Everywhere I went today someone handed me a raincoat. It’s 30C and sunny, but I spent
most of day wrapped in plastic.
I guess we almost killed them yesterday. Even Xavier slept
in. It was 9:00 when everyone finally got up. Guylaine and Xavier had been
awake for a while, but everyone stayed in bed. We were very slow getting going
this morning on top of it. By the time our day started it was noon and we had
already eaten lunch. I had purchased tickets online for a pass to the do some
of the main attractions, so we headed for the Welcome Centre at Table Rock.
Parking was scarce so we decided to spend $20 and park in the visitors paring
right there. I got our passes and was told that we needed to be downstairs to
do the Journey Behind the Falls in 10 minutes! I turned around, looked at
Guylaine with the wagon, cooler, most of the kids, turned back to
the girl and said, “Ya. We can make it.”
The big problem was that Alex had disappeared into the gift
shop, so Guylaine went to get him. Then Xavier took off, so I sent Katrina
after him and told her that I would meet them at the other door, not realizing
the ‘other’ door I had seen was for a completely different store. While waiting
at the ‘other’ door, I saw William wandering the hallway and called him over. I
told him to stay with Sam, the cooler and the wagon, and I went back to find
out where Guylaine was. She of course was both looking for William and
wondering what other door I was talking about. Finally, all back together,
running through the Welcome Centre, down the elevator and back outside, we made
it in just under 10 minutes.
We packed up the wagon to leave at the top, I took my camera
bag, Guylaine took her purse and down we went. The kids loved the raincoats.
The tunnels under the falls were neat, but when you came out, you couldn’t
really see anything.. I was a little disappointed. Then we came back to the
first corridor which isn’t behind the falls but beside the falls and good golly
miss molly we hit the jackpot. A two level observation deck complete with
absolute drenching less then a hundred yards from the edge of the falls. What
an experience.
Next, after a lengthy wait for the elevator, we came back up
and had less then 10 minutes to get back up where I got the tickets to take in
a 4D show. No problem. We’re experts now, except I got us lost trying to take a
‘shortcut’ outside, but we still made it. Again with the raincoats, but this
time in blue. We sat through a cute cartoon explaining how the falls were
formed and I though, “That’s it?!?” Cute for the kids, but I need more. Then
the exit doors opened and there was another room beyond. In we went onto a
large steel platform with handles to hold on to. I kept Xavier with me, and he
did end up being scared. This show was a panoramic view of how the falls had
started in the ice age, (complete with fake snow that we think was soap, and a
really strong and cold wind.) The movie went on like this with lightning, wind,
a lot of water and and the whole platform moving and shaking, ending with a
flight down the gorge and the platform moving like we were in flight. Great
movie. Another great experience.
We decided to take a break and head to the truck for a quick
snack. We packed a little lighter because this time we had to get on the bus to
go to the Maid of the Mist boat ride.
The line ups at any of these places is ridiculous, but they
are so good at moving people, and creating different staging areas, you never
really feel like your standing in line. It’s really well done.
I didn’t want to get the Canon wet, so I decided to shoot
with the Fuji point and shoot. I got some great shots. But before we started
heading back from the edge of the falls, the camera said the memory card was
full! The spare was in the camera bag, on my back, under my rain coat, in a
waterproof covering. I went with the next best thing and pulled out Sams camera
that he askked me to hold. I squeezed off some great shots of the American side
on our way back. Another winning experience, and one that all of the kids
picked as their favorite part of the day.
I was blown away to find out that it was after 5:00. The
kids were getting hungry and we still had one adventure to do. While Guylaine
and the kids caught their second wind in the Cadillac, I went in to see if we
could change the ticket for the last event until tomorrow. No problem. Sam
hasn’t felt well all day, but when he told us he wanted to eat out, we thought
it was good idea, He hasn’t eaten much on this
trip. Boston pizza was what he wanted. We went to the one downtown, but
it was too packed. We headed out to the subburbs.
We stuffed ourselves for about an hour then came to the
campsite. The kids got ready for bed and we made a fire outside. Another late night
for the kids. 10:00. Probably be another late start tomorrow. Not as much to do
so it’s not a problem. Alex and Katrina stayed up a bit later playing Uno, then
Guylaine and I sat by the fire (or what was left of it).
Another great day. I don’t know how many times the kids have
thanked us for bringing them.
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