Jet Boat!

When we picked up brochures of the area while we were waiting for our Erie Canal tour, Forry immediately noticed one for jet boat tours of the Niagara River gorge. I checked their website out on the Internet and the next thing you know we were scheduled for a boat ride this afternoon.

This is the picture of Forry and I that they snapped as we were getting on the boat.

And this is a picture of our whole group once we were on the purple boat.  Forry and I are in the fifth row back on the right side. If we were to do this again, we'd be a bit more assertive and get to the front of the line so that we could sit closer to the front!

This is a shot from the DVD we bought of the trip. They had a camera on the front of the boat. We took a look at a rapids rated a 6, but only went through the ones rated 4s and 5s. We did get really wet. They had warned us to bring a complete change of clothes and we needed it. We ended up completely soaked! The boats are also designed to allow water to drain out the back. There were several times that water in the bottom of the boat was almost up to my knees. Surprisingly, the water wasn't that cold! You could tell it wasn't from our mountain glacier fed Western rivers...

The jet boats are extremely maneuverable.  We did some 360 degree spins (Hamilton turns). This shot is from the camera at the back of the boat. Forry and I are on the left alone in the fourth row of people.

This is one of Whirlpool jet boat tours' stock shots of the purple boat. When it's colder, most people opt to wear parkas to keep them a bit warmer (children are required to wear them along with the life jackets.). There were two more of the company's boats out playing in the rapids. It was fun to watch the pink and yellow green boats as they made their runs through the white water.

This was another fun day. It was raining this morning on our way to Lewiston to catch the boat, but the sun was hot by the time we got out on the river.