№ 19 – Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada

Rebecca and I had been online friends for, like, ever. As in more than 10 years. Maybe 13 years? She lives in Australia. She went to Canada several years ago but was in the wrong part of the country so we didn’t get to meet. She was finally in the right part of the country last year in October so I made a point to meet up with her. Even booked a hotel room so we could spend as much time as we could.

It was dark out when we finally met, but I would recognize her anywhere, what with her blue hair and all. When I saw her, she was taking pictures of the falls. I tapped her back and an awkward moment ensued. But then we hugged, had our picture taken by my husband, and it wasn’t so awkward anymore. We had dinner together that night.

The next day, first thing in the morning, the four us (Rebecca, her friend Grace, my husband, and I) headed down to the Niagara River to take a voyage under the falls on the Maid of the Mist. The Maid of the Mist boat tour was one of the items on my bucket list so I was super excited about being able to finally scratch it off the list, and even more so when I learned that we would be on one of the last voyages of the iconic Maid of the Mist from the Canadian side. They’re replacing it with a modern catamaran-type boat this year and you’ll only be able to take the Maid of the Mist from the American side.

The boat tour was just as amazing as I’d imagined it to be. I was expecting it to be a little bit scary, but it wasn’t at all. But even with a raincoat on, I still got soaked from the mist. I was a little worried that the mist would kill my camera because I just couldn’t stop taking pictures and videos of the falls, but surprisingly it survived! The picture above was taken from the boat. I have many other, better pictures of the falls but I just had to post this one just for the fact that it was taken from the Maid of the Mist. It was such a great experience and I’m so glad that I got to scratch something off my bucket list with my old pal Rebecca!