Day 18 of our June 2008 vacation

Today we toured Old Fort Niagara for a couple of hours. It was less expensive for the 6 of us to join for a year as a family then to enter in as 6 adults (since their child range stopped at 12), so we joined for a year family pass :) It was interesting how often this Fort traded hands -> starting out with the French who built the first 'house of peace' - a fortress made to look like a house instead of a fort, for their trading in the early 1700's with the Indians - it made the British mad, and in the French-Indian War, became the ownership for 40 years by the British after a 19 day siege on the Fort and the eventual surrender of the French. 12 years after the Revolutionary war had ended, due to working out the peace treaty, the British handed over the fort to the Americans. Then the war of 1812 came and we attacked from the fort against the northern shores of Lake Superior, but they had the high ground and actually had better success, so in the winter of that year, the Americans built a 3rd floor to give them the height advantage of their cannon shot and as the war continued in 1813 with the assistance of the American fleet, we had the advantage and nearly wiped out the British fortress on the northern shores. When we landed, we not only burned their fort, but their entire town (a bad thing) as the British took revenge in December of 1813 and did a surprise night attack, killing 65 and taking as POW's 335 of our men, and took the 15 stars and 15 stripe flag down and captured it, and replaced the fort with the British flag - flying again over Fort Niagara. When that war finished, the British again returned the Fort to the Americans peacefully. So the fort has seen 3 countries flags, exchanging 5 times. The reason this was important was prior to the Erie canal being built was due to the fact the ships had to port around Niagara Falls in order to continue on out further west (from the Atlantic ocean). There was a lot of hands on things to do, and we all had a very good time there.

Then we went on to see Niagara Falls. We took the Maid of the Mist ride out into the river at the base of the falls enjoying the beautiful scenery our Lord created. The falls are named: the American falls on the left, Bridal falls, right next to them on the right, then an area where a LOT of birds had gathered on the rocks, then the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side, what I typically think of when I visualize Niagara falls.

We came back to the campsite and rested our legs from quite a bit of walking today and were surprised, yet again, by a community band that was playing (quite well actually too) in the State Park, so we enjoyed listening to a free concert!

We have been thankful for this trip, thanking the Lord for our wonderful weather, and no real major problems (I've listed a couple minor ones along the way, but nothing ever major.)

Our last night at this campground in Darien State Park in NY.