Sunday July 1st, 2012 – Happy Canada Day!

No hurry this morning. The only thing we have planned for the day is the butterfly conservatory http://www.niagaraparks.com/garden-trail/butterfly-conservatory.html/ and to do our walk from our adventure pass yesterday http://www.niagaraparks.com/attractions/white-water-walk.html and I booked that for about noon. They have free parking there so we drove there and did the walk first. They bring you down to the gorge in an elevator from 1932. Very cool.

This walk is a man-made boardwalk that goes along the gorge at the class 6 rapids. It was very neat to see. This is the area where all the daredevils have walked the tightropes or tried to swim the rapids. The scenery is amazing.

We went back up, grabbed some lunch in the truck and jumped on the bus with our passes to the butterfly conservatory. The butterfly conservatory houses over 2000 butterflies. We walked in and they were everywhere. The butterflies were landing on us. Sammy seemed to have a special way with them. He was able to get them to land on his finger, then he would put them on the other kids fingers, or their faces. I think we could have spent all day here.

We jumped back on the bus about 4:00 and went past where we left the truck and got off near Clifton Hill http://www.cliftonhill.com/. We walked up past the different shops, haunted houses and wax museums. The streets are packed! Then people started celebrating in the streets after Spain won the Euro Cup. People were going crazy, honking horns, waving the Spanish flag. It was pretty neat. Reminded me of downtown Ottawa when the Senators made it to the cup final in 2007. (Exactly 40 years after the Leafs last appearance, but I digress.)

First stop was a candy store. Not sure if it was the free fudge samples, but we like this store. Lots of goodies. Took a few pictures.

Halfway up the hill we came to the skywheel. http://www.cliftonhill.com/attractions/niagara-skywheel

We promised the kids we could go on it if we passed it, so away we went. The view was amazing, but this thing was hot as hell. They said it was air conditioned, but Guylaine took out our Adventure Passes to fan ourselves with. It was a little pricey for 3 times around, but where else can you get a view like this?

At the top of the hill, we went into another candy store. They had some Pop Shoppe so I had to buy one. The kids all grabbed something, then we headed back down the hill on the other side of the street. After checking out a few of the shops and seeing what might be neat to visit if we come back in August, we made our way back to the bus, back to the truck and back to the campsite.

I made garlic toast on the BBQ with Sammie’s help while Guylaine warmed up the spaghetti sauce. After dinner, we went for a walk by the river. We found a boat launch at the far end of the campsite, and Sam, William and Xavier ventured into the water. Eventually, they got down to their skivvies and went right in. Alex and Katrina ran back to the trailer to get their bathing suits and some towels and they all went in. As it started to get dark, we headed back to the trailer. Tried to give the boys a shower, but there is no hot water. I went out to try to relight the hot water tank, but it looks like we’re out of propane. Could’ve sworn I just filled it, but it’s empty.

We had a fire and watched what we could see of the fireworks that are going off over the falls for Canada Day. The kids didn’t go to bed too late. We have to get up early to pack up and get out of here by 11:00am. Guylaine and I were in bed right after the kids.