Niagara Falls – a place that has always been high on my bucket list of places to see. Well, I finally got to experience these breathtaking falls first hand.

With 0 plans in place to go anywhere, I checked out a bunch of different options for a vacation for a few days. This included mammoth cave in KY, exploring more of TN, a National park in SC and the western part of NC. Well, all of those locations were calling for a downpour the entire week and that just wouldn’t be fun of anyone and it wouldn’t be a fun vacation at all. I then checked the distance and the weather for Niagara Falls. The weather, thankfully, was very decent. I got home from Austin’s appointment and told the kids to pack because we were heading to Canada!! everyone packed quickly and we left for Canada around 11.

Along the way, I asked the kids if they would rather stay on the Canada side or the USA side of Niagara Falls. They of course chose Canada! So for the first 4-5 hours of the drive I spent trying to find the perfect hotel. It was a lot of work because of the array of mixed reviews on all of the hotels and I also didn’t want to stay in certain areas (after visiting, I knew I made the right choice). I settled on the Embassy Suites by Hilton Niagara Falls Fallsview. I was able to book a suite that fit all of us AND for just a small amount more, a room that had views of the falls. Most of the time I book through Priceline and very rarely have I had a negative experience. However, this time I was nervous because of the low price different between a city view and falls view with the hotel.

The drive was fairly long but it would be the same distance if we had driven to Southwest Virginia. The kids did great on the drive with “minimal” arguing and fighting. That is a win in my book with the 6 kids. Of course Taylor was being the typical 4 year old.

We got to the Pennsylvania line around 4pm and I started to research places to eat. We wanted something quick but not fast.

We decided on the Eat’n Park. We saw one about an hour before we stopped and it was packed. Blake and I walked into this one and just scoped it out and it looked okay. We even talked to a family that was leaving and they said it was good and they were quick. We decided to give it a try. BIG MISTAKE!!! Our first indicator to leave should have been when they told us prior to seating is that they were out of their famous smiley face cookies. We said it wouldn’t make or break it for us since we have never heard of them so we didn’t know what we would be missing. We get sat and it took a good 10+ minutes for a server to come to our table. By this time, we know what we want and we give the server our entire order. It then took over 20 minutes for us to get our drinks. I chose to add the salad bar to my meal and I had my entire salad bar plate before we got our drinks. It was insane how long it took for us to get drinks. We finally get drinks and we figured our food wouldn’t take too long, especially since the restaurant wasn’t busy at all. Nope. About 20 minutes later, Isabella finally got her side salad she ordered. We thought it was with her meal but she got it before. After she got her salad, we had to wait another 30 MINUTES to get our food. By this time we were very unhappy. Our server never even came to check on us during our wait for food. One time I turned around and she was in the kitchen on her cell phone. We finally got our food an hour and 15 minutes after we placed our order. This put us getting to the hotel really late and regret our decision to stop at this restaurant. I always try to give restaurants the benefit of the doubt, especially since I worked as a server for so many years. But this was just a bad experience all around.

We finally left at 9:23. This stop shouldn’t have been this long at all.

We made our way into Buffalo, NY. The kids were sleeping at the time and didn’t get to see the city lit up at night.

We woke the kids up around 10:50 as we were approaching the Canadian border. This is all the kids first time out of the country.

I had all of our passports open and ready for Blake to give to border patrol. I have never been through border patrol before and didn’t know what to expect. The office was really nice. He asked a bunch of questions and we were on our way.

We arrived at our hotel (Embassy Suites) around 11:30. I get us checked in and come out to get our parking all squared away. Parking was quite pricy at $70/day to park onsite. It was $100/day for valet and $30/day for offsite parking which wasn’t too far but far enough that it would have been inconvenient. After paying the ridiculous amount in “resort fees” I feel parking should have been included. We opted for the onsite parking. In the end, this really did make things a lot easier. the parking was under the hotel and it was tight. We found a decent spot and took the elevator up to our room (room 2614). This room consisted of 2 queen beds and a pull out sofa.

Immediately, we noticed the falls out the window. Talk about a room with a view. By far the best views I have ever had from a hotel.

