Monday, August 13, 2012

What's Your Perspective?

Perspective is a funny thing. The position from which you view something drastically effects the way you judge that thing. We could be talking about half-full glasses or political issues. But since I feel like keeping things light, I'm talking Niagara Falls. Plus, I haven't shown you all our vacation photos yet.

On the American Falls side, there is a viewing platform high atop an observation tower that sits 282 feet above the Niagara Gorge.


That's about 28 stories if you were inside a high-rise. But you are not, you are outside on a cement platform which you can hang your head right over and see this.


That's the Maid of the Mist way down there. We felt like giants capable of crushing that tiny boat.


But once we made our own way down to the boat, we didn't feel quite so powerful anymore.


In fact, we felt quite helpless at the mercy of thousands of gallons of rushing water making its way from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario.


And at the mercy of the boat captian who I am sure was highly competent and had made this particular short but technically difficult trip many times without incident. And was hopefully still sober at 10:00 a.m.


I was surprised to learn that the average depth of the water below the falls is about 170 feet which is as deep as the banks are high. I was even happier to learn that after we got off the boat. Such power above and below and all around puts lots of things in perspective.

Once we were put back in our insignificant place by the majesty of the falls, we decided that we still needed to take it all in from a different perspective...in the dark.

Niagara at night may be even prettier than by day.


The good people of Canada light up the falls at night, using some of the millions of kilowatts generated by the falling water.


And if you are lucky like we were on our visit, the full moon provides even more perspective.



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