We avoided a traditional Willimer family holiday pitfall by being up, breakfasted and out of the hotel by 9am, instead of flopping around and wasting half the morning. The hotel was minutes away from the Niagara Falls Visitor Center, and we were tantalised by the unmistakable not-so-distant roaring sound of water rushing over the rocks - just out of sight, like that first glimpse of the sea from a car window on a family holiday. Before long we had climbed downed to the edge of the gorge, and...well, the awesome sight of the falls themselves is undescribable - which is why Linda took lots of photos with her new camera !
Niagara must have a number of distinct identities (all of them stunningly beautiful) and we were quite privileged to see Niagara wreathed in white lace. The water vapour from the falls, which creates a permanent rainbow in the gorge, and normally disappears in the summer heat, combined with the sub-zero temperatures to cover the grass, the trees and most of the street furniture with a lace-like lattice work of ice. Treacherous to walk on, but magnificent in its beauty. And of course, bloody freezing. Tom was not at his best, complaining bitterly and with some justice. We walked around the American Falls for about an hour, then took a trolley bus around the rest of Goat Island back to the Visitor Centre, where we climbed up the Observation Tower before heading back inside for some well-earned hot chocolate.
According to plan, we completing our walking tour of the American Fall before lunchtime, then headed back to the hotel to pick up the car and drive over to Canada. There is always an additional level of complication with us going in and out of America, especially as we get closer to completing the Green Card process, but we needn't have feared. The Canadian Immigration Officer was friendly and even joked with me - how pleased she was that after 4 years we hadn't picked up the American habit of carrying firearms !
Our first stop was the Skylon Tower, which at over 500 feet high offered fantastic views of all of the falls. Amazingly here, Linda rode the glass-fronted scenic elevator without a single wobble, whilst Tom get very agitated at the top, and only wanted to come straight back down again. "I'm not afraid of heights, I just didn't want be up high today" - We were happy to oblige after a decent interval, since unsurprisingly the biting wind made it freezing at the top of the tower.
Our next destination was Ripley's Believe it or Not, which we took in after a quick spin along 'the front'. The Canandian Side of Niagara is unquestionably like a seaside resort - along with the tourist attraction of the Falls there are all manner of attractions to allow a family to spend several days if not a week there. Ripley's, the Mystery Maze, Rainforest Cafe for dinner, the Hershey shop, Marvel Comics Superheros, The Lego Brickhouse all saw us visit before we drove back to America at around 7pm. There was even a drive-through Festival of Light, scenes of animals and flowers in flickering christmas lights in the local park, which reminded me of a family holiday in Margate when I was 9 years old.
There was time for a swim back at the hotel before heading out again to watch evening fireworks over the Falls, then one last refuelling stop at the Hard Rock Cafe for dessert (and in Tom's case, fries). We thought it best to head back to the hotel marginally before Tom collapsed from tiredness head first into his ketchup at 10.15.
Looking back next day, it seemed incredible how much we had managed to pack into a single day, which was very satisfying since it would be the only day we wouldn't spend a huge chunk of time on the road.
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