Niagara Falls, Family Vaca Pt. 1

A week ago we got to take a trip to upper state New York and stay with my 2nd cousin in Rochester.  The awesome thing about where she lives is she is only an hour from Niagara and maybe 30 minutes from Palmyra, which I will be featuring in my Pt. 2 of my Family Vaca hopefully tomorrow, but we'll just have to see how things go...

 There really is no words to describe this view!  I was completely overwhelmed by the vastness of the Falls.  I seriously thought we would drive an hour to get there, site see for a couple of hours and then drive an hour home....4 hours, tops!  But that did not happen, this was an ALL day affair, and so totally worth it!!

 View from the other side of Niagara, you can see Horseshoe Falls in the background, which I personally thought it was cooler looking than Niagara.  But when your comparing which is more awesome-er, there really is no loser here.

 Even the kids were in awe.  This railing took you right up to the waters edge right as it fell over the side.  In the background you can see a green pillar with a bridge that connects it to land, that's where we were standing when I took the previous photo.  It was an extremely windy day, so windy that as we walked across that tall observation deck, every time I picked up my foot to take a step the wind would blow my shoe so that I thought it would blow right off!  In fact, Tobie lost his glasses while we were up there (the screw needs to be tightened on one side, making them very loose on his face), but blew them right up against a bar which stopped them from flying off the edge! Talk about lucky!

 Kids posing...I know they don't look too enthusiastic, but seriously they were.  There is Canada in the background on this pic.  I kept singing "O, Canada!" while we walked around the place, unfortunately the title part of that song is the only part I know.  I'm sure I got some weird looks singing "O, Canada!" over and over as I walked around, but I just couldn't help myself!

 This is from the Cave of the Winds.  Super cool, and a must-do if you head up there.  You take this elevator to the bottom of Niagara, then you hike up these stairs you see behind us to the top deck called the Hurricane Deck, accurately named that because the gushing water falling down on you also packs quite the wind power and it actually feels like Hurricane force winds!  The kids loved it, even Charlotte didn't want to walk away.  And you see those ponchos...yeah...that's just for show.  I think the park has those to give you a false sense of security.  We got soaked!  I recommend wearing swimming suits.

 The other must-do thing is take the Maiden of the Mist boat ride.  These ponchos are a little more sturdier, but let's be honest, Poncho vs. Waterfall....Waterfall is going to win...every. single. time.

 The boat ride takes you right beside Niagara and actually into Horseshoe Falls.  Niagara has a lot of rocks at the bottom, so they can't get too close.  But Horseshoe has nothing at the bottom, they told a story on the boat of a 7 yr. old boy who fell in and went over the falls in nothing but his swim trunks and a life vest and he made completely unharmed!  It is that smooth...but while in there the water at the bottom looks like the water in a washing machine.  It's churning and spinning and you are constantly getting sprayed, which is why we don't have good pics of inside that one, all these pics were taken with our iPhone's and we do not have waterproof covers.

 There were rainbows EVERYWHERE!  There were even double rainbows!  So pretty!  This is right before heading into Horseshoe Falls.  See, no rocks at the bottom.

This is after the boat ride heading back to the dock.  Charlotte loved it, even though she looks like a drowned rat!  In fact all of my kids loved it, including the 2 BIG kids! Ha!  It was so much fun, much more fun than a water park even!  This place really is majestic!  Theo and I talk about going again, but then going on the Canada side.  I really hope we will some day, I need to learn the rest of that song for just in case! ;)