There we were waking up on the 37th floor with the beautiful Niagara Falls right outside our window. We decided to take it easy. We would go sight seeing, but we also would make sure the boys had some normalcy. Naptime/quiet time. Normal as possible meals. Relaxed schedule. We slept in, ate a leisurely breakfast, and then finally headed out to see the falls up close on the Canadian side. We decided to try to use the Niagara bus system. Here is Elias learning how to read the schedule.
When we had seen the falls on the American side, the boys had seen the boat tours down on the river. We decided to do the Hornblower Cruise first since the boys were so excited about it. The timing was perfect and we walked right on the boat, bright red ponchos and all.
The boat tour was pretty amazing. We got to get very close to the falls and hear the water pounding. There was a ton of mist. Here is our first family picture of the trip with the American Falls in the background.
After the tour, it was already time for lunch since we had had such a leisurely morning. We stopped at a food court-ish place where the food was terrible but the views were amazing.
After nap time, we decided to take the boys on the incline railway for fun. Basically, it is a glass case that rolls down a nearly vertical track with an excellent view of the falls.
The view from the railway car.
We hopped at the bus at the bottom and went to Clifton Hill, which has a ton of entertainment and shops. The Rainforest Cafe was our destination. We ate a yummy dinner, and then let the boys have some fun in the arcade. Simon even hit the bonus on one of the games and got 500 tickets at once! Those tickets were coming out for a really long time!
Then we just had to visit the Hershey’s store. Who wouldn’t?
Then Simon did this which I thought was both really cute and really gross at the same time:
Finally, we headed back to our hotel for an evening of swimming and relaxing.
That concluded our first full day in Canada.
The next morning we woke up a bit earlier in order to drive to Toronto and visit the zoo. We were excited because they host a few animals that we’ve never gotten to see in person before. The day was beautiful (Nathan and I even got slight sunburns), and Nathan got some real Canada driving under his belt. The boys enjoyed seeing the animals, but overall were still pretty tired and insisted on riding in the stroller…which was a problem since there were two boys and one stroller. They were innovative, however:
We got to see pandas, gorillas, kangaroos, wombats, and many many more interesting animals. The boys were also thrilled to see some of the more common animals such as lions, giraffes and rhinos.
We got stuck in a bunch of traffic on the way back to Niagara, which put me in a terrible mood since I am pregnant and did not have access to a bathroom. However, we made the best of our situation, and got in an early bed time for the boys. Finally!
Our final morning of our time in Canada was also a beautiful day. We decided to head back down to the falls and take the “Journey Behind the Falls” tour. It was cool to see the falls so close, and walk through tunnels behind the falls.
We had a bit of driving to do that day to reach our next destination, but we decided to stick around for a few more great views and lunch before setting off.
As we pulled out of the parking lot, the boys were yelling “Bye bye water!” They had a wonderful time, and overall we wished we had more time to explore the area. We were off, though for the next leg of our trip…Pennsylvania!