We started our trip near Niagara Falls, spending a lovely evening walking on the Canadian side of the river enjoying the falls, the lights, the beautiful night air.

We even rode the giant ferris-wheel and got a fun view of the falls just as they were lit up for the evening.

We started today at a town called Niagara on the Lake. It’s unbelievably beautiful, especially this time of year. They have flowers everywhere! And the annuals are at peak right now. They have huge gardens in the medians, and along all the store fronts.

I could spend this entire blog just showing you photos of flowers. But we must move on. On to Fort George, on the Canadian side of the Niagara River.

There we learned about life in the fort, especially during the time of the 1812 war. Life wasn’t easy. And though this fort and the fort across the river on the American side started out friendly things got rough when the British and the Americans decided they both wanted Fort Niagara for all sorts of political reasons.

It was interesting to hear the story told from the British point of view. On our way over to visit the American’s Fort Niagra we stopped at a monument for General Brock. It has 235 steps to the top; a narrow winding spiral staircase.

You know we had to do that. It was a bit like running a marathon without training. Now I know for sure I’ll never sign up for the race they do up the stairs at the empire state building. As if there was any thought of doing that. Which there has not been.

After we found our way back down we headed over to Fort Niagara to hear the American’s version of the war.

Our guide there talked about how the fort was designed. It was built of stone, by the French as a fur trading operation, then taken over by the British to control traffic on the river.

Fort Niagara is beautiful, especially the officers’ quarters. There’s a room there, up on the second floor with a view of Lake Ontario that was begging for me to stay the night.

We had a wonderful day. We more than met our 10,000 steps and 10 flights of stairs. I think tomorrow will be more of the same. My heart says go for it. My feet say take a break!

I hope you will enjoy this trip with us. I wish I could show you all the wonderful things we saw. But I guess for you to truly understand you’ll have to head on up here for yourself!