Thundering

Off early for breakfast at a little vintage hipster place where I had a delicious (but large!) breakfast to set me up for the day. Had some ‘peameal ham’ which I’d heard about - essentially ham rolled in cornmeal then sliced and grilled/fried, very nice.
Walked over to the hotel to meet A&Z and timed it well to go for their hire car with them then we set off for Niagara. Chatted about all sorts on the way - Z in particular’s done some amazing things for their uni, and very eclectic areas to have worked in. They were interested in some ideas we’ve had success with and we planned an equivalent for them to use back at their place.
The journey passed pretty quickly and we easily found somewhere to park on the Canada side then walked across the bridge and started exploring through the park alongside the falls. Hard to describe the sight and sound of just such an incredible amount of fast moving water. The power! It was wonderful - it was warm and sunny, the trees in the park were all beautiful colours, there was a rainbow over one of the sets of falls (extras) and although it was busy you could get up really close to the water (too close for me given I don’t like heights!).
We wandered for a good long time then headed back to Canada via long queue at customs - irritating! - before a very late lunch overlooking the falls.
The drive home took a lot longer for some reason so I slept part of the way but later we talked about the loss of A’s house and car collection last year in the fires around Athens. He’d had a terrible loss and yet was positive and upbeat about his plans for rebuilding and teaching his nephew about the building process and restarting his car collection.
THey’ve both been so kind and good company today - so glad I took them up on the offer of the trip. A splendid day - and then an early night and ready to pack up tomorrow and get home.