Niagara River

As you know if you follow my blog, we live on an Island surrounded by the Niagara River.  The river is fed by Lake Erie and eventually goes over Niagara Falls.

This is an aerial view of our Island, Grand Island.  The little Island up in the left hand corner is Navy Island which is owned by Canada and is an uninhabited island.  The white spot in the left corner is Niagara Falls.

 

You can see why I love where we live.

This morning I took an early morning walk before heading into work.  I walked in the city of Tonawanda, which is across the bridges from our island.

This is the large hotel located on Grand Island.  It’s a pretty view if you stay on the side facing the river.  The towers in the background are for a local TV station located on the island.

At one point I came across this funny little decorated post.  It gave me a morning laugh for sure!  Whoever took the time to decorate it did a great job!

There are informative pieces of information scattered about the walkway which share a bit of the history of Grand Island and the Niagara River.

There are little walkways built over the water where you can really appreciate the beauty of the river.

On the way back these seagulls lined the bridge as I walked over.  Only one was brave enough to stay and watch me without flying off!  Only one pole I saw marked and ironically it had one of my favorite numbers on it!  #28 is my son’s hockey number and our favorite player #Zemgus Girgensons from the Buffalo Sabres!!!

This bridge and walking trail is beautiful any season for walking!

It was a very chilly walk along the river today.  I love being surrounded by the water and when the weather is warm this is my favorite spot to be, floating on our boat watching the sun set!

 

Island hopping

Those who have followed my blog know we live on an Island.  There are a few little Islands in the Niagara River around our Island.  The only way to them is by boat.

This week we had the opportunity to spend some time boating, swimming, snorkeling and just hanging out at a couple of these Islands.

On Friday we spent the day at Strawberry Island.  Read history here:  Strawberry Island

The kids are snorkeling along the shore

The boy had a hockey friend with him and they all had a great day.

Today we anchored along Navy Island.  Read history here:  Navy Island

The area we anchored had a little beach and was perfect for relaxing, cooling off, eating lunch and of course snorkeling.  My niece tagged along with us.

And after about 4 hours on the water it was time for one last tube ride.

And a nap for some on the way back into the marina

Crabbing

Chance with bucket of crabs

Our neighbor is a charter fisherman.  He works year round taking customers all over Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the Niagara River to catch fish.  Sounds like a dream job but it is a huge load of work driving to make sure your customers from all over the country are catching fish in all types of weather including snow storms. What you catch has to be fileted and you must spend many evenings wrapping bait, crabbing, and drying the boat out for the next mornings trip.

We are surrounded by some of the worlds best fishing with Bass, Perch, Walleye, Salmon, and probably others I have no idea about.  Sadly I have never acquired a taste for seafood of any type.  We have a few fish fry picnics a year.  I am told there is no better fish than what he brings as it’s fresh!

Last night his family went “crabbing” (turning over rocks in shallow waters and on the shore) to catch some crabs for bait.  They took my son along to help.  He had a wonderful time and loved every minute of it!!  Here are some of the pictures of their trip to the shore of the Niagara River surrounding our island to crab.   Photos courtesy of Julie Cinelli (his wife).

How lucky are these kids to have this life!! 

 

Nature’s Beauty

Photo’s courtesy of my friend, Tom Nemeth, from his neighborhood on the Island.  I could not get a clear shot with the woods behind our house.  Was so glad he was able to capture the beauty!!

Seriously, I have never seen such beautiful skies in all my 48 years as I have this year.  Tonight the skies were a spectacular sight.  On one side of the Island towards Buffalo, NY they had blue skies.  On the other side towards Niagara Falls, NY there was an extreme downpour of rain, (enough to cancel the college baseball doubleheader game my mother was at).  However due to the extreme differences on either side of the Island, the skies overhead during the sunset gave us the pleasure of one of the most beautiful scenes ever.

Island Living

My son’s school had a field trip around the Island visiting our town hall, the local police station with the jail cells (the kids were able to enter them), and a few other original areas.  They were given this picture as a momento of our Island.  It’s shaped like a pork chop as you can see.  That was the most amusing part for the kids.

The boat pictures on another post are pictures taken on the right side of the Island as you see it.  Our home is located just left of the dirt divider you see running in the middle of the Island which is a pipeline.  We call this Island home 🙂

Ride around our Island

our bridge from the underside

Friday the man of the house announced he had been looking at a boat and decided to buy it. SURPRISE…oh boy.  It’s not that I don’t like boats as we live on an Island surrounded by water and had a boat before we had children, horses, goats, chickens, rabbits, dogs and 34 acres of land.  We enjoyed that boat for 5 wonderful years until there was no time.  How can we fit this into our schedule now??

He has brought up buying a boat for a few years now and being a city boy who adapted to my farm lifestyle I know I must bend to some of his forms of entertainment.  Our children have only been on a boat once so they were more than excited.  How could I be the party pooper pointing out all the negatives?  (not that I didn’t I just did not do it in front of the kids). 

So yesterday after we worked on the gardens and finished about 3/4 of the projects on our to do list we took our maiden voyage.  I have some wonderful pictures to share showing the sights around the Island.  The kids are already waiting to go again today.  And I realized last night this is another way our family can enjoy time together!!

loading up to go

71 year old gram with hair flying

City of Buffalo in distance

 

Chance waiting to take off

 

selfies

cool boat ahead

amazing what you find on the water

Our friends Don and Cindy

cruising

sunset heading home

 

Niagara Falls

We live 15 minutes away from the mighty Niagara Falls. These are from the American side of the Falls and the rapids leading up to it taken from Goat Island. BEAUTY!!

Is it there?

I have posted our weather has been horrible with very little sun, tons of rain and dark gloomy days and that we live on an Island approximately 26 miles around.  The only way on and off is via 2 bridges. 

This morning I was driving up the bridge on my way to work and the fog was so thick it appeared I was driving to nowhere.

A few yards ahead I saw the familiar blue arches leading to my next destination!!