August Blogging: 70 Posts

August was a pretty good month for blogging. I wrote 70 journal entries, my most since December 2024 (when I also wrote 70). At 2.26 blogs per day it's a big uptick from my pace in July and June, when it felt like a struggle just to hit 1.5/day.

What was different in August? The obvious answer is travel. This blog has always been primarily about my adventures and observations while traveling, and in August I had a whopping 5 trips.

Part, too, of publishing 70 journal entries in the month was planning them out. For most of the month I hit a stride of 2/day. I did that often with a conscious 1+1 combination: 1 post about a trip I'd taken recently, 1 about something else that was happening.

Late in the month I upped my pace as my trip in Canada brought more things to write about. I wrote 3-4 a day for several days. And I'm still about 5 days behind! But writing that much while still doing things took even more planning. I drafted posts ahead of time to get some of the easier and/or repetitive work out of the way when I had idle time, then filled in photos, video, and colorful details when I was ready with them.

September is shaping up to be another busy blogging month, too. For starters I've still got a backlog of about 10 Canada trip posts I'm working through. Then I've got 4 more trips planned for September!

Visiting Niagara Falls

Canada travelog #23
Niagara Falls, ON · Wed, 27 Aug 2025. 10:45am.

Today we're visiting Niagara Falls in Canada. Both Hawk and I have been to Niagara Falls before, but it was a) on the US side and b) when we were kids. She visited with her family when she was 18. I visited with mine when I was... 10, I think. It was a long time ago!

We've blocked the whole day to spend visiting the falls. We even got up early and had a quick breakfast in the room so we could get out faster. Was that necessary? Strictly speaking, no. We got here with plenty of time to spare. But it's beautiful here so, yes, it's time well spent.

After a bit of circling to find parking once we got to the falls we found a primo spot in the park less than a block from the edge of the cliff. Better yet, the spot was just $24 for all day. Converting that from CAD to "real" money 🤣 it's just under $17.50.



The best part about where we parked was it was just steps to the edge of the canyon and all the views. The photo above shows the American side of Niagara Falls. The boat in the water is the Maid of the Mist, a ferry that carries passengers past both the American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls (next photo).



The Horseshoe Falls are right here next to us, too, on the Canadian side. Having been to Niagara from both sides (US and Canada) now I can say that the Canadian side is way better. It's not a cultural thing; it's that the views are way better! It just so much easier to see everything from here. And the fact that there's basically a city park that stretches 1 km along the top of the cliff makes it so easy to appreciate the natural beauty.

Here's a short video of what you can see from a single vantage point in Niagara Falls, Canada:

Watch on YouTube

The ferry you see in the mist of the Horseshoe Falls is not the Maid of the Mist, it's the Niagara City Cruise. What's the difference? Maid of the Mist departs from a dock on the US side, Niagara City operates from the Canadian side. How can you tell which is which? The colors! The US ferry operator gives everyone blue ponchos, the Canada ferry kits them out in red.



I remember fondly riding Maid of the Mist when I was 10. For me it was the high point of our family trip to Niagara Falls. And now Hawk and I are going to do it again, together. We've got tickets for later today, but since we're here early we'll see if we can join and earlier boarding and have more time later in the day for more sightseeing.

Relaxing by the Pool on Labor Day

How apropos that today's Labor Day and I'm continuing to take it easy. This is the third day in a row— the whole holiday weekend— that Hawk and I have relaxed at home, spending warm afternoons by the pool.



Why spend a holiday weekend at home? Don't we have places to travel? Well, we just got back Friday night from a week in Canada. Originally we had planned to be there through last night but called an audible to rebook to go home 2 days early due to a problem with dry balls. It was hard to come up with another weekend trip on the spur of the moment. And ultimately both of us felt we'd be happier just taking it easy for 3 days and enjoying the pool in the warm weather.

This weekend has actually been some of the summer-iest weather we've had all year. Several cities around the Bay Area saw their warmest day of 2025 yesterday or Saturday. Locally the temp peaked at 94° F.

The photo above shows that our community pool with only a few people in/around it. That's often the case with our pool— few people use it. But Sunday and especially today it's gotten crowded later in the afternoon. Yesterday there were 5 families (including ours) out there at the peak. Today by 4pm it was similar. The crowding is a bit of a nuisance because we no longer have the water to ourselves. But at the same time we're glad to see more of our neighbors enjoy it, too.