2012 Family Vacation - June 6th - 8th, Niagara Falls

The final destination of our vacation was Niagara Falls. We spent some time on the American side first. This is a view from the American side. There were rainbows across the Falls all the time. So cool!

Here are the girls and I in front of the Falls. The view is SO cool! This picture doesn't even come close to doing it justice!

Such a gorgeous view of the Falls with two gorgeous girls in front of it!

We are up on an overlook, kindof a bridge that goes about halfway out on the river. It was super crowded so we had to wait to nab a spot on the rail. The view was really great from here.

Saying good-bye to the American side.

OK. Now here we are on the Canadian side. We crossed the Rainbow Bridge into Canada and had to go through customs and show our passports. The Customs guy was very stern and honestly kindof scary! Tim thought he told him to pull forward and put it in park. So Tim started to pull forward and the guy yelled, "Stop! I did NOT tell you pull forward!" Then he comes out of the booth looking like he wants to kill us. It was not a pleasant experience! Oh well...we made it to the Falls alive!

A little closer view of that part of the Falls. The mist that comes off the Falls here is just incredible!

Our cutie-patooties in front of the Falls. There were so many people there! And many people from other countries. It was fun listening to them all. There was a lady with her two little girls, I think maybe from a Scandinavian country, and she was pointing to the American side and saying, "Look, girls, it's America! That's America over there!" And her little girls were so amazed, they were like, "Wow, Mommy, really, that's AMERICA?" It was like they were so in awe of seeing America. It was so cool. We noticed Canadians call America "The States". By the end of the vacation, I caught myself calling it "The States" too. While we were looking at the Falls here, we actually struck up a conversation with a couple from "The States" who were pushing their little dogs around in a doggy stroller! And I'm not kidding, it was an actual doggy stroller made specifically for dogs! I WANT ONE! Just kidding. But Stacey should get one for Missy Lou!

We spent a lot of time in this building, the Welcome Centre. They have a food court, the ticket center, gift shops, ice cream shop, candy store, and the Niagara's Fury attraction which I describe below.

The first thing we did at the Falls was a 4D Universal Studios-style attraction. It started with a short animated movie starring a beaver, an owl, a polar bear and an elephant explaining how the Falls formed. It was really actually very cute and entertaining! Then we moved into a 360 degree dome theater with a circular platform in the middle. We all had to put on raincoats. They played a movie that went all the way around the whole theater showing how the Falls formed. The platform we were standing on moved and vibrated and we got splashed with water and surrounded by mist during the movie. It was really really fun! When you leave the theater, you walk right into the gift shop pictured above. The giant beaver behind the girls was the star of the animated film. You can see some stuffed elephants, owls and polar bears from the movie, too.

Here we are having ice cream at the Centre. Ok, well, the girls are having ice cream. I'm just watching them. Because of  gestational diabetes, I refrained from having ice cream...sad!

Another activity on our first day there was called "Journey Behind The Falls". We went on an elevator 150 feet down through the bedrock to tunnels that led behind the Falls. Before you get on the elevator they have photographers who have you stand in front of a green screen and then they add this background. We just had to buy it!

This is an overlook that is off to the side of the Falls that you can go on before you head in to the tunnels. It was really cool to be so close to the Falls, AND it was super wet!!

And here we are in the tunnels behind the Falls! All you can see is a sheet of water, but then I don't really know what else I expected!

Do you see the little rock man on the ledge? It is called an Inukshuk. Tim bought a souvenir Inukshuk in the gift shop. This is what the box says: "Inukshuk are stone monuments erected in the image of humans. One of their purposes was to communicate direction in the harsh and desolate Arctic. As such they were a tool of survival, and symbolic of the unselfish act of a nomadic people - the Inuit - who built them as signposts to make the way easier and safer for those who followed. The stones that make up the Inukshuk are secured through balance. They are chosen for how well they fit together. The Inukshuk celebrates our working together. It continues to remind us of our interdependent responsibilities to invest our efforts today, to direct a better way for all of us tomorrow." The Inuit people live in the arctic regions of Canada. We just thought that was a really neat little tidbit of information about Canadian culture!