We watch the lights on the waterfall while we were all getting ready for bed. We didn’t want to shut the curtains but nobody would sleep then and it was already late.

I researched things to do on the Canadian side of the falls and found the Niagara City Parks Pass. I talked to Blake about it a little before we went to bed.

We slept in a little in the morning and once everyone got up and moving, we went looking for a place to eat. We noticed the Applebees across the street from the hotel served breakfast until 12. We decided to give it a try. It was not cheap in the slightest but we were in a tourist town and didn’t expect anything to be cheap. For being a chain, the breakfast was actually really good and had huge portion sizes.

During our time at Applebees, Blake and I looked at all the different attractions and consulted with our server about his recommendations and decided on the pass we wanted to purchase.

The Niagara Falls pass worked for us and the attractions we wanted to experience out of the 3 different options. Click the link to explore all of what Niagara Parks has to offer.

I purchased the passes and saw the charge on my credit card but I never got a confirmation email and my passes were still listed in my cart. This was frustrating because it isn’t an insignificant amount and I didn’t want to be out of any money.

We arrived at the Falls Incline Railway and I talk to the person there and she tells me to take the railway down to the welcome center and talk to someone there and they would be able to help me. We were able to ride the railway to the welcome center, even though I didn’t have our passes yet since it was included with our passes.

After waiting almost an hour to talk to someone at the welcome, I finally made it to a person. He did all he could to try to find my tickets but he couldn’t not find them. He gave me the number to call to talk about the charge. We ended up having to purchase the tickets through him. He also set our times up for all of the attractions and gave us time slots to complete in 1 day.

We were also given Niagara Parks Passports. These are books for kids that they can get stamped at each of the attractions and it talks about what each attraction is.

We started with the Niagara’s Fury.

For us, this was an attraction that we didn’t necessarily want to do but decided to do it since we were there and the time slot we were given was in 10 mins. This attraction ended up being a lot better than we thought. Of course we had to have ponchos for this attraction because you would get soaked!

Niagara’s Fury is a 4D motion theater that talks about the creation of the falls.

Each attraction takes a picture of you in front of a green screen to try to get people to purchase the pictures. It was $30 for a picture and digital rights at each attraction. We chose not to purchase them. If they had a package price, it would have been worth it but they did not.

Next up was Journey Behind the Falls.

We were really looking forward to this attraction. What we expected and what we experienced, were 2 totally different things. We expected to be able to walk through the tunnels behind the falls and feel/touch the falls but that is not what happened. We spent over an hour in line waiting for our turn. Once we got closer, we were given yellow ponchos and then stood in more queue line until we reached the elevators. Once we got off the elevator, we were down in the tunnels. We were told that we can go right to go behind the falls and straight to go stand beside the falls and we would get soaked. Almost immediately we could hear the roar of the falls. It was pretty cool. There was an employee directing people to two different sides of the tunnel. He said both sides offered the same experience and that the closer tunnel had a shorter line.

We stood in line to get our chance to take a picture and see the backside of the falls.

We were expecting to get up really close to the backside of the falls but it wasn’t anywhere close to that. There was a railing stopping you from getting close to the falls. I want to say about 6-8 feet from the falls. We took our pictures and got out of the way for the next family to take pictures. Our regret was not stopping for a second to take in the power of the falls.

We walked the tunnels to the next part of the attraction.

We made our way to the platform beside the falls. Talk about powerful! There are two levels of the viewing platform. The top is covered and you don’t really get wet.

We went down to the bottom platform which was uncovered and crowded! We waited our turn to stand by the railing. We had a couple take our picture and we took theirs in return.

I took a couple pictures of the signs in the tunnel, as well as a “back area” sort of thing.

We made our way back up the elevator and we were headed to our next attraction, Niagara Parks Power Station & Tunnel.

The walk to the tunnel was along a sidewalk next to the falls and it offered up a gorgeous view!

We made it to the entrance of the power station!

The power station & tunnel is a newer attraction. It has a museum like feel to it with lots of history and interactive features.

We decided to go down to the tunnel part first to see what it was as all about. We weren’t really sure what to expect. The elevator takes visitors down 180 feet to a 2,200 foot long tunnel.

