When Will The Maid of the Mist Be Back?

There are several ways in Western New York to tell when spring is on the way and most of those ways are some of the most Buffalo ways around.

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Some of the important calendar landmarks I'm thinking about are things like:

• All of us struggling with the time change after springing ahead from daylight saving time,
• Watching the US Army Corp of Engineers start to pull the Lake Erie Ice Boom from the water,
• and when single-game tickets go on sale to watch the Buffalo Bisons.

Another surefire way to know when spring is on the way is when Maid of the Mist Corp. begins to rewater the boats for the year. Given the weird winter we've had this year, it looks like that's going to happen a little later in the month, but one Facebook user caught a glimpse of one a boat of somekind in the waters in the Niagara Gorge.

While this boat isn't from the Maid of the Mist Fleet, this is the earliest I can remember hearing about any sort of boat being in the water doing shakedown runs.

I can't wait to be able to hop aboard one of the Maid of the Mist's two vessels, James V. Glynn and Nikola Tesla. The pair of vessels are catamaran-style boats that are fully electric-powered. They replaced the company's fleet of diesel-powered boats that had been in service for several years. The new boats have the same capacity as the diesel ones and produce zero emissions.

Winter's Not Done With Us Yet

I know I will be very happy when spring finally bounces into town for good because I am really looking forward to taking my snowbrush out of my car. However, that won't be happening anytime soon as another winter weather advisory has been issued for many parts of New York State, and at least 6 inches of snow is expected in the short-term.