Niagara Falls Day 1

I've just returned from our annual two-day trip to Niagara Falls. As always, we packed so much into those two days that I'm going to have to tackle each day as its own blog post.

I opened my eyes on Tuesday and thought something must be wrong. I had slept in, hadn't yet packed for the trip, and had no indication that my actions had ruined our trip completely. Breakfast was waiting for me downstairs and it was understood that in addition to packing, I still needed to shower and wouldn't be packing the van until all of that was done. For once in my life it seemed I was still within the unspoken timeline for leaving and no one was mad at me.

I'm going to stop for a second and relive that moment.

Ahhhhhh.....

Finally on the road, the kids settled in to watch Alice in Wonderland on our portable DVD player. For about five minutes. Then, they did what kids do on road trips-they whined and argued and fought with each other. My son drove me crazy by kicking the machine and threatening to turn off the movie, but I refrained from yelling "We're not going to Niagara Falls if you don't stop that!" or any such nonsense from my bag of idle threats.

An hour and half later we were in Niagara Falls and quickly found an all-day parking spot for $4. We unloaded the kids, put sunscreen on everyone, packed the wagon, threw stones from the parking lot too close to several cars (ok, not all of us did this), hid valuables in the van, the whole process taking about an hour.

We were ready to walk up and down Clifton Hill. First stop, Ripley's Believe it or Not. Like all attractions in Niagara, Ripley's is a rip-off, but the kids thought the collection of strange/odd/bizarre/gross was wonderful, so it was time well spent. My son was fascinated by the stories of people going over the falls in a barrel and I'll need to keep a close eye on him for this and future trips.

We had an ice cream in the park and then hit The Maid of the Mist. If you haven't taken kids on the trip, it goes like this:

I'm not getting wet.

You will.

I'm still not wet!

You will be, just wait.

I'm still not wet!! When do we get wet??

Soon!

Aaaaaaaggggh! I'm SOAKED!!!

Told ya.

The water-logged kids sat in the wagon and I had the enviable job of pulling them up Clifton Hill. We made it back to the parking lot (which strangely had become a $3 per day lot) then to our hotel for check-in. The hotel was inexpensive (a dive), but the kids didn't seem to notice.

We had a quick dip in the ice-cold pool before going out for a pizza dinner. We came back to the hotel and readied ourselves for bed. The room had two queen sized beds and we brought a cot from home for my son. He used to call it his army bed, but now insists "it's called a cot." Sorry.

Everyone fell asleep to the Blue Jays game on the TV. I wish I had too, they blew a 5 run lead and I went to bed grumpy.