Late August in Toronto and Niagara Falls

Toronto first. Walked Queens Quay West along the Harbourfront, past the marinas and the rows of wooden deck chairs lined up facing the lake, with the CN Tower and the Rogers Centre dome stacked up behind everything. A three-masted tall ship came in off Lake Ontario under sail while we were sitting there — no engine noise, just canvas.

Then the drive down to Niagara Falls. Started up on the Canadian rim, where the mist off the Horseshoe climbs higher than the hotel towers behind it, then went down to water level where the Maid of the Mist boats load, everyone aboard packed in blue ponchos. Close under the Horseshoe the spray comes down like steady rain, and the water at the lip is a green I haven't seen anywhere else — you can watch it go glassy right before it drops.

The storm clouds that hung over the gorge most of the afternoon broke up by evening, and from up above you could take in both falls at once: the American Falls hammering onto its rockpile, the Horseshoe reduced to a column of mist with one small boat nosing into it.