Another gorgeous view from the Canadian side. Do you see the double rainbow?

Our next adventure was a ride on the Maid of the Mist. There's a Maid of the Mist boat down there.

And here's a Maid of the Mist boat heading into the Horseshoe Falls. I thought this was such a cool picture!

Another cool picture with the Maid of the Mist. I love the rainbow in this picture.

And here we are on the boat in our fancy blue raincoats. They certainly make us stand out from the crowd, don't they? The boat travels up into the Horseshoe, gets fairly close to the falls and then turns around. It's not a really long ride, but it's very wet and very exciting!

This picture was taken at the end of the ride. It was a really fun experience and one of our favorite activities!

That night, we ate out at the Riverview Family Buffet not far from the Horseshoe Falls. It was very yummy!! We got these souvenir cups that you could fill with ice water for free or pop for 99 cents anywhere you went. This picture cracks me up...Eliza's face is hilarious and I think Tim is trying to get out of the picture or something. Not sure what he's doing!

Tim and Amanda. Still not sure what Tim is doing!

This is the amazing dessert Amanda and I got. It was SO incredible!!! It's like a vanilla frozen custard in a chocolate covered cookie dish with raspberry sauce and a chocolate straw. Mouth watering yet?

On the second day at Niagara Falls, our first adventure of the day was called "The Whitewater Walk". It was part of the package deal with the Maid of the Mist, Niagara's Fury and Behind the Falls. You take a bus about 10 minutes down the river from the Falls, get dropped off at a little shop where you are then put on an elevator that takes you down to this walkway that goes along the river where the rapids are the heaviest and most dangerous. They have actually banned whitewater river rafting in parts of this river because of the number of deaths that have occurred. There are some landings along the way with plaques that tell some stories about the history of this river and people who have died on it. There is a whirlpool at one point in the river, too. They have a tram that travels over top of the whirlpool so you can look down on it, but we didn't get to do that. So basically, you just walk along this walkway and view the rapids.  It's just kindof a nice leisurely family walk with a beautiful view!

Here's Eliza lookin' cute! This is at one of the landings.

Another one of the landings...

...And a closer view at that same landing. Amanda taking pictures again. I don't know how many pictures she took on this trip, but it was a ton!! She loved it!

Here are the girls and I on the walkway. Isn't it gorgeous there?!? It's also a pretty good baby bump picture!

Next stop was the Butterfly Conservatory. As you walk through the pavilion, there are butterflies EVERYWHERE and some of them will land on you , which is just awesome! Tim was the first one of us to have one land on him. I guess he smelled the best?

Here's one on Amanda's sunglasses. She was so excited one landed on her! But then she waited for what seemed like forever for one to land on her hand. She was getting so discouraged because all the rest of us had ones land on our hands quite a few times. But it finally happened...you'll see a picture of it pretty soon.

I LOVE this picture! This butterfly landed right on my pregnant belly and stayed there for the longest time. We decided he was saying hello to the baby...and then carrying on a conversation! I also love how you can see Tim's, Eliza's, and Amanda's shoes.

This butterfly is so unique I just had to get a picture! It looks like it has one big eye on its wing.

I just thought this was such a cool picture! This blue butterfly, called a Blue Morpho, in my opinion, was the most beautiful of all of them. It's such an awesome shade of blue!

Here's the Blue Morpho up close. His wings look almost iridescent!

There was also some really strange and unique vegetation in the pavilion. Check out that bush with the red thingies hanging down! So crazy looking!

My handsome hubby by the crazy red bush.

This beautiful creature is called the Rice Paper butterfly. So cool!

A butterfly landed on Eliza's hand! She was so excited! (It doesn't take much to entertain us!)

