Let It Rain: Niagara Falls, NY

There are not too many man-made landmarks that look better in person than they do in an exquisitely shot photograph. The right lens can make the Statue of Liberty look much bigger, same also with the Washington Monument. Everyone who has been to Pisa – from my high school Latin teacher to my cousin Jeanne – has said the tower is underwhelming and the town is a tourist trap.

However, the same cannot be said of natural wonders. This is also something I have struggled with in our travels as our de facto photographer – it is easy to photograph buildings, cities, people, even interesting graffiti we see along the way. But it is hard as Hell for a camera, even a fancy one, to capture the size and might of the natural world.

Niagara Falls is one such place. In my lifetime, I have visited the falls as a baby, a preschooler, a high schooler, and now once more as an adult. It truly is a sight to behold, and no amount of photos, movie clips, or even my own words can really describe it unless you are there, right in front of it.

In this age where knowledge is power, and with a gut-busting defense budget to reinforce said power, we tend to rhapsodize constantly about the myth of our own indestructibility. If something ugly happens that doesn’t involve some sociopath with a gun at a public place – that is to say, natural disasters – we try not to think about it. In our travels, we frequently eat breakfast in motel lobbies that feature the Weather Channel. The way the anchors can so nonchalantly describe wildfires, floods, and heatwaves is disgusting and disturbing. People’s lives are ruined, forever altered, or even abruptly ended, and these starch-sprayed plastics breezily mention it like they are talking about a day in the park. After all, what does it say about the universe if our intelligence, our technology, or even our very structure of living can be wiped out by something like nature?

It is with that notion that a site like Niagara Falls is best admired. In a single second, over 100,000 cubic feet of water traverses the falls. A number of measurement like that is too great to comprehend, so consider this: one cubic foot of water is roughly 62 pounds. Take that times 100,000. That is over 6,200,000 pounds of water pouring over the falls in a second. That number I gave isn’t even the peak flow – that is the average of the hot summer months. Peak flow is 202,000 cubic feet per second.

Observing the grand scale of nature and tallying up the numbers like I just did serves as a reminder, one indelicate, one much more delicate. On the one hand, Niagara Falls will continue with its impressive flow long after I am gone, long after you are gone, and long after anyone else we know and their descendants are gone. The casinos, haunted houses, taffy shops, and wax museums may vie for your attention – maybe even succeed – but those, too, shall pass. Just like the Georgia Guidestones warned us so many months ago, “Leave room for nature . . . Leave room for nature.”

On the other, softer, hand: whatever your personal philosophy might be, marvel at the sheer fact that you are alive and able to live in a world where something as powerful and as mighty as Niagara Falls exists.

The people who seemed to appreciate that - and we were there on a hot summer day - were the ones who, like us, were able to shut the fuck up, put their phones away, and simply watch in awe. The one's who didn't? They were impatiently looking at their watches, corralling their stupid kids (usually with a little too much force), and wondering how long they had to stand there and watch the water before they could go to the casino, wax museum, haunted house, or go buy enough saltwater taffy to kill a small army.

Lastly, should you cross the border on foot via the Rainbow Bridge, expect only the rudest, power-abusing meathead dickbag of a tax-funded rent-a-cop at customs. Despite that, it is totally worth it.

On two very unrelated - but worthy - notes, we had lunch at the famous Anchor Bar in Buffalo, birthplace of Buffalo Wings. Maybe we got spoiled from Cajun, Thai, and Indian food, or maybe people up North have a very different idea of what constitutes spicy, but even their "suicide" wing sauce brought about only a mere tingle. Still, Alexa managed to eat 18 of our 20-wing order:

Finally, perhaps the best part of our day - which, considering that we saw Niagara Falls and also Alexa's crazy pop-eye after demolishing a plate of wings - was visiting the DiBlasi family farm. It was there that my grandfather and his 9 siblings were raised. Upon retiring from a career in healthcare at the local VA, my great-uncle John and his wife Lucille (Lu) took over the farm. I had only visited twice, over twenty years earlier, and was even reluctant to call. I was glad I did.

As we ate dinner, I rather stupidly asked if John and Lu were living in the same house. I remembered several years back that the farmhouse had burnt down. John said that I was thinking of the adjacent property, where Frank DiBlasi lived. We shared a laugh when I realize John and Lu's house was indeed the same, only in the 20 years since I had last been there, I had just gotten bigger! After catching up on family and telling them about our book, it was time for us to go. I was happy to have seen them again, and we were both delighted to see a couple in their late 80's still very much in love with one another.