Friday, August 27, 2010

Beautiful 2 days at Niagara !!!

Woowoo!!, We finally made it to the amazing “Niagara Falls”.

We had an excellent weekend at Niagara. Of course, it’s bit lengthy drive from our town Huntington; but it was worth doing it for the beautiful Niagara. I would say, we enjoyed Niagara Falls in each and every angle of it.

We started our tour at the Niagara Falls State Park. The park overlooks the Niagara Gorge, Rainbow Bridge and allows access to the “Maid of the Mist”, “Cave of the Winds”, and other attractions of Niagara Falls.

We could also tour “The Niagara Gorge Discovery Center “, and the “Aquarium of Niagara”

I have seen a lot of photos and videos of Niagara for years. But the feel of standing in front of the magnificent falls was totally different; it is great. Upon first glance, I understood that no photograph of Niagara Falls could ever do the justice.

This really is something that has to be experienced and enjoyed.It’s amazing!.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Niagara: Maid of the Mist

Maid of the Mist is a boat tour, which took us to the base of Niagara Falls.

The boat started off at a calm part of the Niagara River, near the Rainbow Bridge, and took us thro the American and Bridal Veil Falls, then into the dense mist of spray inside the curve of the Horseshoe Falls.

We just cried as we experience the mist, thunder, wind and rush of the falls as the boat approaches the falls. It was a thrilling 30 minutes, which showed as the magnitude and magnificence of the Falls thundering down from 174feet.

I'm sure, I can't scribe the excitement in words. Checkout our video below.



Maid of the mist is probably the most incredible thing in Niagara Falls! The power and beauty of the falls just amazed us. Up close, in the middle of the thunder & turbulence!. Unforgettable!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Niagara: Legends of Adventure – Movie

We decided to step-in for the movie at IMAX Adventure Theater, as it would give us some rest after tiring walks and Maid of the Mist ride.

The movie is of 40 minutes duration and covers the entire history of Niagara fall. The movie travels through the span of 12000 years within 40 minutes and we feel enriched with knowledge about Niagara Falls when we come out of the movie.


The movie starts with the scenes of North America, about 12000 years before. The entire region was full of snow glaciers at that time. Slowly the snow started melting over the years and the big sea of water resulted. This water started flowing forming the legendary Niagara Falls.


The film also shows the two most daring adventures made by the persons in the past. One of them is Great Blondin, who completed the tight rope walk above the Niagara River.

The other incident covers adventure of an old school teacher, Anna Taylor, who was the first person to jump over the falls in the wooden barrel and surviving to tell about her story.

One of the striking facts about Niagara Falls is that the fall on American side was completely dehydrated in the year 1969 from June to November. Not a single drop of water was flowing through the falls during this time.

This was done as the rocks falling incidents were found increasing at a rapid rate on American side of the fall. We all were shocked to view the totally dry Niagara Falls. It's informative and thrilling!


The trip to Niagara Falls cannot be completed till you watch this movie, "Niagara: Legends of Adventure".

Monday, August 23, 2010

Niagara: Cave of the Winds

What an experience!. The closest we can get to climb the falls!. As we stand at the Hurricane Deck, we were mere 10-15 feet away from the blasting waters of Bridal Veil Falls.


The Cave of the Winds is a natural cave ; around 130 feet high, and 100 feet. An elevator is being used to bring us down the cave.

We were dressed in bright yellow poncho and wearing the special footwear provided.

Upon 140feet down the cave, we followed over a series of wooden walkways to the "Hurricane Deck". The Hurricane Deck is aptly named as the wind speeds can go extreme, and you will be standing under the thunderous waterfall.

As we went up the stairs on to the deck, water totally rushed down, making our breath hard. The rushing water stream above us completely soaked us, as the wind made it impossible for the poncho to stay in place.

Checkout the exhilarating moments!


Cave of the Winds is an amazing attraction, glad we did it. Go.. Reach Up and touch the Falls!. It’s awesome man!!.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Niagara: Aquarium of Niagara


The aquarium was well maintained and they have a great variety of fish for an aquarium of that size. I was very impressed with the shows they put on with Sea Lions.