The tunnel walk offered up a bunch of history on the making of the tunnel. We were fascinated by the number of bricks it took to build it (5.7 million handmade bricks) and the salary of the workers.

The tunnel walk was just shy of a half mile and of course the kids kept asking “how much further”?

We found a small waterfall in the tunnel. Of course we told the kids it was caving in.

Prior to going outside on the viewing platform, there was a station to stop and pick up a poncho. Blake and I opted out of the ponchos and wanted to see what it really felt like. We got pretty wet, which was our goal! To us, this observation area was better than the one from Journey Behind the Falls. It was also a lot less crowded.

We made our way back up through the tunnel and the entire time, some of the kids were complaining that they were cold.

We went back up the elevator and I recorded the elevator going up.

We toured the power station and the kids participated in the experiments.

We started making our way back to the main building and checked out the falls along the way. We made perfecting timing because a rainbow formed in the falls.

The longer we waited, the prettier the rainbow got.

Before we left to go drive to our next attraction, we went back inside the main building for some ice cream. I got a maple ice cream and it was delicious! We ate our ice cream out by the falls. Once we were finished, we went back to Incline Railroad and back to the hotel to get our car.

We decided to drive to the next attraction that was a couple miles away since there were a couple of things on that side of the falls we wanted to do.

We arrive on time for our 6:00pm Whirlpool Aero Car ride. Parking at this location is free!

We were able to board the car a few minutes after we arrived. The car has a space in the middle for parents that are holding their children. We boarded and started making our way across the river.

The water in the whirlpool was absolutely breathtaking. During the trip across the river and back, you will cross the border between Canada and the USA 4 times. Once we got to the other side of the river, everyone will walk in a circle to the opposite side of the car. They do this so everyone can see both sides of the river. other side of the car

We all enjoyed the Aero Car ride. I thought some of the kids would be scared but none of them were.

I purchased the book Good Night Niagara Falls for Taylor. I grow her Good Night/Hello book collection every time we go to a new place together as a family or bring her back a book as a souvenir.

We left the parking lot and made our way to our last attraction on our pass, the White Water Walk. The parking lot by the white water walk, is paid parking. We only paid for an hour as we didn’t expect it to take too long.

We took the elevator down to tunnel that leads to the walkway along the Niagara River.

We first came to a platform with several benches and informational signs.

Standing beside the rapids was something to experience. These class 6 rapids are powerful and no joke. We watched waves about 15 feet high.

We enjoyed learning about the rapids along our walk.

We came up to a platform that had a spot for pictures. We didn’t read it hard enough because we thought it was for us to take pictures a certain way with our camera. It wasn’t until we were done, I looked up and saw a camera on the bridge, oops. It made sense though, because this was the only attraction that didn’t take our picture before. We had fun with it nonetheless.

I took several pictures on the walk and just really enjoyed the scenery.

Once we were done, we drove down towards the Rainbow Bridge. The Rainbow Bridge is one of the bridges that connects Canada and the USA.

Once inside the building, you will see 4 change machines. 2 for Canadian currency and 2 for US currency. Each person has to pay to go through the turnstile and it is 4 quarters per person. We had enough cash and everyone was able to go through the turnstile.

Once on the rainbow bridge, we started walking and taking in the views. Prior to getting to the border, we witnessed a truck stop in the middle of traffic and someone get out to take a picture from the bridge and the. Get back in the truck. This was insane as the truck almost caused an accident.

The blue sky day, provided exceptional views from the bridge. It is hard to stop taking pictures, let alone, pick out my favorites.

The halfway point on the bridge is the Canada and USA border. The border is marked with a small brass sign on the bridge and flags in the median of the road.

We took lots of pictures of everyone on the border. This way they could say, they were in 2 countries at the same time! Pretty cool experience in my book.

After pictures, we continued our way to the other end of the bridge.

We got to the USA side of the bridge and decided not to go through customs and just turn around and go back. We weren’t sure if we needed more coins to go back to the Canadian side.

We had to stand in line to get back into Canada. The customs agent was pulling families in one at a time.

