Niagara Falls or Bust

In my last post you heard all about the dark side of our family trip to Niagara Falls and Toronto, and there were some dark moments, in fact, I don’t think you can spell family vacations without the words “snot cam” or “oily cat” or “it’s a fail” which I realize doesn’t make much sense, but I’m just coming off of 5 days cooped up with my nearest and dearest and I’m feeling a little bit lightheaded.

We did have a good time.  An amazing time.  We stayed on both the American side and the Canadian side.  The American side was a bit run-down, very few restaurants, and very little entertainment, but…it is the side with most of the falls which means lots of walks and hiking, and getting right up close to the falls, which was breathtaking!

The red decks and walkways are Cave of the Winds…remember that for later.

If you go to Canada, you must ride the Maid of the Mist, if only for the fashionable, neon poncho you get to keep!

(The bridge behind the kids is the Rainbow Bridge, which connects the US to Canada... later we walked across it and straddled the line between the two countries, which was pretty cool.)

The Maid of the Mist will take you right to the base of the Horseshoe Falls.  You will get wet.  It was fabulous!

Our other favorite on the American side was the Cave of the Winds.  It was no cave…apparently the cave collapsed many years ago.  Instead it was a series of walkways and decks that took you right next to the base of the falls.  We got another souvenir poncho and these awesome souvenir sandals for this one!

Then we headed off on our walk next to the falls.  I got a few pictures of about a million gazillion seagull nests and then had to put my camera away. It was thousands of time wetter than Maid of the Mist.  One of the decks was called Hurricane Deck and I really did fear that the falling, splashing, spraying water would push the kids off that deck.  Jack held my hand and left that one crying, he was scared too.  We had to scream to be heard and the spray and wind from the falls lashed at us violently.  We did the Cave of the Winds walk twice, and even with the poncho, we were all totally soaked through.  But it was incredible!

Then we headed to the Canadian side, which offered some amazing views of the falls, because you were across the river from the falls.

The view from the top of the Skylon Tower.

You can see the walkways and decks of the Cave of the Winds in the center-right of the photo above.

We also went on the Journey Behind the Falls tour on the Canadian side.  We took an elevator down through the earth and came out next to the Horseshoe Falls.  We could also walk through a tunnel and look out from behind the falls.  Compared to Cave of the Winds, though, it was a bit boring.

And yes, you do get wet.  And you get ANOTHER poncho.

The Canadian side had all the fun stuff.  We ate at a Rainforest Café and played mini-golf and walked around the Clifton Hill area which was very much like the boardwalk at the beach:  wax museums, t-shirt shops, haunted house rides, restaurants, and ice cream stands!  Bring your wallet, people.

Next we headed to Toronto.  We wanted to visit their zoo, and we were greeted at the front gate by this guy:

He was a very mean swan who watched all the people go by and would snap at you if you came too close, as Jack quickly found out.  I won’t show you many more zoo pictures, because you saw several already in my last post.  We had a great day there though. 

We also spent one morning on Lake Ontario.  The sunshine was warm (which was nice after Niagara Falls’ chilly weather), the kids played in the pebbles and looked for sea glass and skipped stones, and it was calm and relaxing.

Do you see Toronto behind the kids?

I’m so glad we did it.  I’m also so glad we’re back home again. 

P.S.-Someone asked me if the kids needed passports.  They did not.  Children under age 16 may use birth certificates instead.  Dave and I both needed passports.  We had two interesting encounters in the Border Control station (or whatever it’s called).  On our way into Canada, Jack was feeling grumpy and closed his window on the border control guy who wanted to match each child with their birth certificate.  Duuuude.  You don’t tick off the border control guy (who luckily realized Jack was being a stinker, but still insisted on the window going down again).    The other fun moment was after our trek across the Rainbow Bridge, heading back into Canada (again).  Maddie asked the Border Control guy if he could throw a wrapper away for her.  He glared at her, and said, “I don’t think so.”  DUDE!  Don’t tick off the border control guy!!!!  Sheesh.