Canada Day Two - Buttery Garden and Niagara Falls

 James -  It is always pleasant to be reminded of all the little things you do wrong, toward that end my 11 year old has taken to speaking like a muppet that only says "you failed" when ever Jon thinks I am doing something wrong, like missing a turn while driving or forgetting the car keys in the hotel room.  It is good to be kept on the straight and narrow.

Meeting another horse

 Bethany sadly wasn't feeling well this morning so I bravely took the children and my mother out by myself to visit the flower clock and the botanical gardens. Let me first say how brave I was single-handedly taking care of both my children and my mother at the same time. Secondly I don't understand the appeal of a floral clock (a big clock with a face made of plants). If the entire clock was made of plant matter that would be something, if the clock used flowers to tell me the time I would be for it but in this case a big mechanical clock with a face made of plants is not for me. In protest I did not take a picture of it. See bellow a drawing made by my 8 year old (I forced him to do it). My kids also did not seem to care about the clock but they did like the small Koi pond and tried to get the fish to bit their fingers. My mom was happy with it though so I guess that is good.

The flower clock

Christian the photographer

Buddhist temple we saw near the gardens

Next my trials continued and I bravely dared to take my family to the botanical garden butterfly house.  The butterfly house was amazing.  It is a 2 story greenhouse with a rainforest in it, complete with palm trees, a stream, and a waterfall.  The place is full of thousands of butterflies, they land on you and you even have to watch where you are stepping. My favorite part of my time there was watching my boys eagerly wait for a butterfly to land on them and their joy when one did.

Waiting for the butterflies to land

Christian is hopeful

One landed on Will's leg

Christian holding aa butterfly

Jon was thrilled

We spent about a half an hour there and would have spent more time but my mom started to get warm, and it was time to head home.  Well after the gift shop.  I always tell my mom she does not need to get my boys something thing at the gift shop, that she can in fact say no, but she of course is a grandmother and is unable to refuse them.  So we spent the rest of our time that morning eating our gift shop candy and wandering through the gardens.  The boys were especially happy by their purchase of Bertie Bott's every flavor beans (the ones Dumbledore does not like due to getting an earwax flavored one).  My boys delighted in the tastes testing every one and daring each other to eat the disgusting flavored ones. Christian and Will would spit them out but Jon proudly ate one that he thought was dirt flavored.

Illicit jelly bean trading

After the garden I checked up on my wife and though she was feeling better she was in no mood to eat lunch, so we made plans to meet by the falls after lunch.  My Mom and the boys ate lunch at the Queen Victoria Place restaurant which is not as august and fancy as it sounds.  But it is near the falls in a beautiful building.  I remember it from when I was a kid and it was nice to be able to take my boys to it now.  Lunch was good but the service was very slow.  After we ate we went to yet another gift shop and then met up with Bethany at the Journey Behind the Falls attraction. Which means my wife can now take over the rest of the blog. Thank God.

At lunch

Bethany - This morning was not great. I was woken up really early by a stomach ache and spent most of the morning and early afternoon sleeping with small but intense interruptions to throw up. But eventually I felt well enough to meet up with everyone to see the Falls. We went on the Journey Behind the Falls which takes you part way down the waterfall and right up close. Our struggle to put on the provided ponchos was amusing but eventually we managed to get down to the water. The falls are amazing and powerful. On the observation deck we saw a beautiful rainbow spread out over the river. Although Niagara Falls is 50 times as powerful the whole scene reminded me very much of one of our favorite waterfalls in Iceland.

Rainbow at Niagara Falls

Christian gets soaked

Our very wet family

After the observation deck the walk goes on through a tunnel behind the falls. Two openings are cut out where you can watch the torrent. The damp walk had various informational displays and I was interested to learn that the first person to survive a barrel ride over the falls was a woman in 1901. And the only person to survive an unintentional trip over was a seven year old boy.

Will behind the waterfall

The falls from the observation deck

I was very glad that we were able to the Journey Behind the Falls. That is what I most remember from our previous trip here. The very first trip I ever took with the Friday family was to Niagara Falls. That was a very different trip. It was only two months after James' dad had passed away and that naturally cast a pall over our time here. James and I weren't even engaged yet and so I was also an outsider to their grief. But we did have some fun as well. I remember a snowball flowers fight with James, enjoying the beautiful scenery at Niagara on the Lake, and going behind the waterfall.

Camille snaps a picture of the falls

Christian at Niagara Falls

After our tour and some browsing at the gift shop, we went back to our rooms for a rest (I was still exhausted from the morning) before heading out for dinner. We went over to Clifton Hill which is a street crowded with all kinds of attractions. They have a huge ferris wheel, a magnificent go kart course, really well done mini golf, and a host of other attractions from cool to cheesy. The whole area is full of noise and neon.

The boys enjoyed the bear at the gift shop

I wish we'd had the time (and money!) to do some of the bigger things there. But as it was we spent a good deal of time walking around before finally settling on the Crystal Cave, a mirror maze that the kids really wanted to do. They went in and came out ten minutes later from the entrance. They'd gotten completely turned around! So back in they went full of excitement. When they finally emerged from the exit they were beaming and bursting to tell us what had happened. Christian had apparently gotten separated and lost at one point and had to climb over one of the mirrors. But all of them were thrilled and it was an excellent end to our evening out.
 

Ice cream at Clifton Hill

Christian and I heading home

It was late by the time we got home but still we couldn't pass up a chance to swim. I was fully recovered by that point so I took the boys down while James started on the blog. My intention was just to sit and read my book and for a while I was able to do just that in the hot tub. (Reading in a hot tub is one of my favorite things.) But I didn't get very far before I was pulled into the pool to play with my boys. I spun them through the water and they had fun carrying me around too. I really do love them. :-)

But now they are all sleeping and I am weary too. Tomorrow we are driving up to Ottawa!
Goodnight!