Niagra Falls

Maintaining the pattern of never ending up anywhere where there is decent light since I got the new camera (not to mention the theme of Pink Christmas), we found ourselves at Niagra Falls on Boxing day... or rather, Boxing night. Opa, Doreen and Glynnis came over from South Africa for Christmas. Glynnis has never seen the falls, and wanted to. So ... since they did come all the way from Africa... we supposed we might drag our lazy selves over there.

It's been ages and ages and ages since I've been to Niagra. How long have they been doing this crazy lighting of the falls? It's kind of neat, and tacky at the same time. But of course tackiness is not something Niagra Falls shies away from. For those who haven't been and are curious, there is a building across the road, up a bit on a hill, which beams spotlights across onto the various downpours. The lights are always slowly changing colours. It's surprisingly effective.









Anyhow, here's Wilson Jacobs, Selena's Mom's dad, otherwise known to us as Opa. Or as Aunty Belle likes to say: Old Pa. You might think of him simply as Istra's only great grandfather.

Doreen bought him the (surely) authentic Canadian touque, which conveniently (what are the odds?) were being sold nearby. Oddly she did not get him the plastic half-barrel with boots underneath it personalized shot glass, with a moose on it. She must not have seen those. Or maybe they were just all out of Wilsonses.

What I think I gleened from Opa this Christmas: he came to Canada for the first time in 1952 when he was a portrait photographer. He couldn't find any work in it, so he took up welding.










So there's a few of the more interesting pictures of the candy coloured water (and even a "natural" white one for you snobby Niagra purists). And... here's most of the night's crew... with a giant fuzzy moose! These giant fuzzy moose are native to Niagra Falls, you know.