May 3... Praise God for his indescribable gift....

You know, everyone tells you how beautiful it is here, but until you see it for yourself....you can't even imagine the magnificence of it.  I was wowed and so were the kids at the sheer power of the millions of gallons of water that is rushing over the falls every second of every minute of every hour of every day!!!  This is God's creation and I am AMAZED!!!  How can anyone not believe that this is created specifically by an AWESOME Creator???  All along our trip, we have seen unbelievable evidence of his handiwork, but this is just so out there.  As we approached the falls, we could see the calm river become a roiling, raging and uncontrollable crush of water headed to a huge drop off.  We parked and headed down to the lookout, bought tickets to the Maid of the Mist and ventured up to the observation outlook that extends out over the falls and the water below.  OK, I can admit to you all that I am absolutely petrified of heights so I could not get that close to the edge and look down, YUCK!!  My 3 kids did though!!!!!  Freaks Me Out!!!  However, from my stand point, all I could think of was the words in today's title.....I'm so grateful to be seeing this..... 

millions of gallons go over the falls every day.....

Horseshoe Falls.....

boarding the Maid of the Mist

at the base....on the maid of the mist boat ride

Horseshoe Falls is in the distance behind us.....

there's Canada over there.......so close

The Maid of the Mist boat ride was so much fun.  The boat takes you right past and up to the base of all 3 sections of the falls.  The absolutely most soakingest (is that a word, I'm adding it my repertoire) part of the ride was over near the Horseshoe Falls.....crazy!!!  From our boat, we could see great views and get wet!!  The kdis loved it, we all looked like goofs in our blue rain ponchos and we still got damp.....we came back and stopped into the visitor center to see the IMAX film on the falls....it left a lot to be desired.  Oh well, can't win them all.  We took a nice walk along the river and over two bridges over onto Green Island and Goat Island to see the other side of the falls...Horseshoe Falls.  We ventured all of the way out to the edge and took many pics. This side borders Canada.  We could see the outlook on the Canada side and  hotels that look like they are right on the edge looking over.  Our friends the Berchtolds from VA, had told us that they stayed in one of these hotels and it is easy to see why you might like to do that.  The views must be spectacular.  The color of the water going over this section is such a pretty aqua.....Madison is leaving tomorrow to go home for her Junior Senior Banquet (JSB) for school.  She is very excited, I am glad that she was able to be here for this day to see the falls.   She, Brandon and Dave are going back together.  We are already starting to feel sad that she is leaving for a few days.......

Sisters, Sisters...there were never such devoted sisters.....making a wish at Horseshoe Falls