As promised, here's the butterfly that finally landed on Amanda's hand.

She's SO happy!

OK, is that big moth there not one of the freakiest things you've ever seen? Scary! Luckily, he mostly just stayed put.

This is an incubator where dozens and dozens of cocoons and butterflies hatching from cocoons reside. Looks like these are all Rice Paper butterflies.

Here's another picture of Amanda with a butterfly on her hand. Once one landed on her, she became very popular!

A close-up of a nice butterfly who made Amanda very happy!

There was a little cafe outside of the conservatory where we ate lunch and got ice cream again. This time, I indulged. The baby really wanted ice cream! We had a lot of fun with some little birds out here. They came up so close to us and ate little bits of cone we threw to them. We got a bigger kick out of it than most normal people would, but that's OK. We had fun!

There was a candy shop in the Welcome Centre called Pop & Lolly's, which, Eliza pointed out, is the word "Lollypop" mixed up. So cute! This is a make-your-own-candy-bar area. They give you a cup and you go over to a wall of candy bins and fill your cup up with whatever you want to put in your candy bar. You can go crazy with things like gummy worms and peach rings and Skittles, or you can be a little more conservative and stick with things like M&M's and Reeses Pieces. Eliza went crazy and I was conservative, or so I thought. Some Skittles and jelly beans snuck into my candy bar disguised as M&M's. That's quite a surprise when you bite into a candy bar thinking it's going to be all chocolate and taste Skittles and jelly beans instead!

Here are Eliza and I making our candy bars. I spelled out "Mom" with my candy and Eliza somehow spelled "Niagara Falls" on hers. Amanda didn't want to make one so she just watched. That was OK with us cuz it was not cheap!

We're such girls! We just couldn't get over the cuteness of the name Pop & Lolly's, so we had to get a picture with our personalized candy bars under the Pop & Lolly's sign. We're silly!

Here are the girls under the Pop & Lolly's sign on the other side of the store.

We totally freaked out when we saw Master Chef filming here at the Falls! We LOVE Master Chef! It's one of our favorite shows. After a few moments, however, we realized it wasn't the American Master Chef because the judges are different. We looked online to see if there is a Master Chef Canada but there doesn't seem to be, so we think this might be Master Chef Australia and they just took the show to Niagara Falls for an episode.

We think those guys behind the counter are the judges.

Look at that rainbow behind them. Isn't that awesome?!?

Here's a contestant cooking away. There were three stations, so we're pretty sure this is the episode where the top 3 compete. Anyway, whatever was going on, it was just cool to see a TV show being filmed!

That evening we ate the fanciest dinner we've ever had at the revolving restaurant in the Skylon Tower. See that tall pointed lit up building in the background? That's the Skylon Tower. This is another one of those places where they take your picture in front of a green screen and add the background. So, this is one of the backgrounds...

And this is the other one. I just thought this was SO cute! Love it!

Our view of the Horseshoe Falls from our table in the Skylon Tower Restaurant. Pretty amazing, eh?

This is the view of the American side of the Falls.

Eliza and Amanda looking at the menu. This picture gives you an idea of what the restaurant looks like. It revolves 360 degrees every hour. So cool!! It was so fancy and expensive - the entrees were anywhere from $60-$80 a plate!! The girls and I ordered from the appetizer menu to save some money. The rule was that one person in the group had to order an entree or else you would have to pay for the elevator ride up to the restaurant, so Tim ordered an entree. The food was amazing, though! And it was so fun to eat somewhere so fancy which is something we never do, and to see such a beautiful view. It was cool to be able to see so far out on the Canadian landscape as well as seeing the Falls from so high up!

Here's a great view of the Canadian landscape. From here, we can see down to our hotel. You see the Skywheel (the ferris wheel)? Our hotel is right across the street from it. We walked from our hotel to the Tower.

