What a great day, but oh boy am I tired! We started our morning with the hotel continental breakfast in Columbus. We left town pretty quickly, a few minutes before nine. I was excited about driving near the Great Lakes and had hoped for a nice picnic spot. Coleson didn't disappoint, he navigated us to the perfect place!! We pulled off at a small town called Geneva-on-the-Lake, still in Ohio. It was pretty much exactly what I had pictured in my head that a small town on the Great Lakes should look like. We stopped at a park right on Lake Erie, and knowing our time was limited, we left the food and went walking instead. We walked down a boardwalk right to the lake. It was windy and choppy and I climbed the rail to stick my feet in :). The views were awesome. The kids played on the playground for a bit. I went ahead and put together our sandwiches and lunches, and we ate in the car after we left. Way more fun to hang out by the lake then eat! Ryan and Daddy played some catch with the squishy baseball they caught at the game last night.
The weather was decently stormy most of our drive through PA and NY. We were following 90, basically around the curve of Lake Erie and the storms were staying with us. We checked the weather and radars as much as we could with minimal cell signal and changed up our plans a couple of times. It ended up that we went straight to Niagara Falls. What a place! We stayed on the American side. We got our bearings and then started off with the Maid of the Mist boat ride. Amazing!! Wow. It was so surreal being in the Horseshoe Falls with huge walls of water all around and the mist was so thick it felt like pouring rain. Loved it, I had no idea it would be that cool. And yep, we got super spiffy blue ponchos. After the ride there was a short boardwalk that we started to walk up, but it was wet and the kids were not interested, guess it was best we didn't try for the Cave tour behind the falls! Just like Disney, the Maid of the Mist dumped us out in a gift shop where we got our customary magnet and we splurged on tshirts for the kiddos, we're pretty awesome parents :)
After the boat ride, we got some dinner. We ended up just outside the park at some crazy, touristy food court. It was expensive junk food, but it served its purpose well enough. We wandered some more, checking out as many scenic views and taking as many pictures as I could get my family to agree to. Thanks for being good sports and humoring Mommy! Such a pretty place. We walked the pedestrian bridge to Goat Island and saw the falls from the top. We saw lots and lots of birds, which is always exciting to the kids. We hopped on the Trolley for a bit and hopped back off to walk out onto the Three Sisters Islands. We then rode the Trolley back to the main visitor area where we headed out the observation tower to await the 9:00 lighting of the falls. After a day full of tourists and feeling out of place as Americans, we enjoyed chatting with a family from Indiana while we waited on darkness. Unfortunately, it has to be really, really dark to see the illumination. We stayed til about 9:30 and it was pretty cool. I got a couple good pictures and we were worn out and ready to move on. Our drive to tonight's hotel was only about 30 minutes, although it did start storming on our way and getting our stuff and three kids inside in the rain wasn't overly ideal, but we managed just fine. We've really been blessed with good weather, lots of rain and storms around but we haven't been caught out in it. Hopefully that will continue tomorrow, they are calling or some serious thunderstorms, glad we had a nice window of good weather today for Niagara. And now here we are tucked away in our hotel in West Seneca/ Buffalo NY. It was 10:30 by the time the Big Two were asleep and well after 11 for dear Chloe, who happens to be asleep on me as I write this. Here's hoping she'll stay asleep when I try to put her in the pack and play. And here's hoping everyone Sleeps In Crazy Late tomorrow morning!! We don't need an early start tomorrow and we are thinking indoor pool. Nighty night.
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