Once upon a time....Niagara Falls

Way back at the begining of September TJR&L arrived, two days later we took them on a road trip to Niagara Falls - Toronto and Thousand Islands.

One of the most favourite things we did on the Niagara trip was a jet boat tour. due to the height restrictions two of our party were unable to go on the open boat - so we all decided to stick with them and take the covered boat instead. It was overcast and chilly and we were very glad that we had chosen to stay dry together than split up and have some of us very wet and very cold. It was still pretty exciting.















We viewed the Imax movie and took a look at the vessels that have taken folks over the falls.





W was really impressed with all of the vehicles that crazy people have used to descend the falls. Some making it, some not. I felt a little sad for the fellow's who got down alive but then got stuck in the vortex of the falls and suffocated to death after a few hours. Of course our favourite is Annie Taylor and her cat who were the first Europeans to do so.







Think Niagra think Gold Coast - well the tacky tourist strip at least. There is a Ripley's believe it or not, a haunted house, glow in the dark indoor mini golf, a wax works...and so on. So here are my three favourite things from that visit. Johnny, My lovely daughter and her beloved cousin at least on this day he loved her, and the Sky wheel which is pretty good, protected from the cold and has great views of both the American and Canadian Falls.










Views of Niagara Falls.

At night the Falls are lit with rainbow colours - slowly changing, it is quite spectacular and pretty cool to be able to see them at night.

Jo and I bought the children matching Canada T.shirts so had to have the requisit photo of them all, despite the fact they were freezing...it had to be done. Unfortunately it was rather chilly on our first day and we were inappropriately dressed as tourists from warmer places often are. Luckily the sun came out on the second day.

It rained a huge amount on the first day too, Jo and I raced across the road to the glass factory to take a look and see what we could spend some money on and we were soacked from our knees down - that rain that was not stopped from the rain coat and unbrella.










The Maid in the Mist.

We had been looking forward to doing the Maid in the Mist tour since our first trip to Niagara Last year when it had been closed due to the weather. So this time we set forth full of excitement and donned our delightful blue plastic ponchos which proved to be mightily inefective within a few minutes. Nevertheless we all (along with a few hundred other intrepid tourists) persevered with them and got wet with big wide grins on our faces, what fun!

The view of the falls was impressive and the roar of the water, the wind and the mist all made for a must do experience for anyone contemplating a visit to Niagara. The roar you can hear from most parts of the town and I played a game with M, where he had to close his eyes and imagine being in the first European exploration party to see the falls - they heard them for a long time before they saw them and they were actually frightened about what they might see.













J and L in mathcing nighties made by Grandma.



Dinner time at the hotel restaurant, they serve the BIGGEST meals in the whole world. Jo and I ordered small Ceasar salads, the waitress suggested we share a large becasue it was cheaper than two smalls and enough for two - it was HUGE and we laughed wondering if there was actually in individual out there who would actually attempt to eat it by themselves.






Of course the children had a wonderful time in the pool, not that it had been very long since they had been swimming. As usual we had a hard time getting them out at the end of pool time.