have met. I accidentally tripped on a bit of uneven ground and rolled my ankle. You would think the most appropriate response to somebody hurting themselves is to ask if they are ok. The toupee man (I will call him that cos he looks like he has a dead ginger rat on his head) just stood there laughing at me being hurt. Toupee man's party of 4 is always late for the bus too. To them nobody else matters. So it's those kind of people who grate on you.

There are also other people who are nice. A mother and daughter from Galway I'm Ireland. And the driver seems really nice when you chat to him. 

There's a Chinese man who can't speak much English but apparently I look like his sister who lives in San Francisco and he's been really nice to us. He was offering to take photos for us. And he found my lost lens cap when it fell off my camera and he returned it to me.

Guess it's the luck of the draw when traveling with a large group.