Being a Tourist
Today is the first day of the farm income and estate tax planning seminar in Findley Lake, New York. I have posted on these set of seminars before, but today’s post will be on my wife, Patty and I being tourists yesterday at Niagara Falls.
My wife and I had never been to this part of the country and we left the resort about 9 am in the morning (my wife does not appreciate my normal 4 am wakeup on vacation) and arrived at Niagara Falls at about 11:30. We elected to take a 4 hour tour with a guide (something new for us). The first part of the tour took us to an overlook over Whirlpool rapids and bend of the river as it makes a 90 degree turn north. The river has gouged out enough of the western bank to allow the Canadians to build a gondola that goes across the river that is fully on the Canadian side.
The actual Niagara Falls migrates about 1.2 meters on the Canadian side and about 4 feet on the US side each year upstream. About 12,500 years ago, the actual falls were 7 miles downstream. The primary cause of the migration is the soft work under the denser rock that gets eroded away as the water crashes into it.
We then proceeded to the Cave of the Winds which is located at the bottom of the American Falls/Bridal Veil. They have a series of wooden walkways that take you up into the falls and if you are brave enough (or stupid enough) you can get right under the falls coming down as you can see from this Cave of the Winds Video.
After leaving here, we finally got to go on the Maid of the Mist to finish our tour for the day. This boat is reached by going into a 225′ tall observation tower, taking an elevator down to the river and then boarding the boat. The boat heads up river going past American Falls which is much smaller than Horseshoe Falls (which is on the Canadian side). I am estimating the wind was blowing about 40 miles an hour when we got on the boat but had settled down to less 25 miles an hour inside of Horseshoe Falls. You can see how close we get to the falls in this Maid of the Mist Video.
After we got off the boat, my wife headed up to the observation deck and I headed over to the American Falls to climb up about half way to the top. There were a couple of decks there where you could get “under” the falls and get more wet. Being a typical male, I got more wet and then headed up to the observation deck just in time to be told they were closing down the deck due to excessive wind.
That was our first trip to Niagara Falls and if you have never been there, I would highly recommend going at least once.
Paul Neiffer, CPA
Paul Neiffer is a certified public accountant and business advisor specializing in income taxation, accounting services, and succession planning for farmers and agribusiness processors. Paul is a principal with CliftonLarsonAllen in Walla Walla, Washington, as well as a regular speaker at national conferences and contributor at agweb.com. Raised on a farm in central Washington, he has been immersed in the ag industry his entire life, including the last 30 years professionally. Paul and his wife purchase an 180 acre ranch in 2016 and enjoy keeping it full of animals.
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