Niagara Falls, NY

Dan and I, Brandon and Amanda, and Gin and Syl all bought the Discovery Pass for $33.  This pass was for admission into 5 of the Niagara Falls attractions (Cave of the Winds, Maid of the Mist, the aquarium, the Niagara Gorge Discovery Center, and the Niagara Falls Action Theatre) plus gave you  one day’s pass on the trolley.  We thought that was a bargain!  An added bonus of staying at Four Mile Creek State Park was that we could park at any other NY State Park for FREE!    As parking at Niagara Falls was $10 a day, we saved quite a bit of money!  We all packed our lunches and headed over to Niagara Falls.  Mack and Mo were joining us too but were only going to do Maid of the Mist.

We got to the park and started exploring.  I was in awe of the views.  Over the course of the week, I took several hundred (yes, hundred!) pictures.  I went from savoring the views without taking pictures to snapping the camera at every angle!

I was amazed at the number of rainbows that we saw.

And, of course, we had to get in the pictures, too!

After we gawked for a bit, we headed over to Maid of the Mist.  We donned our rain ponchos and boarded the boat.   I didn’t get any pictures during the boat ride as the mist was so heavy and I didn’t want to get my camera wet.  The power of the falls was awesome.  It was exhilarating to get that close to the falls and get sprayed by the mist.  After the boat ride, we took some pretty neat pictures from the observation tower.

Brandon and Amanda

Dan and Tricia

Son and Mom

Gin and Syl

After our picnic lunch, we headed over to Cave of the Winds.  This time, we donned our ponchos and some really cool (or not!) sandals that everyone had to wear.  Again, I didn’t get my camera out as the mist was everywhere.  You are so close to the water that you can actually reach your hand out and touch it!  It felt so refreshing and cool.  It was amazing (and a little scary for Amanda and I) to stand on the Hurricane Deck and have the falls come over you.  We all got a little soaked but dried off quickly.

After Cave of the Winds, we meandered around the park and explored some areas that were on my “wish list”.

Three Sisters Islands was one of those places.  It had special significance to me as I have three sisters (although there names are not quite as um, original as the ones on the sign).

Wish you were here, sisters!

We headed down the path to explore the three islands.

Ever the kid, Brandon opted not to take the path.

This seemed to be a part of the park that didn’t get much visitor traffic.  The views were pretty and it was good to get away from the crowds.

While Gin and I stayed a respectable distance from the water, the rest of our group were more daring.

Brandon, Amanda, Dan and Syl near the water's edge

Dan looking at the power of the water!

Brandon and Amanda

Suffice it to say, we all slept good that night!  We needed all the rest we could get as Thursday was going to be another tourist day!