Daddy, Eliza and Amanda are out on the observation deck above the restaurant. It was very cold and windy, so they are cuddling up to Dad to get warm!

Our 3rd day was spent at Marineland, an amusement park + Sea World type attraction. This picture was taken at our favorite thing about Marineland: the dolphin show. It was so wonderful we went to it twice! Amanda is really into photography these days, so she had a lot of fun taking pictures. She only had her IPod, though. Someday, we'll get her a really good camera.

This is the set of the dolphin show.

This was our favorite part of the show. This walrus did such cute things! I can't even describe it. So, OK, I won't even try. Here's a video so you can see for yourself!

You can't hear what the lady is saying in this video very well. At first, she is trying to get the walrus to go for a swim, but he just hides his head and stuff. The rest is pretty self-explanatory...dancing, sit-ups, leg lifts, etc. At the end, you'll see the stars of the show, their 3 dolphins Marina, Echo and Sonar. It was a really great show!

Tim had to get a picture of this John Deere Gator, cuz, well, it's a Deere!

Another fun part of the day was feeding the bears. You could buy a cone full of cereal and drop it piece by piece down to the bears. Look at this little guy looking up at the girls waiting for the next morsel! So cute!

OK, he's full now and just kickin' back. I love the white markings on his chest. Almost forms a heart shape.

Next, we got to feed the deer. These deer are NOT shy!

They are so used to humans, they just come right up to you and eat right out of your hand.

Sometimes they follow you and won't leave you alone!

Sometimes they fall in love with you!

Sometimes they are very persistent!

Sometimes they even call their buddies over...

...and sometimes you find yourself surrounded!

They are always very cute and they certainly make you smile!

Saying Good-bye to our deer friends! (Exiting the deer feeding area.)

To our great disappointment, there was only one roller coaster in the park! It was a pretty good coaster and there was no line, so the girls could go over and over!

This is the entrance to the roller coaster.

Yikes!

Here are the girls on another ride. This is one of those that rock back and forth really high and make your stomach drop out and then go up in your throat. Great fun!
One of the things we noticed about Marineland was that everything is very far apart, so you have to do a LOT of walking!!! There was one ride  - the kind that lifts you straight up high into the air and then suddenly drops down, like the Space Shot at Adventureland, for those of you who have been there. To get to that ride, you had to walk a long way to get to the entrance and then at the entrance, you had to walk uphill a LONG way! It was so ridiculous! The roller coaster was the same way, only not uphill. We decided Canadians must be trying to get Americans and all their other tourists to lose weight! It was a long hot tiring day, but well worth it!

After our day at Marineland, we were SO exhausted. We went back to our hotel and just crashed for a little while. Our hotel was right next to Clifton Hill which is a street on a rather steep hill lined with all kinds of shops and attractions like Ripley's Believe it or Not, a wax museum, video arcades, etc. We had planned on possibly going to Ripley's and going goofy golfing, but we were so exhausted we just couldn't muster up the energy, except for Amanda, who wanted to do it all! So, we went out to eat, went to a really cool gift shop, went to an amazing bakery and candy store and went up on the Skywheel. We happened to be on the Skywheel when they did the fireworks at the Falls, which only lasted a few minutes, but were still pretty cool. So this picture is taken from the top of the Skywheel. You can see the fireworks out in the distance. Down below is the dinosaur-themed goofy golf course we were going to go on but didn't. The golf course and Skywheel were literally across the street from our hotel. The golf course had a volcano that went off every now and then, with flames shooting out of it. It was really cool!

Here are the girls in the Skywheel cage. Look how tired Eliza is!

And here we are back at the hotel. Eliza is enjoying her yummy candy apple she got at that amazing bakery! Amanda got a pecan butter tart that she said was the most amazing thing she's ever eaten!
Niagara Falls turned out to be an awesome vacation. There's a lot more to do there than people might think. I'd highly recommend to anyone to go on vacation there, and if you do, let us know...we can give you some pointers!