Monday morning we woke up bright and early…not so much! We were still very much on Illinois time and
not New York time. The kids have been
going to bed around 10 and getting up at 8.
Which isn’t too different than home if you say 9 and 7. We decided to spend Monday at Niagara Falls
and get everything in we possibly could in 1 day and if we needed to we could
come back on Tuesday. Around 10 am we headed toward the falls. We had an idea of where we wanted to park for
the day, but the parking lot was too small for our motorhome, so we headed
toward one of the official RV parking lots.
On our way we found a cheaper spot to park that wasn’t too far from any
of the spots we were going. Plus the
fact that there is a pedestrian path almost everywhere it made it really easy
to walk safely.
Everything around the falls is stroller and handicap
accessible except a few places, all the levels of Cave of the Winds and the
walkway by the falls near the Maid of the Mist.
This was very helpful to us because with 3 small children somebody was
always in the stroller when possible.
For the Cave of the Winds we did have to let everyone out of the
stroller and Cecilia rode in the pouch.
Vince spent a good portion of the day walking and I was so proud of him
for that. He also got to ride on a
skateboard like contraption that connects to the back of the stroller and he
was able to ride in the stroller while he napped. Joel was mostly in the stroller or walking
around with one of us holding his hand tightly!
He also spent a very small amount of time on the “skateboard.” Cecilia split her time between the stroller
and the pouch. It all worked out and
everyone was happy most of the time.
 |
| Vince on his "skateboard" |
 |
| Mommy and sleeping Cecilia at the falls |
 |
| Daddy and sleeping Joel at the falls |
At Niagara Falls they have a Discovery Pass that lets you do
5 attractions for a discounted price.
The kids were all free with the pass because they are so young and that
was a nice perk. We started our day at
the Niagara Aquarium. The kids really
liked it! I don’t know if I would go
there again, but I am glad we checked it out. My favorite was the sea lions and seals.
 |
| Silly penguins! |
 |
| Joel napping |
After that we walked on a Pedestrian Bridge to the Niagara
Falls Discovery Center.
Vince was really
excited about this.
He kept saying “we
are walking over traffic!”
The Discovery
Center was neat and we road in a simulation ride to teach us about the
different layers of rock in the Earth’s crust.
Joel pulled his hat over his eyes and napped the whole time we were
there.
Vince enjoyed the simulation ride
and pushing all the buttons to start the informative videos at each place.
If you are really into earth science and
natural history it is neat, but it wasn’t really for us.
Next we went to see the falls. It was amazing! It was pretty windy up there so in most of my
pictures my hair is all over the place.
 |
| Joel woke up and the wind was giving me some wonderful hair |
After we saw the falls we headed over to watch the movie
“Niagara: Legends of Adventure.”
It told the
stories and legends that are known about people who went over the falls (on purpose and
accidentally) and lived to tell about it. It was amazing.
I think this was the first movie Joel or
Cecilia have ever been to.
Joel did
really well sitting on Brad’s lap for the whole movie.
Vince kept getting a little excited and at
one point said “He is going to go over the falls and die!” Half way through the movie Cecilia decided it would be fun to sound like a pterodactyl. I had to try really hard not to laugh and to get her to be quiet!
 |
| Vincent |
 |
| Brad looking good in his blue poncho |
 |
| Ready for Maid of the Mist |
 |
| Another Rainbow |
 |
| Mommy and her boys...very wet on the boat ride |
 |
| Joel and Mommy on Maid of the Mist |
 |
| Horseshoe Falls |
After the movie it was mid afternoon and pretty hot, so we
thought it would be the perfect time to ride the Maid of the Mist. A 2 story boat that takes you pass the bottom
of the American and Horseshoe (Canadian) Falls.
We all were given blue ponchos. I
didn’t put Cecilia’s on her and figured she would stay dry in her
stroller. It worked! She was the driest one of all of us. The Horseshoe Falls is where 90% of the water goes over and it is breath taking!
 |
| Maid of the Mist |
 |
| American Falls |
 |
| Apparently I was the only one looking for the picture |
 |
| Joel and Daddy. Can you tell we always had at least one hand on Joel? |
After the boat ride we decide to head to Goat Island so we could go
to Cave of the Winds.
