Visiting Niagara Falls

Enjoying the campfire

We had an interesting night sleep at our campground in London.  The kids said they had a great night sleep, but Francois and I felt like we were sleeping out on the 401.  The campground was beside the freeway and the trucks were zooming by all night and it was hard to have a good night’s sleep.

After packing up our tent and reorganizing the van , (we needed to make room for our extra purchases) we made our way to Niagara Falls.

Getting Ready to see the Falls

We stopped at the Visitor Information Centre and was advised we should give ourselves four hours to do all what we wanted to do while visiting the Falls.  With that information we decided to have lunch in the community before we made our way to the tourist attraction.

We purchased our super adventure pass

When we arrived near the Niagara Falls there appeared to be thousands of people all wanting to see the same thing we wanted to see.  We found a parking spot – and charged $16 to walk almost 1 km to the popular destination.  I wanted to go on the Maid of the Mist, so we found the ticket booth and was advised there was a combo package, which included the tour boat near the falls, the White Water walk and the journey in the caves under the falls – but the kicker was there was a 2-3 hour delay.  So even though we arrived at 2:00 pm, we couldn’t begin touring until 4:40pm, which was our scheduled time to walk on the boardwalk . 

The view from the boat

We stopped at the gift shop to help pass the time and the kids enjoyed looking at all the trinkets.  David purchased a small set of binoculars, which he used for the remainder of the tour. 

On the Maid of the Mist

David posing with the "gum" rocks

Hiking along the class 6 rapids

Everyone getting soaked during "the Journey Behind the Falls"

Natalie poses with the falls behind her

Francois suggested we go to our first destination early in hopes we could begin the walk.  The fee for the bus was included in the package fee, so we took the bus to the White Water Walk.  There was a huge line-up, but it moved quickly.  I thought of my sister, Marlene, who does not like enclosed places.  We had no idea where the line-up was heading to – but discovered it was to an elevator.  The tour guide advised us the elevator was over 70 years old and descended the 23 floors in 30 seconds.   We had to walk through a large tunnel to get out to the boardwalk.  We could see the rapids, which are classified as a Type 6 – which is the most dangerous type of rapids.  The water was a pretty green color and you could see how powerful the water could be.  There was one point of interest at the end of boardwalk – there was a brick wall with lots of different spots all over it, upon closer inspection we noticed it was pieces of gum!  It was unbelievable the large amount of pieces of gum there was on the wall.

Uncle Frank and Aunt Donna with the kids

When we proceeded back up the elevator, some idiot decided to ask if the elevator got stuck how long would it be until we could get out?  I said to him – that is not a good question to ask at this point in time and plugged my ear so I could not hear the answer.  Francois told me the tour guide answered that we could be in the elevator for up to 45 minutes before someone would come or there was a hand crank, but everyone would need to crank it to get it up all 23 floors.

Our next stop was the Maid of the Mist, which is the boat tour that takes you near the falls.  The line-up was enormous, but it moved very quickly – we only waited 20 minutes before we got on the boat.   We took another elevator and as we proceeded to the docks each of us were handed five ponchos to protect us from the spray and then we needed to go into another elevator.

Francois and Uncle Frank

We were on the bottom level of the boat, which in retrospect I was glad because the closer we got to the falls the spray of the water was really strong.  My face was soaking and so was my hair.  At times it was hard to breathe because the water was hitting our face so hard.  I kept thinking about the people who thought it would be exciting to go over the Niagara Falls in a barrel – what were they thinking?

The final place we headed to was the Journey behind the Falls – which had another long line-up.  The workers stated it was an unusually busy day and all of the attractions included in the combo package were going on a load and go basis.  We waited another short time in a line-up and piled into yet another elevator for a rapid descent to the platform.  We walked through the tunnels and we even walked out next to the falls.  The roar of Niagara Falls was deafening and the water spray was very heavy! 

The kids were great during the day as we waited in line-ups and walked from one area to another.  Sometimes they were willing to pose for the camera and other times they rolled their eyes.  David kept saying to take lots of pictures so his friends would know he actually went to Niagara Falls.

We headed to Hamilton which was our final destination for the night.  Francois’ uncle and aunt, Frank and Donna, generously opened their home to us for the night.  Their granddaughter, Brittany, even gave up her bedroom for the evening.  Donna made a delicious roast beef dinner, which she heated up for us because we arrived 1 hour and ½ later than expected.  Natalie said she thought the meal was one of the best meals she had on this trip.  Frank and the kids watched the Toronto Blue Jays game.

As we turn in for the night and think back on our days, one of the highlights is always the time shared with those who we are visiting with.  We are very blessed to have some many family and friends along our route.

A special birthday wish goes out to my sister-in-law, Marie, who celebrates her birthday today. 

Tomorrow we head to Kitchener to visit with Francois’ friend, Ryan and his wife Heather and their children for part of the day and then make our way to Francois’ brother’s house where we will be staying for the next week.

Take Care

Tanya