Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Posted from: Sleepy Hollow Lake Campground - Akron, NY
Miles driven: 79
Total miles: 4041
Today we get to experience Niagara Falls.
We left the campground around 9:30 am. We slept in a bit after our late night last night. It took about 45 minutes to get to the falls. On a Tuesday at this time of day, we found rock star parking by the visitor center.
After doing a little research, we decided the simplest option for us was purchasing a discovery pass that allowed us access to the most popular attractions. There were three we knew we were going to do and the individual price for these added up to the cost of the pass, so if we didn’t have time to do the other three things we didn’t lose any money. I like easy vacation decisions!
First on our list was Cave of the Winds. We did this first because of a travel tip we read online. The person said that you are required to wear and then get to keep a pair of sandals at the Cave of the Winds. Then you can wear these sandals on the Maid of the Mist boat ride into the falls where your feet can get pretty wet. Made sense to us.
 |
| Mandatory sandals |
 |
| Mandatory selfie |
 |
| Bridal Veil Falls is the smaller of the Niagara Falls behind us. American Falls is the larger falls to the left. |
 |
| They build this whole red decking structure each spring and tear it down each fall. Crazy. |
This part of the deck is called the Hurricane deck. You can stand here and feel in a small way what the power of this water feels like. It was actually pretty intense.
After lunch we walked to an overlook. The picture below is a better view of the complex deck structure we were just on.
In the picture below you can see the American Falls, the observation tower where you take elevators to board the Maid of the Mist, and Rainbow Bridge where you can cross via car or on foot from the United States to Canada.
Next stop: Maid of the Mist.
Again, we were got right on the boat and we were almost first in line so we could stand wherever we wanted.
 |
| Almost to Horseshoe Falls! |
Our next adventure was a walk across Rainbow Bridge to get to Canada. Caleb was so excited to be in another country and use his passport for the first time. There was a bit of a line to get through boarder control, but it only took 12 minutes.
Once in Canada we enjoyed the better views of the falls, as we walked toward the zip line. A few of my friends had recently mentioned this new attraction added in 2016. I’ll admit that it sounded awesome. I mentioned it to the kids last night to see what their reaction would be. I was surprised that all three wanted to do it, especially Caleb who has a tiny fear of heights.
So we asked how long it would take, and they said it would take about 60-90 minutes. We were meeting Matt’s cousin and her husband back at the campground for dinner, so we would be cutting it pretty close...Ah heck. Let’s do it!
So we paid and signed in blood and off we went to...stand in line. And wait. And wait. After about an hour, it became clear this was going to take longer than 90 minutes.
 |
| Yeah! We finally got helmets. |
This little kid was waiting in line with his older siblings and mom. He was not zip lining but he was very bored. He started playing with a blue piece of gum someone had stuck to the wall. He even put some in his mouth! His mom was standing right there watching him, so no one felt like they should say anything. It was so odd.
We rode the elevator up to the platform, and got our harnesses.
And finally we were up towards the front of the line. Caleb was getting a little panicky and asked if he could go back down. I said nope.
They have four zip lines, so Dad had to go with a separate group. He went first.
Dad snapped some pictures of us coming down. It took Caleb about twice as long to come down. Grace and I tied. Cam was in the middle.
 |
| Caleb made it! |
 |
| So fun!! |
We all made it and enjoyed a great view of the falls. Zip lining isn’t so much a reckless roller coaster feeling, as just a joyful, free, wind-in-your-face kind of feeling. Euphoric might be the word. Pure fun.
Zip lining took two hours from beginning to end. We have just enough time to get back to the camper if there isn’t a line to get through the United States boarder. There wasn’t! Whew!
We arrived at the campground about 10 minutes before Amy and Pete.
When we arrived, this was waiting for Caleb on the picnic table. Giving away toys for a kid is a big deal in Caleb’s opinion, so he said to me, "Mom, that was a big deal that he left his toy behind. And I love this car." And he did. He played with it the rest of the night. Thanks Cooper!!!
It was so good to spend time with Amy and Pete. We had just seen them at their wedding in St Paul in May, but it was nice to have a chance to relax and chat.
We made pizza pockets with the pie irons over the fire.
Caleb loves to start a fire and patiently continue to feed it and watch it. This is when he is at his most calm. (Mini Matt) There was an unused fire pit just a few feet from where we were sitting that no one was using, so we let him start his fire and enjoy it.
Cameron went over to enjoy the fire for awhile.
At the end of our wonderful evening with these two, I realized we hadn’t taken a group picture! Arg! (When I get to campgrounds, the phone gets put away. That why we have so few pictures of campgrounds.)
By now it was really dark. We tried to take one outside by the map, but it was so dark. So we went into the camper. It was so funny. We kept trying to get the lighting right. The whole time I’m kicking myself for not doing this in the daylight.
 |
| Too dark! |
We finally ended up with this and called it good. We won’t forget this fun evening with or without a picture. :)
Wow! We didn’t waste a single second of this day.
No comments:
Post a Comment