OK, I am up from my nap and mostly dry. You don't want to know what my hair looks like and, since I am picking the pictures, you won't see it. But that was a GREAT day.
The adventure began at the Cave of the Winds. There isn't really a cave, at least not that I saw. I did get to experience a form of boot camp though. We trotted from the furthest reaches of the parking lot, through the stanchions intended to guide you to the photography booth which our tour guide warned us away from due to the time involved. Time, he assured us, we did not have. Then into a cavernous room where we were handed two squares of plastic and a tiny torture device called a sandal. Out of our shoes and socks we began un-velcro-ing this "footware" and tried to get it fastened around our toes and ankles. That accomplished, badly and with some minor tearing, we had to put the shoes and socks we took off into one of the squares of plastic (the other was purported to be a raincoat.) We barely had time to manage the first two steps when the tour guide ordered us on to the next hike.
Now we follow the crowd to a bank of elevators, "Number 2" someone orders and we take the small silver box down 100 plus feet into the river gorge. Then it is down another series of ramps until we find the reason for the "rain coats" which we finally have the opportunity to put on. In the wind and with my particular head size, this was no less a feat than the sandal drill.
The idea is to follow a paved path to these wooden platforms which lead to stairs that take you up to the two smaller falls on the American side or down to jagged rocks below. We stopped at the second platform. It was impressive enough. I felt sort of like when I went to the St. Louis Arch. No thank-you, I can see it fine from down here. 
And, I could too. It was MAGNIFICENT. Even with the the deadline to get back to the tour bus, I kept announcing, "I just want to get one more picture." From the looks of her picture below, CaDiva seems to agree.
So, we came back up the series of ramps to the elevator to the main level, through the obstacle course, pass the statue of Nicola Tesla and into the parking lot where we hooked up with the bus again. Now we're are off to the Maid of the Mist. This is a boat trip which will take us face to face with both the American Falls and Horseshoe Falls.
The parking lot was well out and through a trail of different foot paths but our noble leader managed to get us to the ticket booth mostly together. (Unfortunately he wasn't there to guide us on the way back, so CaDiva and I did a little "exploring" which means we walked a long long way away from the bus before two kindly, although equally lost, tourist said "I think Parking Lot A is back that way." We asked for the elevator rather than stairs this trip and walked quickly past the Falls to our left (as instructed) and down the corridors to the other elevators down to the level where we will walk down yet another series of ramps to be handed another square of plastic and lead to the boat.
Our tour guide assured us the lower level of the boat was drier (with a place to sit atop the box of life vests) than the upper level but just leave off your "rain coat" aka square of plastic if you want to get truly wet. Ok, he was right about that part. I chose to sit on mine because, wait until you hear this bit, the life vest box was wet. Ok, so not the best choice I made. But, I did dry and I had the time of my life. Not all of the pictures could show detail because the mist was so incredible. I caught the top and sides of the Falls before we were completely enveloped in the wall of water droplets.
At one point, I called out from the railing (I gave up my seat very quickly) "Can you see this?" Only to see CaDiva had her eyes closed and head laid back shouting in return, "No, but I can feel it." If you are ever in this area and don't go down to the gorge, you will regret it for all eternity. I even caught a couple of rainbows off the side of the boat.
Back up the way we came, we had the opportunity to see the Falls from Observation Tower. (The view we were forbidden from seeing earlier for fear we wouldn't get on the boat in time.) Not only was it equally magnificent in its splendor, we got a little dried off from the wind.
Unfortunately, I ran out of battery before I could get film of the whirlpool, but by that time, I had less juice than my EverReady AA. We were homeward and nap bound. The sun, which had been with us all day, was retreating behind rain clouds and we decided to dine on left over pasta and bad bottled water.
DANG - it was a GOOD day.
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