Guest Blogger - Ranger - Niagra

Mom and I had another outing – just the two of us.  (We had previously taken an outing to Mackinac Island in MI.)  This time we viewed the Lake at Niagra and Niagra Falls!  Alpha Dog (Mike) had planned to take part, but he had trouble sleeping the night before, and was feeling pretty punk.  Mom and I took off and let the big dog sleep.  Alpha Dog had seen it all before.  Mom and I hadn’t.  Our day worked out great.  Mom got to set a pace that suited her fancy – dawdling, with lots of spontaneous stops.  I’m a pretty good sport about letting her set the itinerary, as long as there are a few parks and squirrels included in the day.  Here’s a recap of our day:

This is embarrassing.  Mom said the kids at school would love this picture, and actually it was kind of cool, sitting in the motor boat. 

A teenager coming to the convenience store gave me lots of attention and said, “Oh man, he is a REALLY NEAT dog.”  I decided it was OK to sit in a fake motor boat.

This setting is more appropriate for a classy canine such as I.  I’m taking a little rest and watching people at Niagra on the Lake.

People in Ontario know how to do flowers.  Well it rains and it’s humid, so they get a lot of the work done for them.  Even so, they are awfully good with color, and they are very cool about dogs.  I get to go almost everywhere people get to go – except not in the cheese store.

Even I, a dog with a limited color spectrum, thought the purple and pink were exceptional.

The scents were spectacular.  Mom thought the color and balance of this garden were noteworthy.

I’m not sure why, but we lingered at this shop for quite a while – something about, “Everything is so lovely.”  I also heard Mom say, “The name couldn’t be more perfect.”

In some instances, the flower colors echoed the colors on the buildings.  I heard this said in an exclamatory tone, so it must be important.

There’s a place on the Niagra River called Whirlpool Rapids.  There’s a cable car for humans.  See them all packing into the car.

The car goes across the river, over the rapids.  The humans dangle from the cables.  Dogs aren’t allowed on the cable car.  That rule is moot.  No dog would pay money to dangle from cables over rapids. 

This is a lovely garden, right in front of the Niagra Police Department.  Mom and I parked near here to view the falls.

I was pretty impressed.  This is looking at the American side of the falls.  That’s upstate New York in the background.

This is me, being impressed.

This is the Canadian side of the falls; the horseshoe. It’s an even more impressive display of water than the American side, except the constant mist sort of blocks the view. Apparently, on exceptionally sunny, dry days the mist evaporates. I wonder how many times per year there are sunny, dry day.

Mom and I had a terrific day. I don’t have a picture of the very best part, when I got soooooo close to a squirrel on the Niagra Parkway walking path. Trust me, it was terrific!  I was tired when we got back to camp. Alpha Dog was rested.