The Glassy Sea

What a beautiful picture of our vacation. First we drove up to Niagara Falls. They don't actually seem that tall at first sight because they're so wide. You can see the spray a long ways away. If you haven't been, go. The falls are awesome, and the park is nice, and it actually doesn't cost way too much to do everything up there if you get the special "Passport to the Falls." First we went on the Maid of the Mist. Then the falls seemed plenty tall. You go so far into the spray that everything in front of you becomes enveloped in this cloudy and yet moving and grainy white. To the side is this huge wall of water, like the one Reepicheep goes up in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Then we went to the "History of the Falls" video. Then we went to the aquarium. Then, we stayed in the park, sitting on a picnic tablecloth, next to the rapids above the falls, and played games. That night we came back at sunset, when they light the falls with colored lights. It was so gorgeous. I really loved it when they lit it all in white; the spray seemed so expansive. The next day we went on the little islands in between the falls. We walked right down to the foot of the smallest fall. Even though Bridalveil Falls only contains one percent of Niagara's water, it was still awesome to stand right in its spray. It's called the Hurricane Deck. It was even more beautiful that day, with the sun shining brilliantly on the falls and turning them all shining too. The third day we went on a hike down the gorge. There were the remains of old stone bridges; it sort of made you think of Osgiliath.

Then, we went to Watkins Glen. All three days, we walked through the gorge. The rocks and caves and many small waterfalls were just glorious. We also went twice to the Corning Glass museum. I thought it would be hard to fill the three hours they suggested giving as a minimum to it. We spent five hours both days, and still didn't see everything. They had a guest exhibition of Czech glass art. Then there was a huge room filled with glass objects throughout history - everything from Egypt to Rome to the Arabs to Renaissance to modern. The museum did a very good job of explaining the making of glass, too, as well as the trends in style. Then, there was the science room. Corning developed Pyrex cooking glass, the 200" piece for the Hale telescope in Palomar, CA, the heat-resistant glass used in the space shuttles, etc. There were also glass-blowing demonstratations. We saw three different glass artists at work while we were there. Then, there's the store. It's like a museum in itself! My favorite pieces were the clear ones with something inside them. I liked the ones with holograms inside them, and the ones that were little alien planets, with mountains and rivers and strange plants.

The glass pieces we saw being made have to cool overnight. The first day, we saw a blue vase being made, and one just like it was being raffled off. Unfortunately (we thought), we didn't win it. My mom really liked it, and it was almost her birthday. We wanted to at least see the store again, and so the second day we came back. We found out that the tickets are good for two days. So, we went to another couple of demonstrations. This time, my mom one the blue vase - the very one we had seen being made the day before! God's birthday present to her.

Mackenzie's blog has inspired me to finally mention that I also got a haircut. I've had long, straight-cut hair since about third grade. I wanted something different. Plus, it was getting too heavy. However, I didn't want to have to curl it or put gel in it or get it cut every other week. One of my friends tried turning her head upside down and then cutting off her hair that way. I figured I could try it, and, if I didn't like it, I could just cut it off straight again. So I did, and my hair turned out layered, tapered, lighter, still long in the back, and naturally curlier to boot. Ha!

Back to my vacation, I really loved seeing all that light in the water and glass. I also got some more ideas for my story. Bye!