This weekend we took an awesome trip to Niagara Falls! I have been planning it for awhile, and thinking about it for even longer! We got passports for everyone and the kids are now international travelers!
We left bright and early Friday morning, preparing for the long drive. The map said 7hr15m but it took us closer to nine hours! I lost track of how many times we stopped! But we made it, eventually. :)
Instead of getting three hotel rooms, I rented a sweet little house through HomeAway. My first time doing such a thing, but it went really well!
Friday was nice and sunny, but the forecast was rain, rain, rain for the weekend, so we hurried down to the falls Friday night to get our first glimpse.
Saturday morning we woke to rain, as expected. We gathered up the umbrellas and went out anyway. The plan for the day was the Butterfly Conservatory and the Floral Showhouse, both indoors.
The Butterfly Conservatory was very cool, full of beautiful butterflies (of course) and plants. The kids each had cameras and took lots of pictures. It was a beautiful place to visit.
After we left the Butterfly Conservatory we took advantage of our bus passes and took the WeGo bus to the Floral Showhouse. Lex was excited to ride the bus. Despite the downpour, we huddled under our umbrellas and waited for the bus. It was fun for awhile. :)
Saturday was actually Mom’s birthday and we talked about going out to a fancy restaurant for dinner, but by the time we got home we were all wet and cold so instead of going back out to a fancy dinner we instead bundled in warm clothes and ate enchiladas at home.
The original plan was to do the Journey Behind the Falls adventure and the Hornblower Cruise on Sunday, but since the weather as so awful we decided to reschedule those for Monday and just kick back and relax on Sunday. It took a little running around (for me and Rose) to get it all set, but it was totally worth it!
Sunday afternoon cleared up a bit (well, the rain stopped anyway), so we went for the Aero Car trip across the whirlpools.
Then we went up to the Skylon Tower! I originally thought it would be fun to have dinner up there, but the prices were higher than the tower so I reconsidered that idea! Instead we just went up to the viewing deck and hung out. Great views of the whole Niagara area. I imagine the views would be even better if it weren’t so overcast!
Monday we woke to blue skies and sunshine. Excellent! We packed up and “checked out” of our house and headed for the Journey Behind the Falls.
Then we grabbed some ice cream and headed over to the Hornblower Cruise. I’m so glad we got at least one day of sunshine. It was beautiful.
I purchased Adventure Passes online before our trip so we were able to skip the ticket lines and head straight to the boat!
After our cruise we parted ways with the rest of the family. They headed home and we headed to Coco’s for lunch! Then we crossed back into the USA and drove an hour and a half to visit Jim and Julie! The kids are all so big now, but they still hit it off like old friends. :)
We took a drive over to Jim’s brother’s farm to visit the baby animals, then stopped at Wegmans for dinner (love that store!), then headed home for games and silliness.
Tuesday morning, bright and early, we headed home. The return trip was a little bit faster thanks to an excellent audio book and a huge rain cloud that accompanied us most of the way.
The kids are already asking when we can go back. :)
If you care to see all of the 500+ pictures I took, feel free to check out the Google album. I can’t figure out how to add captions. I swear Google makes this photo thing harder and harder every time I try to use it. If you’re not sharing with the world on Google+ they don’t want anything to do with you. Sigh.
what a perfect little vacation! your pictures look soo awesome. what an awesome place!