Sea Lion Stadium was packed with crowd to enjoy the jinks of these lively Sealions. Sealion interact well with the crowd; it waves hands; kisses the crowd.. It performed many handstand tricks, balancing a ball on the nose, a flip in mid-air that everyone would applaud…..

On the flipside, the aquarium is so small and very dark; It took us about just 30 minutes to see everything there was to see. I was bit disappointed in how small the aquarium was especially for the price of admission:-(.

But the Sea Lions show compromised every pits of the aquarium. It was fun…

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

A Year without "Made in China"


The Author - Sara Bongiorni made an unusual New Year’s resolution. She and her family pledged to spend the year without buying anything from China.

Bongiorni tells often funny, occasionally humiliating stories centering around her difficulty procuring sneakers, sunglasses, DVD players and toys for two young children and a unconvinced husband.

What I feel,
-----------------
Though she justifies her thoughts with statistics on job loss and trade deficits, I wouldn’t completely agree her to the point of singling out China, when cheap low quality products-are produced (or demanded) from other countries too.

With little insight into global economics, I feel, It is fair to pass judgment on a country’s manufacturing practices as so bad and cheap.

Though there’re major downbeats like China-specific complaints and anti-globalization aside, the story is a fun read for a weekend afternoon.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Twitter / Facebook... do we really need ?

With the advent of social networking sites and their raid in our lives, it doesn't make sense to keep fiddling with your phone on either twitter/facebook in the company of friends and family?

Is it a big deal to multi-task, as in engage in conversations with people around you and at the same time keep updating your facebook status message to those same ppl?

Anyway, saw an awesome advertisement on Twitter;thought of sharing with you all. Creativity rocks!!!

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Pokagon State Park

This past weekend we went to Pokagon State Park / Beach. Pokagon State Park is sited next to Angola, IN - 46703.


The park is bordered by Lake James, and there are plenty of recreational stuff including fishing and ice fishing, swimming, boating, camping, horseback riding, cross country skiing, hiking, and much more.

As usual we’re late per our schedule ;-) we reached the state park at around 1PM in the after-noon. The soon as we reach the park, we drove towards the beach. This time, we’re all set for swimming and just jumped into the water.

The water in the lake seems very clean. I’ve swimmed in lakes where I came out smelling like fish ;-). Not so here, the water was very refreshing. Swimming, Playing and the fun extended till the evening.


After an entertaining swim session, we just mingled with a local team and experienced the fun of Beach Volley ball. Though we lost to them in both games we played, it was fun and really amusing.

Lengthy drive, Swimming, Water gaming, Volley ball…..yeah… This time, we really got tired of fun. And it was time to get back to home:-(.

We very much enjoyed the time in the park. Beautiful country!!!

Friday, August 6, 2010

En Iniya Iyanthira

Though I’m a heartfelt fan of Writer Sujatha, I never took a chance to read his work ” En Iniya Iyanthira”. Now, the hype over Rajinikanth’s “Endhiran” pushed me to read the Sci-fi flick. It is believed that Endhiran is based on Sujatha's novels En Iniya Iyanthira and Meendum Jeeno.

The plot opens in the year 2021. India is ruled by a dictator-Jeeva. Under Jeeva’s dictatorship, India shines as a developed country, population is kept under control, everywhere and anywhere lay Robots, people are identified only with their social security numbers, and everything is computerized.

Other main characters of the story -Nila,Sibi, and Ravi are planning a coup against Jeeva with a pet robot dog “Jeeno”. Jeano plays an important role throughout the story. As the story proceeds, it behaves and starts to think on its own like a human and commands Nila, a human being to follow his instructions.

I still can’t believe that he wrote this Sci-fiction thriller in early 80’s. What an imagination, Creativity and screenplay!. The first 10pages of the story completely took me to a different world in 2021; Sujatha’s mesmerized me once again!

All Sci-fi lovers,… take a chance to read “En Iniya Iyanthira”. I’m sure you’ll be excited.