Niagara Falls Day! It was our last real vacation day for the trip! We knew what we wanted to do--go to the areas that you get wet. Also, we wanted to see the falls from the Canada side because we heard it's a great view. We had to get to the airport by the evening, and we had to pack up everything in the rental in the morning. So efficiency was the name of the game.
After cleaning up all of our things, we headed to the Falls. It was a little longer drive than I would have thought considering we were already in Rochester. But it wasn't too bad, and I loved the mist signal that we were getting closer. There was a huge pillar of mist in the sky, like the falls were beaconing us.
Side note. We didn't love Rochester. It just seemed pretty sketchy. Grocery shopping was scary. There was a shooting one of the evenings we were there next door to the quirky rental. The street was blocked off, and we had to park down the road and walk in. Probably won't rush back to visit that city again, needless to say.
Niagara Falls, on the other hand, is amazing. We drove right up and immediately made our way to the Maid of the Mist queue. It wasn't too bad, and it was fun to see so many MCO people there in their shirts. We loved our ride on Maid of the Mist. I don't think we got as close as we did the last time we were there 5 years ago, but there was still plenty of forceful, windy mist in our faces. After returning to the dock, we walked up by the American Falls. It was fun to see it from that angle.
At the level of the top of the falls.
Took the elevator down near to the river.
The matching ponchos :)
Eliza turned hers into a bonnet.
Miriam had to join in on the fun.
They have updated the boats in the last 5 years!
We got a great spot right at the front.
American Falls on the left, Horseshoe Falls straight ahead. Horseshoe Falls is almost completely in Canada.
A view of Cave of the Winds from the River.
The mist is really starting to hit.
Full force! I got yelled at by John for having my phone out. :) Darcy was just huddled down to avoid the spray.
We're not even that close to the billowing mist, but it was still coming at us.
View back to from where we came.
So many happy faces.
So much rushing water.
Our awesome sun hats are blocking the view of the water.
Back to the top again. I love the mist pillar.
Holland wanted to take a photo of us. She also posed us. :)
Mommy, take my picture with this!
Gah, she's so cute!
I love the beautiful gardens around the falls.
Next up was Cave of the Winds. This was so fun! We got a new set of matching ponchos--yellow this time! I have to say that unlike Maid of the Mist, Cave of the Winds was more forceful and fun this time. It is interesting to see the different water levels from 5 years ago.
I don't know if John meant to take this photo or not, but I loved that he captured all of the spray in the air.
Darcy wasn't quite old enough to like all the spray in the air.
She liked looking at it from the dryer side.
The Hurricane Deck!
This kinda makes me sick.
And for our final activity we drove the 15 minutes over to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. The border security guard in Canada was so nice and friendly. It was crazy to so quickly drive to another country. We loved the view from this side. We learned that Horseshoe Falls is almost completely in Canada and is 3,000 feet long. The water drops 188 feet from these falls. Over 6 million cubic feet of water go over the falls every minute!
What a view!
Rainbow!
We drove across that bridge to get to Canada!
After we finished walking along the Canadian side we headed back to Buffalo. We were taking our originally booked flight home. We didn't need to hurry though. We didn't realize our flight was going to be delayed 2.5 hours.
When we hopped in the car, we put in the Buffalo airport into navigation, and it told us to not go the way we came. We were nervous about making our flight and opted for this new route to save time. But this was also nerve wracking because we didn't have a phone service plan that included Canada. So we had service right by the border, but what about when we drove further away. I don't know why we did it, but we went for the Canadian route. In retrospect it feels a little risky. But I have to say the drive through the Canadian countryside was just lovely. It was a little unnerving because we were driving on such small roads. Sometimes there were no lines on the roads or any other cars to be seen. It really wasn't that long of a drive, less than an hour for sure, but it was different than what we had been seeing/planning on. When we got back to the USA border, the border guard couldn't have been more different than the Canadian border officer. So grumpy and seemed skeptical of our story. Thankfully we all had valid passports, so it wasn't a problem. It was just a funny juxtaposition. The beautiful Canadian drive was also in stark contrast to the not so cute town of Buffalo. We had to fill up the rental car tank, and it all just felt so sketchy. But we made it, and it was fine.
