When I was researching places to take families during the depths of the winter I came across Niagara Falls on more than one list of best places to go, so that’s where we went. We (the children and I) were so sad to leave the puppies again and Hubby had a lot going on at work so we tried to cancel but realized we couldn’t get our deposits back so decided to go anyway, except we did pay the $50 plane ticket change so that Hubby wouldn’t miss as much time at work. So off the children and I went the day after the 4th of July to the state of New York. I must admit we were pretty unnerved when we saw the neighborhood we were in and the creaky, almost 100 year old house scared the children so much they had a really hard time going to sleep. They got used to it quickly and spent our first full day at Six Flags Darien Lake and had so much fun. The children were good about taking turns with rides since there was only one adult with them. I was more than happy to ride the less thrilling rides while N and I watched the bigger kids going on crazy rides like the Boomarang. We stayed until the park closed and K even got to buy a cute shirt because her shirt ripped on one of the rides.
Our 2nd full day we spent time at the Aquarium of Niagara and especially enjoyed the sea lion show and watching the penguins, seals, and jelly fish. Since I wasn’t feeling well we came back to the house we were renting and watched Escape to Witch Mountain starring Dwayne Johnson on Netflix while waiting for Hubby to join us after flying in from home. It was so nice to see him! We then went to get Perry’s Ice Cream, see the falls from the State Park, and watch the video at the Visitor’s Center before heading back.
Hubby’s first full day was the children’s first time in Canada and they loved it. We went horse back riding for almost 2 hours and then spent time on Clifton Hill after enjoying lunch and putt putt at Dawg’s. The “family fries” were huge! We joked there was a five pound bag of potatoes used to make them. The Speedway provided the best go kart track we’ve ever seen, Ripley’s was fascinating to say the least, we ate at Wendy’s because it seemed the cheapest option around and K and I rode the Sky Wheel during the fireworks over the falls after Hubby and the other children played laser tag and did a laser maze while K and I waiting in the almost hour long line. I’m just grateful the fireworks started while we were up there! Upon returning to the USA we found out there is another woman with my same name that would have been detained at the border due to her association with someone the government was looking for but luckily the officers could tell I wasn’t her.
Tuesday we did all the super touristy Niagara Falls stuff like Cave of the Wind and Maid of the Mist (we much preferred Cave of the Winds even though the boat is the more famous of the two attractions), rode the trolley, visited the Discovery Center and crossed the Rainbow Bridge again to attend the Oh, Canada Eh? Dinner Show. It was magnificent. We laughed a ton, the food was delicious and K still can’t believe Justin Bieber is from Canada so we obviously learned things too. Lol. And this time crossing back to New York was uneventful but you could tell as the officer was looking at my profile that popped up there must have been a pretty confusing note written about me.
On Wednesday the children begged to just hang out at the house a bit before we did anything so we did before driving down to Buffalo to go sailing on Lake Erie. It was a two hour ride around on the water and the crew let all the children who wanted to help with the sails and steer but mostly it was just a relaxing, easy ride. Afterwards we walked around the Military Park, ate more ice cream, and headed back to Niagara to take advantage of the second run movie theater I found there. Hubby, K and D watching Endgame while M, N and I watched Aladdin. We all liked what we saw (K and D agreed with me that Endgame was way better than Infinity War and I liked the live action Aladdin better than the live action Beauty and the Beast) and were amazed by how cheap it was to take the six of us to the theater. We liked it there and I was glad we had all watched Casablanca at home before the trip because the theater was decorated with classic movie posters, photos and quotes and there was plenty from that movie on the walls.
Thursday we visited Old Fort Niagara and stayed for 6 hours! The fort is incredible and the demonstrations and actors made history come alive. We saw Revolutionary War Era infantry drills, mortar, musket, musician and demos and got to talk to a baker and laundress all by ourselves for a long time. More Perry’s Ice Cream really made lunch complete and we only left because the children were ready to eat dinner. Hubby flew back home and made it safe that evening. We were jealous he got to go see the puppies but we knew we were checking out of the rental we wouldn’t recommend to anyone the next morning and be home on Saturday so that made it easier to say good bye to him. We love you, Hubby! Thanks for working so hard and still managing to join us on our trip!
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