Epic East Coast - Day 40

Niagara Falls is the most pedestrian unfriendly town I have ever been in.  The long walk down the river from the American falls to the Canadian falls has two places to cross the highway, while the tourist streets have no places to cross at all.  You are supposed to just run into traffic, with signs that helpfully remind you that vehicles have the right of way.  Not the best place for a family with small children.

We took the boys to see the falls in the morning and they were initially unimpressed, because it was hot, it was a long walk, and we took them away from their fun in the attic.  Alex liked the mist because it cooled him off.  After looking at the falls for awhile, we went in and bought tickets to the Journey Under the Falls.  We skipped the boat tour today because the lineup was unbelievably long and because none of the kids wanted to do it.  They sell tickets for a specific time, so we went for lunch until our time arrived.

Once underground, Alex was really impressed by the falls, though he did not like the fact that the behind the falls tunnels kept you so far back from the water - he wanted to get splashed.  Jonathan, on the other hand, loved those tunnels and had to be dragged away from the viewing area so that all the people behind us could get their turn.  Bradley didn't like his poncho, as even the child one was way too big on him and he also didn't like getting wet.

We then walked up a ridiculously steep hill to find a UPS Store so that I could print out our GO and VIA tickets.  I phoned GO Transit in the morning, and they said the luggage would be fine, though they did advise me to take an earlier bus than on my ticket, since delays were possible.  I also discovered that all the online complaints about the bus/train to Toronto were from the weekends, when everyone from Toronto comes down here for the day / weekend.  As we are travelling on a Thursday, we shouldn't encounter the same issues.

Supper was next so that everyone was rested and fortified for the Dinosaur Mini-Golf.  It was good course, with lots of big dinosaurs to see as you played.  Sandra destroyed all of us, and once again, 18 holes was too much for the kids, especially as it was still 31 degrees out at 6:00pm.  Our next stop was the house of LEGO that Sandra and I found the last time we were here.  It is less impressive now that we've seen the efforts of Scott, Adam and the rest of SLUG, but it had buttons for the kids to press to make the trains move, so it was a huge hit with the kids.

The final stop of the day was a maze that Evan wanted to go through, even though he doesn't really have the patience or sense of direction for mazes.  Alex quickly found his way through and Jonathan did a really impressive job of finding the locations you were supposed to find and then guiding the rest of us through the maze.  It was then back to the house for the night.