As we crossed over
onto Goat Island we had 2/3 kids sleeping and for Cave of the Winds that wasn’t
going to work.
We can only carry so many
kids at one time and when the oldest is sleeping it kind or ruins any plans of
going somewhere where the stroller isn’t allowed.
Brad and I decided to walk around Goat
Island.
We wanted to anyway at some point on our adventure and it gave
Vince and Cecilia time to sleep and Joel got an opportunity to walk for a
little while (we hoped it would wear him out, but I don’t think it worked).
 |
| One of our sleeping kids |
 |
| Joel and Daddy walking around Goat Island |
 |
| Self portrait near Horseshoe Falls |
 |
| Rainbow over Goat Island |
 |
| The boys in front of Horseshoe Falls |
We visited Three Sisters Islands and took a path that gave
us a good view of Horseshoe Falls. It is
absolutely amazing how fast the water is flowing, the roar it makes and how big
the falls are. I just couldn’t get over
it.
 |
| Behind Brad is the where the water picks up speed for the Horseshoe Falls |
 |
| American Falls with Observation Tower |
After we had three awake kids we went to Cave of the
Winds.
We ditched the stroller and took
an elevator down 150 ft, grabbed yellow ponchos and headed to the stairway to
get closer to the falls.
Getting the
ponchos on the kids was interesting and getting the poncho on me and over
Cecilia in the pouch was a challenge.
I
had to rip the front of it so that she wasn’t able to suck on the plastic and
even then she kept reaching and grabbing for it.
 |
| Brad and Joel and a rainbow |
 |
| Brad and Joel heading down to Cave of the Winds |
 |
| Vince being a goof! |
 |
| My new favorite family photo |
 |
| Thanks strangers for taking our picture for us! |
As we were on the stairways heading towards the Hurricane
Deck Vince started complaining about getting wet. Joel just had a smile on his face and seemed
to enjoy it most of the time. Cecilia
didn’t seem to mind her head getting wet.
In almost every direction you looked you could see rainbows. Up on the Hurricane deck we had to drag Vince
(Literally! Brad and I each grabbed an arm and Vince resisted and we drug him a few feet) close to the area where you could get soaked.
He hated it and tried to run away!
After the rest of us were sufficiently soaked I went with Vince and Brad
and Joel went back to get wet. The power
of that water is just incredible!
 |
| Hurricane Deck |
 |
| Vince and Joel near Hurricane Deck |
 |
| Side view of Hurricane Deck |
Afterwards we walked around a little bit and tried to come
up with a plan to see the falls at night when they are illuminated.
The problem was we didn’t want to stick
around for another 2 hours, well the kids weren’t going to make it another 2
hours (they were starving and tired).
We still hadn’t taken a ride on
the trolley, but we had to fold the stroller, which meant emptying everything
out of the basket and carry all of the stuff plus the kids, etc.
It sounded like too much work, when we could
just walk 20-30 minutes and be back to the motorhome.
Vince had been begging all day to ride the
trolley so we had to take him.
We took
the divide and conquer approach.
Vince
and Brad took the trolley (Brad offered to push the stroller but I wanted to
walk) and I took the two little ones and walked.
We had a blast!
Joel got to ride on the “skateboard”. Plus we got to the parking lot at the same time.
 |
| Cecilia on Maid of the Mist |
 |
| Brad and Cecilia |
 |
| Observation Tower...you take the elevator down to the Maid of the Mist |
 |
| Vincent and Mommy |
We ended up eating dinner in the motorhome the parking lot
at 9pm.
Then off to the store to get a
few things we needed.
While Vince and I
were shopping Brad gave Joel a shower and put him to bed.
Vince went right to bed as well when the shopping trip was over.
It was close to 11pm when we finally got to
the campground.
We were all
exhausted!
 |
| Joel and Daddy |
 |
| Now where are you people taking me? |
 |
| Vince, Mommy and the bridge to Canada |
No comments:
Post a Comment