Thursday 20 June
“My best day ever” and “This rivals Disneyland as my favourite thing” were the catch cries from Zac, Belle and Abi this evening. We had discussed at dinner last night what everyone’s favourite experience/place/activity was so far, but even with a broad question it was hard to contain an answer to one favourite. Tim is also getting tired of hearing about my bucket list, but it is so much fun achieving things on it (today namely, the Maid of the Mist cruise at Niagara Falls)!
Today we headed to Niagara Falls, stopping at Lockport to see the Erie Canal on the way. Why? Because I could remember the Erie Canal song in a Veggie Tales DVD the older kids used to watch!! Our first stop in Lockport was the Discovery Centre which appeared to be run by an elderly couple on walking sticks. They were very lovely, but wanted $5pp for us to view a 15 minute video on the history of the canal and double lock system (apparently DaVinci was involved in the creation of the double lock?) and to explore the Discovery Centre. I considered a boat ride on the canal, but we were there at 10.30am and the next one didn’t leave until 12.30pm. So we just went to do the walking tour of the Canal for free, which included a small museum at the bottom. The song we heard the Veggie Tales characters sing is actually a famous song well-known here about the real Canal!
I was having difficulty adequately explaining how it worked to the little kids, and then on our way back up to the RV the morning cruise boat arrived and we were able to watch it go through each lock from the top until it reached the bottom and sailed away. I had a win! We saved the two hours the cruise took, saved the $$ the cruise would have cost, and had a perfect view anyway of how the system worked. And the museum had free activity workbooks for the kids, so I can revisit what they learnt today. YAY!!
On our way back to the RV we walked past Lockport Fire Dept, where a fireman was sitting outside enjoying the sun. (Another one was cooking sausages on a BBQ for lunch, so it appears there are some similarities to Australian fire stations hahaha!). Ross struck up a conversation with them which led to him exchanging work shirts with them and us all getting a tour of the station. Ross was able to spend some time discussing work practices and organisation with them, and the kids all took turns climbing fire trucks. One fireman also told us about a museum up the street which included a display of the fire hydrant, apparently created by a Lockport resident who was responsible for inventing pressurised water systems.
We drove up to the museum from there and Ross went to have a look while I fed the kids lunch, but as our focus was getting to Niagara, we didn’t stop to explore it.
We decided to stop at a visitors centre when we reached Niagara Falls to ensure we made the most of the few hours we had there. That was the best thing we could have done (at Ross’ suggestion he wants to remind me). Sidebar: incidentally, Ross is feeling much, much better, so my goal now is to keep it that way!
The Niagara Falls State Park has a series of areas for viewing platforms, boat rides etc, all at distances too far to walk between, and all with different parking areas that cost between $10 and $20 each time. The man at the Visitors Centre quickly convinced me to leave the RV right there and he organised a shuttle bus to pick us up and take us on a tour that included all the stops. I was concerned four hours might be too long, but it was perfect timing to provide a relaxed atmosphere in which we were driven to sites such as the Rainbow Bridge (where you can walk across to Canada), the Whirlpool, Horseshoe Falls, the Maid of the Mist boat ride right up to the American and Canadian Falls, and the Cave of the Winds walk INTO the American Falls.
The kids were very excited that the Maid of the Mist cruise went into Canadian waters, so they can officially say they entered another country today! And the Cave of the Winds experience was amazing – we were given a poncho and sandals to wear to protect our own clothes and shoes, and walked along a boardwalk right up to a “Hurricane Deck” where you could stand right under the Falls! (Sidebar: interesting research I forgot to mention earlier – the boardwalk and steps used for the Cave of the Winds experience only exist each summer. They are pulled down at the end of summer each year and rebuilt the following spring!)
We were dropped back to the RV about 7pm, and drove another couple of hours until we found accommodation for the night. We have some amazing photos from today, but I am afraid we arrive to the RV parks so late at night I am not organised enough to upload them! I have 1,510 photos on my phone, so really need to do something with them soon! Tonight all I have is a shot of the sandals we were given to keep as souvenirs (minus Ross’ as he was using them as his new “shower shoes” when I took the photo) 😉