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| Kp numbers over North America |
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| Dark Sky Map |
It was pretty clear that there was nowhere I could drive to quickly that would greatly increase my odds of seeing the Northern Lights. Which meant that there would need to be a reason to go other than seeing the Northern Lights since it was possible that even with the magnetic storm we still wouldn't see anything. Now there was a very dark spot in Maine. So I google mapped it to see how long the drive would be and if anything was near there that would be worth while. Well there is nothing near there and apparently you can't drive there! According to google maps the suggested driving route was to take a plane. Yeah. I had never seen that before. Mind you I took a trip from NY-TN-TX-GA-TN-NY. And never once did google driving directions tell me to fly. :-)
The next dark spot was Lake Ontario. Now I have lived in NY my entire life but I have never been to one of NY's greatest tourist spots, Niagara Falls. I have also never seen any of the great lakes. So imagine when I checked my handy dandy google map and discovered that Niagara Falls was only seven hours away. So that Friday night around 8pm after doing all the research I needed I asked my Mom how would she feel about getting up at 4am and driving to Niagara Falls, checking out the sights, seeing Lake Erie, and then driving over to Lake Ontario to hopefully see the Northern Lights. And being the awesome adventurous person she is my Mom said sure.
While driving on I-90 we pulled over at the Syracuse road stop for a break and a drink. In the stop was Zoltar the Gypsy fortune teller. So I had my fortune read and according to Zoltar I should do the things I feel I should, because no one wants to leave this place with regrets. Which was kind of fitting since we were on a spur of the moment seven hour trip. To make our spur of the moment trip even better we reached Buffalo NY right around 1:30 which was conveniently right around the time we wanted to stop for lunch. Now when driving by Buffalo NY and needing to stop for lunch what better place could we choose then the birth place of the Buffalo wing? (See even our spur of the moment trips have spur of the moment trips).
We remembered seeing a clip about the Anchor Bar on the Sunday morning show on CBS. The story went that when the owner's, Teressa Bellissimo, son came home one night with a bunch of friend's she wanted to find something for them to eat. She deep fried some chicken wings (usually used for soup) and poured a sauce over them and served them with blue cheese. And like that the Buffalo Wing was born! So I typed Anchor Bar into the GPS and we drove over. We of course ordered the wings and they did not disappoint! That's an understatement cause they were awesome!
I mean how yummy does that look? I'm not
usually a fan of wings but this was special!
At a different rest stop we picked up a map of the Niagara Falls area. I thought that we might be able to park on Goat Island and watch the Northern Lights from there. Now this was off-season for tourists and because of that we made a wonderful discovery. Everything was free: the parking was free, the trolley was free, and the observation deck was free.
From our parking spot we walked over to the Horseshoe Falls. Here is a view off the falls. The water was so beautiful and blue as it rushed towards the Falls. The mist swirled up and around the falls creating an ethereal effect.
Sadly because it was off season the Maid of the Mist boats were beached. Also the cave that you can walk through was closed partly because it was off season and also because of a beautification project that Governor Andrew Cuomo has commissioned. I can't wait to see how the facelift will look when it is finished. From the Horseshoe Falls we took the trolley over to where the main visitor center, aquarium, and observation deck were located. We walked out onto the observation deck for an amazing view of the Falls. One thing I never realized was that Niagara Falls is made of three different falls: the Horseshoe falls, the American Falls, and the Bridal Falls. Being so close to a brutally cold winter the Falls still had a good amount of snow and ice built up. Which, in my opinion, provided a view of the Falls just as beautiful as normally seen and quite remarkable. I mean I will be very excited to see the Falls again sometime when they aren't still icy. As it was the water wasn't flowing as fast as normal and it was still amazing.
I really like the way the ice seems to be reaching towards the falls like a white shield surrounding them.
We left the observation deck and walked over the boundary line to Canada and then came back to America. When we got to the customs desk the agent asked where we were coming from which confused me (being that there was only one option) and then made me laugh as I answered Canada. As we were walking back we passed the stone where it is said that Father Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan priest, viewed the Falls. He eloquently described them by saying:
"Betwixt the Lake Ontario and Erie, there is a vast prodigious Cadence of water which falls down after a surprising and astonishing manner, insomuch that the Universe does not afford its parallel. 'Tis true, Italy and Suedeland boast of some such things; but we may well say they are but sorry patterns, when compared to this of which we now speak. At the foot of the horrible precipice we meet with the river Niagara, which is not above half a quarter of a league broad, but is wonderfully deep in some places. It is rapid above this descent, that it violently hurries down the wild beasts while endeavoring to pass it, to feed on the other side; they not being able to withstand the force of its current, which inevitably casts them down headlong above six hundred foot."
The magnetic storm was supposed to start around 7:30 causing the spike of the Northern Lights. So we headed north to Lake Ontario. When we had stopped at one of the rest stops on the way to Niagara my Mom had picked up many brochures (for planning future road trips). One of them mentioned the Woodcock brother's brewery in Wilson NY just south of Lake Ontario. So our initial plan was to find a spot and sit at Lake Ontario for a few hours and then go for a late dinner around 9pm. But making plans is a really fluid thing because I find they are constantly changing.
We drove past the brewery and continued up to the road to Lake Ontario (to a beautiful spot I will have to keep in mind next time I go). My first thought as I walked up to it was that it was more like an ocean then a lake. It had waves and a beach. When I thought back to the still waters of Lake Placid and Mirror Lake it was so unbelievably different.
As you can see in the panorama the sun was still up and very bright. Unfortunately this was at 7:30 right when the Northern Lights spiked. In a perfect world it would have been darker and in this shot I would have had an extraordinary display of lights through out the sky. But the world isn't perfect and we had taken that imperfection well into account so it wasn't very disappointing anyway. We drove a few blocks back to the brewery for a delicious dinner. The menu asks for patience because good food takes time to cook. The menu was right. The food was great and made the wait worth it. The spent grain pretzels were an amazing kick off to the meal, and the serving was huge so we had some to take with us for the drive home. When we left we went back to Lake Ontario, now that it was dark, but the Northern Lights had already gone back down. We drove back to Buffalo to spend the night in a hotel so that we could drive to Lake Erie in the morning before returning home.
Due to the harsh winter (complaining about this winter is a theme in my life right now) Lake Erie was currently 96% frozen. Now, when the guide at Niagara Falls told this to us I couldn't really picture it. Then as we drove over the Buffalo skyway towards Wilkenson Pointe we had a great view of the frozen lake. What we saw on Sunday juxtaposed to the free flowing great lake we had seen on Saturday was vastly different.
After that we headed home by a different route (this time staying in NY and driving home via Albany). For a total route that looked like this:
There had been a few times on the drive when my Mom had seen wild turkeys so I was hoping I would eventually see one. As we drove to Lake Ontario I saw one run across the road pretty far in front of it (hardly reacquiring a slow down). Then as we were driving towards Albany I spotted a turkey ahead on the side of the road. And then as I approached the damn thing took off. I think the air pressure from my approaching car lifted it over us or else we would have had one hell of a mess.
It was a pretty nice way to spend Easter weekend, enjoying one of the most beautiful places on earth. And it was fun to go for the ride and see where it took us. This time we got to try the wings at the Anchor Bar and discovered the Woodcock brother's brewery. Who knows what we might find next time!
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