We went to Niagara Falls this weekend, on the Canadian side. I had been as a 13 year old, but I remembered all the cheesy things...the tourist trap street full of Ripley's Believe It or Not, Movie Star Wax Museum, and etc. etc. etc. A winding street of bright lights and amazing things. So I came back to the falls, excited, but with a bit of skepticism over the cheesiness of the whole place. One look out the hotel window and I was awe struck. Still, standing in line to go on the Maid of the Mist ferry ride, I was still skeptical. Crowds of people lined the boat all sporting see through blue plastic bag parkas with cameras and video cameras clutched in hand. I followed my husband quickly to get the prime spot and made out to be enthusiastic. Been there, done that, as my daughter would say.

I was wrong, I was bowled over by the sheer enormity of being in the middle of the horseshoe falls being whipped about, soaked to the skin, and deafened by the roar of so much water cascading so close by. Grinning from ear to ear and water running down my face, the boat turned to head back out of the fall area and I was once again floored. I was instantly glad of the water running down my face because it hid the tears as I looked at the most perfect rainbow, beginning and end. The end of the rainbow wasn't over there behind that cloud, or down the next street, or in the next town, but right in front of me down in the water. I cannot tell you how many "End of the Rainbow" finding expeditions I went on as a child, as many times as there were rainbows to be seen. Here I was, 35 years old and I had found a rainbow with both ends in sight. So while my kids squeezed their eyes shut to make a wish on the best wishing rainbow ever, I could only grin and cry. I know rainbows are made from light refracting the water, I know that anyone can make a rainbow with some cut glass or a crystal, but for that moment I ignored the logic and simply enjoyed the pure magic of rainbow--then I grabbed my camera: