I didn’t forget to write about Niagara Falls, but I do think it's one of those places that you have to see in person in your lifetime. I really don’t believe I have any words that are adequate to describe it; if you haven’t been there, you should try to go. The place is clearly a titanic metaphor: a staggering amount of water! The force and the power nature has generated there just have to be experienced in person.

Niagara Falls is a landmark in the true sense of the word. And its a place I never managed to see until I was over 60, and I’ve been a New Yorker my whole life. I had some serious tourist-y fun walking “beneath” the falls and getting soaked, despite the yellow rain coat. Actually, we were walking on wooden steps and boardwalks, which brought us alongside the falls. It was amazing, overwhelming, and very satisfying, in a bucket-list sort of way.

The Maid of the Mist boat ride provided the best view of the falls. One photo I took of all of us in blue raincoats, holding our cameras and cell phones over our heads looks like we were praying to some massive, primitive god. Perhaps we were.