Summer Road Trip 2010–Day 5–Niagara Falls

7/5/10: Wow! I’m so glad we had the opportunity to take the girls to see such a spectacular sight. We opted to spend our time on the Canadian side so we drove around the northern edge of Lake Erie. Ontario – through this area at least – was kind of boring, but as we drove into the Niagara Falls area everything changed.
The town is really pretty cute. There are tons of bed & breakfasts with extensive flower gardens and the “People Mover” buses are super handy.
We parked at the first big attraction, the “White Water Rapids Walk” and bought the 4 pack. Why not, we figured. We walked the rapids and got an idea of the volume of water that pours over the falls every day. Next we were supposed to head past the falls to see “Nature’s Fury” and take the “Journey Behind the Falls.” We had chosen NOT to tell the girls much about the falls at all. We didn’t want them to have any preconceived notions. However, we couldn’t exactly make it past the falls without the girls noticing there was something major over there so we spent a few minutes with them in total awe of the roaring water and swirls of mist.
“Nature’s Fury” was a movie/interactive experience. It started with an Ice Age-like animated movie that explained the origin of the falls and the changes that have occurred through the eons. It was clearly meant to be for the younger kids but they used “big words” that really could have been simplified so the kids would understand. The movie was the better part of the show. From there we were herded into a room with a 360 degree screen near the top of the walls and a grated floor. I can’t even remember the movie, but I think it was supposed to make you feel like you were flowing with the water. The floor rocked a bit and water poured from the ceiling. It was actually kind of gross, even though we had our “collectible” rain ponchos on.
“Journey Behind the Falls” was OK. We went down an elevator and through some tunnels and peered out to see the water tumbling down in front of us. There was a deck beside the bottom of Horseshoe Falls and we got nice and wet enjoying the pounding water.
At this point we went to TGI Friday’s (we wanted to take the inclined train) for dinner. The prices were easily twice our Houston prices. Argh.
Finally for the really awesome part: the “Maid of the Mist.” We had taken the People Mover back to the truck to drop off the big camera and get the water resistant cameras. As we approached the stop for the boat the bus driver announced that the Maid of the Mist was now closed. Noooooooo!!!!! We jumped off the bus and literally ran across the road and down the ramp. We lucked out! They were just loading the last boat trip for the night. There were few people on the boat with us, and we were all able to stand in the prow – right there practically under the water. Now that was an adventure!

We stayed a little while longer waiting for the lights to come on. Around sunset huge spotlights shine from the Canadian side of the falls illuminating them with a variety of colors. Apparently there is a tour that allows the people in the group to choose and place the colors in the lights. Since the majority of the lights were yellow we think maybe a bunch of boys made the decisions that night.

We wrapped up our day in Niagara Falls and hopped on the road to Rochester, where we stayed the night to get some rest for our trip to Montreal & Acadia.