Like I said, our flight was delayed 2.5 hours so we definitely didn't need to rush like we did, but it was fine. One perk of this was that the Frontier agents didn't make a fuss about anyone's personal item size, which was a relief because, Frontier does not mess around with that policy as we found out the next day. Either way, we had the kids all wear their hats and jackets to make the bags seem as small as possible.
We had an overnight layover in Denver, which was fine. We got a late shuttle to a hotel and crashed when we got there. We got breakfast the next morning. It was a typical hotel breakfast--probably waffles and maybe even some eggs and hashbrowns. It was nice, but didn't really stand out to me. That was not the case for everyone. When Steven Charles asked what was her favorite part of our Boston trip, Darcy described this breakfast, "I went on the elevator to go to the breakfast. I got butter toast, and there were big orange slices, not just little ones!" This was so funny and exasperating. She also mentioned that she saw a half seal, half lion. (She was talking about a sea lion! Funny girl!)
That morning we just had a quick flight from Denver to Salt Lake City. But I couldn't believe the drama about that little flight. I think Frontier is headquartered in Denver, so maybe that is why the staff was being so picky about personal item size? They kept announcing that our bags had to fit in these little bins, but, believe me, there was no way that was happening. Our back packs were all chock full! The allowable size was 14 in tall, 18 in wide, and 8 in long, including handles, wheels, and straps. The item must fit under the seat and in the personal item portion of the bag sizer. So our back packs could definitely fit under the seat, but were stuffed way too full to make that smallest (8 inches) dimension in the personal item sizer. We started to sweat a little when we saw that the gate agents were making every single person fit their items in the sizer. If it didn't fit, we would have had to pay for it to be considered a carry on item rather than a personal item. Which doesn't sound too bad except I heard that they were charging people $90 per carry on (oversized personal item). We have six people in our family. That's over $500 for our family! We would definitely not be saving money in this situation to take the cheap Frontier flight. Fortunately for us, there was a younger mom and two kids in line in front of us. The mom had a small roller bag that all fit in the personal item sizer except one wheel. Her bag was stuck in the sizer, and she couldn't get it out. The woman was freaking out because her bag was stuck, and agents were saying it was too big to be a personal item. It was one wheel! Her bag was FOR SURE smaller than any of our backpacks. But she was kind of making a scene--crying and her kids were crying. There was another woman going to bat for her--yelling at the agents. So they just waved our family through without measuring our back packs. I couldn't believe it! We just walked through without saying anything to anyone in order to not draw attention to ourselves. Eventually they let the lady and her kids get on without paying the fee, but it still felt like so much nonsense.
All this to say, I don't think we will be flying Frontier again. Like ever. Between the cancelled flights on the way there, and the crazy strict personal item sizing, it just feels like it isn't worth it. Yes, I know other airlines cancel flights, but it felt absurd to be scrambling for new flights, a new rental van, and different accommodations that first night.
We made it home though, and that trip was fantastic. On our walk to our van we got to 47 USA license plates spotted in the last 1/3 of our trip! (We found Wyoming!) We only missed North and South Dakota and Hawaii. We did get a bunch from Canada though! I had to take a screen shot of our accomplishment. This is now a thing for our family, and we like to shout out when we see interesting plates in Provo. Provo isn't actually a bad place to see a variety of license plates! Darcy wanted to get in on the game, and to this day still shouts "Utah!" on most any drive when she sees the Delicate Arch license plate. Spoiler, we see a lot of those, so this means she yells Utah quite frequently when we are literally driving anywhere. :) Also, she started calling me "The One I Love" on this trip, which is equal parts adorable and absurd, but I love it so much. "I want The One I Love to sit next to me." :)
This was such a wonderful trip! I think depending on what you consider a museum, we visited about 11 museums this trip. Our kids were fantastic. The MCO music was phenomenal. The historical sites were meaningful, and the natural beauty we saw was stunning. I am so grateful for these kinds of memories!
After we got home that evening we jumped right in to real life with a summer band concert for Miriam.
