The Niagara Falls Trip

Day 1: Friday August 7, 2009
1. Was able to leave work early (3:00pm) which was great! Got in the car and drove to Grain Valley to drop off my car to get the a/c leak fixed! My mom met us there and we got in the car and drove to Sandusky, OH. The drive was about 12 hours from Grain Valley. I tried not to sleep, but my body was like "Yo, you've been up since 6am... sleep."

Day 2:
2. We got to Sandusky at about 11am or so... well, I don't really remember what time it was! But we went down to look at the water and it started raining. So, we drove over to Cedar Point to look at the roller coasters and drove back out. We thought about doing CP but didn't think we'd have enough time... and we were all so tired already. So, we drove to our hotel and got directions to a nice restaurant. We ate at Diana's cafe and had lots of coffee! Mmmmm. After that we took a driving tour of an island around Sandusky and got out to stop at 1 craft-like store and 1 light house. Then we were all super tired again, so we drove back to the hotel for a nap. I started reading Anne of Green Gables when I was awake and no one else was.

3. When everyone woke up, Matt and I went for a small walk before we got in the car again and drove to Friendly's for dinner. DELICIOUS ice cream! I had raspberry yogurt, mocha chip, and gummi bears! Then, we went to Target for a coffee pot because Matt was brought coffee to make, but there wasn't a coffee maker in the room. Plus, I need bug spray from the bug bites I got on the walk. :) When we were done at Target the sun was starting to set, so we drove over to the water and just watched. It was beautiful. Then, we drove back to the hotel and had a swim before going to bed! The pool was really cool... 2 water slides (which I didn't get to go down because there were some pre-teens who thought they owned the slides).

Day 3:
4. We got up kind of early and had a nice hotel breakfast. Then we got in the car and drove to Niagara Falls! It was about a 5 hour journey... probably 30 minutes before we would have gotten to our destination the rain struck again! There was thunder and lightning and all kinds of pouring rain and wind. So, we pulled off the highway and ate at Applebees until the storm ended. It wasn't very long... maybe an hour? But, I'm glad we stopped because it was SCARY! And the lady at the toll booth said that they'd just had a tornado the week before.

5. As we were approaching Niagara Falls I saw some smoke in the distance over the water and thought it must be a factory, so we couldn't figure out where the Falls were! We drove around and finally just went to our hotel. They told us we could walk across the street and there were the falls... so we did. We walked down the path and saw the edge of the American Falls. I thought that was all Niagara was and that it didn't quite seem like the pictures, but I didn't say anything. It was so beautiful! We decided not to chance another rain storm and immediately got onto the Maid of the Mist boat tour. That's when I saw the "smoke" again. It turns out that it's the mist from the Horseshoe Bend Falls... the one you see in the pictures! So, I was wrong twice! :) The boat was awesome and we got so close to the falls that you couldn't even open your eyes... the water was coming from everywhere. Next time we'll take goggles! I have some GREAT pictures, though.

6. When we got off the boat we walked up on all the observation towers and got even more wet. Then, we got on a trolley and rode around the park. We stopped at The Top of the Falls restaurant for dinner. (oh man... my memory is getting all messed up.) Then, it was close-ish to the time they'd turn the lights on the Falls, so we sat down by the horseshoe falls for a long time. We saw the lights and were going to wait for the fireworks to start at 10. At 9:20 the clouds were rolling in again and we had to make a decision. Should we stay on Goat Island and watch the fireworks or should we take the last trolley back to the main part of the park and see if we could see them from there. It looked like it was going to rain at any minute and we didn't want to have to walk back in another bad storm, so we took the trolley. As soon as we were seated it started to rain! Go us! We got over to the other part of the park and stood there to see if the fireworks would start. After about 20 minutes of mixed answers we could to see the most amazing site! Fireworks over the Falls in a freaking thunder storm! The thunder was competing with the boom of the fireworks and the lightning was trying to show off too! IT WAS AWESOME! Then we went back to the hotel room and went to sleep.

Day 4:
7. The next morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel! We got to make our own waffles! COOL! Then, we walked over to Canada! We took the Rainbow Bridge... which was probably my favorite view of the Falls. It looked like something out of a lost in time movie. Sadly, tragedy struck on the bridge. I was freaked out and kind of stressed, so when I went to hand Matt my mom's camera he dropped it.... Thankfully not off the bridge, but the lens broke. :( So, that was awful. Luckily, my camera battery lasted the rest of the trip... because we've lost my camera cord and can't charge it or put the pictures on the computer.

8. Once in Canada we went to all the tourist shops and walked around for hours! I was sunburned and heat stroked and exhausted, but it was a lot of fun! We had pizza at this GREAT restaurant. They put tiny shrimp on the pizza. Delicious! And they had potato chip things that were so good! After the pizza we walked back to America. It was a little stressful because one person in our party of 4 didn't have a passport, only a drivers license, but the guy at customs was really nice and just kind of warned us that we needed the proper ID next time. So, that worked out really well.

9.We went back to the hotel, dropped off our stuff, and headed back to the Falls. We decided to do the Cave of the Winds tour. We got to walk out on this crazy wooden walkway RIGHT NEXT TO the American and Bridal Veil Falls! It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO beautiful! Then we got to go up to the Hurricane Deck and stand under the Falls! It was the coolest thing I've ever done! I want to go back and do it every day! I can't believe people actually get to work there! It was awesome. Then we rode the trolley for awhile. I was totally soaked through, so Matt and I went to the hotel to change clothes. Then we met up with my mom and Kendall at the Top of the Falls and had coffee and bread.

10. After that we went to the three sisters islands to see everything from a different angle. It was basically untouched and really awesome! We could go right down to the water. I wish I could pictures up with this... they'll come when I get the camera cord back from wherever it is??? I thought Matt was going to fall in, but he didn't. YAY! After the islands we were starving, so we walked around trying to decide where to eat. We chose the Hardrock Cafe! I had a burger and it was DELICIOUS! Then we went to bed because we just couldn't keep going. :) So tired!

Day 5: Tuesday August 11, 2009
11. We slept later than we intended... until about 8:30ish. We grabbed some hotel breakfast and walked over to the Falls for some Polaroid picture taking! I'm glad I brought that camera too. Then we hit the road and drove 18 hours back to Kansas City!!!! IT WAS SUCH A LONG DRIVE! But fun and worth it. We had a few close calls on the highway, so I'm glad we made it home safe, but everything worked out fine. We got to KC at around 3am and went directly to sleep! It was fantastic!

I'm sure I left parts out, if I did you'll read about them in the normal blog structure! :) LOL! Pictures soon!