September 4 - Niagara Falls
It was a beautiful day when we left Mildmay.  It was clouding over by the time we got to The Falls.  the humidity was so high that by the time we got from the parking lot to the actual Falls, we were soaked from the inside out.  There was a slight mist around the falls when we first got there, however, after not much time it socked in quite a bit.  We wandered around, took pictures, went into the Gift Shop, and when we were about to leave the sky opened up and then we were also soaked from the outside in.  It rained so hard the raindrops were bouncing off the pavement back to your knees, there were puddles everywhere.

The Falls from the walkway down from the parking lot

Who, in their right mind would want to go over this in a barrel

This is the view from our table in the Restaurant

The bridge is the border between the US and Canada

Dad and Daughter

Rebecca and I wanted to see Marineland and if the weather had cooperated it would have been a perfect day.  There were only about 50 people in the entire park.  It is a huge park, meant to accommodate thousands of people at a time.  Because of so much space it made us feel that we were alone, except for the screaming coming from one of the rides.  The one that goes slowly to the top than comes down really fast, I think it is called the Drop of Doom or some such name.

Wish I knew how to rotate this.  It looks pretty scary to me

There was a huge tank of Beluga whales, must have been at least 8 in there, they must get along really well, it was fun to watch them swim around.  They must be coached that when they see a camera they are to come out of the water for a photo shoot.  Sometimes they would keep jumping out of the water.  They were lovely to watch.  However, there was another tank, much smaller, containing an Orca, a lonely little Orca.  It seemed so distressed that its dorsal fin was flopped over.  I think that happens when they are in captivity but it just seemed so sad and lonely.

I think this one likes to get his picture taken

They like swimming upside down

Poor lonely Orca

I think they are soooo cute!!

They did put on a very nice show with 2 Belugas, 3 California Harbour Seals, 7 Dolphins and one very large Walrus.  The Walrus was so big that if it would have gone in the water it would have drained the pool.

They were really fun to watch

All waving good-bye

I told you it was big

They don't seem to have trouble walking on their tails

Just one more shot

It was raining even harder by the tie were left.  Dalton took the umbrella, which was purchased at The Fall and was too small to cover us all, got the car and picked us up.  We had found some shelter while we were waiting.

The drive home was pretty bad for most of the way.  The heavy rainfall and all the traffic.  The windshield wipers were working overtime, sometimes it was impossible to keep the water off.   People were in such a rush they found themselves in difficulty, some stalling out by going through huge puddles while others went off the road by hydroplaning, at least we think that is what happened, couldn't see any other reason for them being in the ditch and parked by the center median.

The closer we got to Mildmay the nice the weather got.  By the time we arrived at Rebecca's we were dry and warm again.   We were all glad the drive was over.

September 5th - Ultrasound Day
Today was the day we found out that Rebecca and Rob are going to have a girl.  I think everyone was pretty excited.  We got to go into the Ultrasound Room and watch it all take place.  It is pretty amazing what technology can do these days.  Rob took the morning off so he could get the news firsthand.  When it was over he went to work and Rebecca, Dalton and I went to Tobermory for the day.

Tobermory is on a point where Lake Huron is on one side and Georgian Bay is on the other.  It is a beautiful place, looks like the ocean it is so big.  There are lots of shipwrecks in the area and we took a glass bottom boat tour so we could see some of them.  The day was very overcast so we didn't get any really clear shots through the bottom of the boat, much better over the side.

One of the shipwrecks in the Harbour

We also took a tour around Flower Pot Island.  A you can see, the rock formations with the vegetation growing out of it, actually does look like flower pots.

They really do look like flower pots

On the way we went through Wiarton, the home of Wiarton Willy, the Groundhog that predicts whether or not we get 6 more weeks of winter.