handful of love: What I Did on Summer Vacation

I've never been to Niagara Falls, much less to Canada, and I was very excited/apprehensive about our adventure. The apprehension had much more to do with trying to get everyone across the border because I had heard conflicting reports about what children need to get in Canada. Thankfully it turns out they only need birth certificates, but I wasn't 100% confident about that until we made it into Canada.

If you have never been to Niagara before, let me tell you...it is like nothing else I have ever seen. As we were nearing the border, but still not sure of how close we were, I saw what looked like smoke from a factory or something. That smoke turned out to be the mist from the Canadian Falls. Imagine the force it takes to create a mist that flies into the air like that... Amazing!

I was also expecting much more of a cheesy, amusement park-type of atmosphere than we found. granted, once you get into Canada you are barraged with casinos and restaurants and lights and billboards... But once we got down to the Falls and Niagara river, I was impressed by the classiness of the place.

It also helped our hotel room was 27 stories high with an unbelievable view of both Falls. Although the room was expensive (as everything is in that part of the world), it saved us quite a bit of money from all the tourist traps of getting you elevated to see the Falls. I can't tell you how many times we said to the kids, "That's the same view we have from our hotel room." In addition to the room, we had a two bedroom suite with two bathrooms. No stepping over stuff in that room!!!

View of the Canadian Falls from our hotel room

The American Falls are impressive as you can see in the pictures below. They hit a lot more rock as they fall so they don't seem as tall and majestic as the Canadian Falls, but they certainly would be more deadly if you went over them. Story about that later...

The Canadian Falls are wider, taller and create the aforementioned mist that sprays you if you get too close. Beautiful!

We did do some of the touristy things while we were there, including the Maid of the Mist and Journey Behind the Falls. While waiting for the Maid of the Mist, a boat ride on the river where you go through the mists of both Falls, there was a medical emergency on the boat before ours and we had to wait a bit. Once the boats were back on track, our boat was unloading the previous group and a lady came off soaked. She took off her shirt and bra and continued on through Niagara. Kyle giggled for 20 minutes after and still giggles when we bring it up. Those Canadians!

The Journey Behind the Falls was a little less exciting, tunnels dug behind the Canadian Falls and a platform beside them to really feel the force and deafen the people around you. We still ended up getting soaked. It is here we read about a 7 year-old survivor of the a boating accident and his sub-sequential falling over the Canadian Falls. It's hard not to think about how lucky that little boy was to first, fall over the Canadian Falls rather than the American Falls, but then to actually survive the magnitude of the force of water. Amazing! You can read more about his story here if you're interested. It's quite a story!

That night we went to dinner at a TGIFridays. While I have to tell you Molson tastes better in Canada, the price of the dinner was sobering. We walked back to the hotel, threw the kids in the whirlpool bathtub for a quick scrub, and watched fireworks over the Falls before bed. Falling asleep to the view of the Falls lit up, it was quite a night to remember!

The next day started out being a quick escape from Niagara after a visit to the Butterfly Conservatory, but turned into a bigger adventure. On our way to the Butterfly Conservatory, we stopped at a view over the rapids of the Niagara River. At this point, the river makes a bend toward Lake Ontario and the force of water from the Falls makes the currents spectacular. Once there, Steve and the boys noticed a jet boat ride taking you through those rapids and they decided to do it. I voluntarily took the little ones for our own little adventure, attempting to hike down to the river to watch the boat go by. The hike starts our with a hundred-step flight of stairs over the cliff. That just got you over the cliff. As we continued on the trail and we got about half-way down to the river, I realized 1) we were going to have to come all the way back up here and 2) I was taking two 3 year-olds down to the class 5 rapids were people are known to drown, so I got my wits about me. Kate and Luke were troopers about the whole thing and I didn't have to carry either one of them.

Kate and Luke in front of the map of the trail we took.

Waiting for the jet boat to come by.

The boys' jet boat.

Steve and the boys will tell you the jet boat was the best part of Niagara. They went in Class 5 rapids and got absolutely drenched. Steve said they hit a wave once that took his breath away it hit him so hard. They talked about the Class 6 rapids which are so dangerous you will be fined $10,000 if you go in them and the number of people jet boat captains have saved. I think they are just happy to have made it out alive!

Our last adventure in Canada was the Butterfly Conservatory. I was a little hesitant to go there because the person who recommended it for me has mostly younger kids, I thought the twins would love it and the bigger boys would be bored. That's one of the problem with having such a large age range in my family, it's hard to please everyone. But since the twins had waited around three hours for the jet boat ride, I figured the boys could be a little bored for them.

Boy! I was wrong! Kudos to my friend Larissa because she was spot on! Thank you, my dear!

The butterflies were everywhere, landing on everyone. Steve happened to be their favorite landing pad, much to Kate's dismay, but everyone got a chance to have a buddy. It was really spectacular!