It was our turn to go inside with the customs agent. While we were waiting, I got all of our passports ready to make it a quicker transaction. Taylor the agent, was awesome. Very funny. He said “are all those kids yours”? He got to Taylor’s passport and was instantly excited because they had the same name. This made for an even more fun interaction. I wish we didn’t have a line behind us because we were really enjoying our conversation. We totally forgot to ask if we could have our passports stamped since it really isn’t a thing anymore and I’m sure if he had a stamp, he would have done it for us.

We left the border area and started walking towards Clifton Hill. Clifton Hill is the night life area of Niagara Falls and it is nothing other than a loud and busy tourist trap. We saw a sign for Rainforest Cafe and wanted to go there. As we were walking by another restaurant that was in front of it, we noticed the food looked really good. We saw a family eating and asked them if it was a good as it looked. They said it was delicious and that they attempted to go to the Rainforest Cafe and it was about $30 for a burger. Forget that. Even in a tourist area, I’m not paying that much for a mediocre burger.

We went into Billy Bones BBQ. They had inside available for immediate seating but we wanted to be outside since there was music playing and such. After waiting for a bit, we decided to leave because we were afraid we wouldn’t get done in time for the fireworks over the falls. Across the street, we saw a Wendy’s and just decided to eat there.

The Wendy’s was very overpriced but the food was good and quick. After we finished eating, I got all the kids ice cream at a shop that had dipping dots and flavor burst ice cream. I haven’t had flavor burst ice cream since I was a kid and it brought back memories.

After getting our ice cream, we went to get a spot for fireworks at the falls. It was already very crowded but we were determined to make it work.

We didn’t have a view of the falls but we were able to see the fireworks and they were pretty. We did have a view of the American falls.

The fireworks last 4 minutes and go off every night. They did indeed last 4 minutes. Once the fireworks concluded, we made our way back to the car. Blake wanted to drive the kids through the Clifton Hill area for them to see all it had to offer.

After a long day, we were happy to be back in our hotel room of course, we had to stare at the falls from our window. A view that would never get old.

The next morning, we got everything together to head out. After waiting 15 minutes for the elevator, we gave up and took their stairs. 20 stories of stairs. The hotel only has 6 elevators, which is not nearly enough. Only one time while we were waiting did an elevator stop on our floor. It was already packed and we couldn’t get on. I tried to get us tickets online for the Hornblower

I tried to get us tickets online for the Hornblower River cruise but for some reason, it wasn’t letting me pay. Blake dropped the kids and I off at the dock for the cruise to see if I could get tickets there. It was around 9:00 when he dropped me off and I was able to get the tickets for the next boat cruise. We waited for Blake to get back and we took the elevator down to get in line for the boat. We were all given red ponchos.

While waiting for our boat, we met a family from Ohio and told them about our trip to Ohio last year. It was really fun to met someone that was familiar with all the places we visited. It was really fun to met someone that was familiar with all the places we visited.

It was our turn to board the boat. We went straight to the top of the boat and to the front. We wanted to be nose first into the falls.

This next video is over 5 minutes, but it is the full video of being nose deep into the falls.

More pictures of the falls from the river.

We even passed the American side boat – The Maid of the Mist. On the American boat, the ponchos are blue.

We got back to the dock and went to the gift shop. We did all of our shopping here. The kids all got Canada 🇨🇦 pins and Niagara Falls pins. Along with some Canadian candy. We got 4 Kinder Eggs because the foreign Kinder Eggs actually have the toy inside the chocolate and not separate like the American ones. After shopping, it was time to bid farewell to Niagara Falls.

We left Niagara Falls and went to explore some of Ontario. But first, we needed breakfast. Being unfamiliar with the area, we weren’t sure where to go. I looked for places on my phone with decent reviews and decided on Dohboy’s Diner.

Most of the food was A La cart. Blake got a Poutine breakfast scramble.

