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Nightly Ramble: Off to the Falls for the Fireworks

We’ve been doing this every year, now for many years… going off on a near-midnight ramble to Niagara Falls to watch the fireworks display.

This year, unlike previous years, it rained.  50° outside.

Foreigner was playing in queen Victoria park, over on the Canadian side.  You can hear them clearly from our side of the pond.  Good lord, is Lou Graham performing again?  Last I knew we had some health trouble. Oh, well.

Anyway, rather than bore you with my writing all bore you with a few pictures before I go to bed.

Now, I tend to ignore such things, but I had a solid indication of how much it was raining, when I caught my youngest catching the rain on his tongue.

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To give you a rough idea of where you are the skyline behind him is all Canadian.  Alex, here, is standing in New York.

This next picture is a little on the blurry side but I included to give you an idea of where you are.

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That tall stroke of yellow-white lights directly at the center of the shot, is headlights coming down Clifton hill.  To the slight left of the shot is an extremely tall whiter light.  That’s the recently installed Ferris wheel.  I’ve never seen an up close but this thing has got to be huge.  We’ll have to check out, come summer. img_0004.jpg

Another shot of the skyline of the Canadian side, from the New York side.  And frame center, is a shot of the Skylon tower. When standing on the deck up there, you can see for around 80 miles. The tower he is darker than in previous years, where they have had lights streaming down the side of that thing in all directions, this year, there are none. Not quite sure why they stopped that.  It’s lack detracts from the scene.  I’m a little annoyed they didn’t do that this year.

Zoom back a few clicks, and you get a wider angle shot:

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Again at the center is the Skylon. To the left of your shot, is a huge streak of blue from several spotlights.  Many people don’t know this, but there is a building along the shoreline is specific job it is to light the falls every night. These powerful arc lamps have been in place since the late forties and early fifties.  They hit the falls with various gel colors.  At center shot low, directly beneath the Skylon is a single point spotlight in the same color.  That’s where the Maid of the Mist docks.  It’s also where they should the fireworks off from.

Speaking of which, the elevator has just gone up to the top with a Roman candle tied to it’s belly, as you see here above (About halfway up in this shot); It’s time for the show to start.

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I’ll add some more later today, along with, if I can figure out how, some video, as well.