Saturday was hubby’s birthday so I took him to Niagara Falls for a 36 hours combo pack of leisurely observed nature, fleeting moments of elegance, plenty of cornball tourism and much giggling silliness.
Too much can never be said for a change of scene and for the power of the elements – feeling small in the face of majestic water, rainbows everywhere.
Kept thinking about my buddy, Shelley Niro and a video piece she did about being born on the border in Niagara, NY, and the old Iroquois name for the falls – Onguiaahra, meaning “thunder of waters”.
We did the “journey behind the falls” tourist thing, where you go down deep into some dark slimy tunnels and peer out at the wall of water, the sheer force of it overwhelming, terrifying.
Turns out there’s an old legend….
Iroquois legend tells of Lelawala, a beautiful maid given by her father to a brave she hated. Rather than marry, Lelawala chose to sacrifice herself to her one and only true love He-No, the Thunder God, who lived in a cave behind the Horseshoe Falls. She paddled her canoe into the swift current of the Niagara River and was swept over the Falls. He-No caught her as she fell, and together their spirits are said to live forever in the Thunder God’s kingdom behind the Falls.
We spent lots of time away from the thunder and cruising the luxuries of the hotel – some serious time in the jacuzzi in our room, in the swimming pool and hot tub downstairs, and just looking looking looking out at the Niagara river, endlessly pouring itself over the cliff.
Finally, time to go home….
follow your nose 