A show Blake and I watch a lot is called Letterkenny and it is based in Ontario. We figured it would be worth a shot to go to the local beer store and see if they had and Puppers beer. We went to the LCBO that was close to where we had breakfast. We wandered around the store and did not see any. Blake asked an employee and he said he hasn’t seen it in that store in a couple years. He did look and found a store 15 minutes away that had it in stock. We thanked him for looking and went to the other store. We ended up buying 24 cans and I got a can of blue raspberry lemonade vodka and a beer for my dad. Side note, my lemonade was soooo good!

Ari and I went into the local grocery store to find Ketchup and All Dressed Chips.

I’m sure you have seen me reference in my other blog posts about 2 of my favorite websites; Atlas Obscura and roadside America. Well, after looking on both of them (roadside Canada this time), I found “The Comfort Maple”, Canadas oldest Sugar Maple tree.

We wanted to try to find a place that Maple Syrup tastings and I took to Google Maps and discovered White Meadows Farms. The farm wasn’t too far from where we were, so we went. We pulled into the parking lot, and it was fairly empty, and we were really hoping they weren’t closed.

Inside was an awesome little maple syrup shop with tons of syrup and maple products. We got to do a tasting of their 5 different syrups.

After the tasting, we explored the shop and decided on what we wanted to purchase. We ended up getting one of their gallon jugs of syrup and a bunch of maple products to include cookies and candy.

The girls at the shop told us that they don’t typically do tours on the day we were there but wanted to show us the process and talk to us about what they do. The kids were very excited to see how syrup is made and I was shocked to find out how many trees it takes to make the syrup. Honestly, I felt a little guilty for getting the amount of syrup we did but at rhetorical same time, thought, well that’s why they make the syrup, for people to purchase.

We had a great time learning about and tasting syrup. Now it is time to go to our next adventure.

Last summer, we got to dip our toes in Lake Erie, since we were near Lake Ontario, we had to dip our toes in. I went on Google Maps and found a park with beach access called Casablanca Waterfront Park. When we got there, we were quite surprised. It was a completely new area with a brand-new playground and ramp leading to the water. We went to the water first and found that they even had wheelchair access.

Once we were done at the beach, the kids were playground bound and had an absolute blast. Somehow, we always manage to find a pretty cool playground on our trips.

Across the street from the park is an A&W Root beer. We decided to stop and get the kids an ice cream float treat. Imagine our surprise when we were told that they no longer make ice cream floats. We were told by the cashier that they have frozen root beer. We ended up getting those for the kids. While waiting for these, I noticed on the menu (it changes and doesn’t show you everything at once) they have a frozen root beer mixed with sweet cream, and it is the new version of a root beer float. We were pretty disappointed that we were not told about them. Oh well, the kids still enjoyed the treat.

We were about an hour away from Toronto and wanted to take the kids there and just drive through the city. What we failed to realize that Toronto, like our major Metropolitain areas at home, have the same amount of traffic. We got stuck in traffic for over an hour and by the time we got close to the city, we were just ready to turn around and head home. We did get to see the CN Tower in the distance.

We noticed that the weather was getting a less cloudy and found another place we could see Lake Ontario but this time with views of Toronto in the background.

We made it back to the border crossing and bid farewell to Canada.

It was really hard to find a hotel on the way home. This was a challenge because I normally don’t have a hard time at all finding a hotel. I am not too picky when it comes to hotels, but I do want a decent location, with good reviews and the most important thing for our large family is free breakfast. I ended up finding a Holiday Inn Express & Suites (these are our favorite hotels) in Jamestown, NY. The hotel was very nice, and the front desk receptionist was very welcoming. They have water and mints out for all of the guest. Austin ended up getting a bed to himself because Taylor was instating on sleeping in her pack n play.

The next morning after breakfast, we packed up and headed for home. It was going to be a long drive but that is to be expected.

Our last stop on the trip was another one from Roadside America. We stopped at America’s oldest gas station – Reighard’s. Reighard’s opened in 1909 and still offers a full service stop that consists of the employees pumping gas, washing windows and checking the air in your tires.

Reighard’s was a fun little stop on the way home. We did try to stop at America’s oldest rollercoaster but unfortunately the ride did not open for the 2024 season due to lack of employees.

We had a fantastic trip to Niagara Falls and a much needed break away from things going on at home.