Viva Niagara

The kids and I met my old housemate Berrie and her family down in honky tonk town for the first half of Labor Day weekend. "Underneath the ground where the fun is found."

Niagara Falls is the land of bipolar fun. From the sheer majesty of the falls to wax museums, arcades and haunted houses, it has it all and more. 4D movies. Jet boat tours. And a Hard Rock Cafe that no amount of coaxing can convince a seven year old boy that it's really not all that and a bag of chips.

Bright lights, small city. As we were walking back to the hotel at night, Son #2 exclaimed, "I feel like I'm in Vegas."

We packed as much as possible into two short days:

• Donning blue rain gear for the Maid of the Mist and begging the question, "do tall people really need to stand in front of children and obstruct their views?" Have a heart folks.
  
• Roaming for ages through the Butterfly Conservatory which was my favorite attraction. My soul was aching for a butterfly to land on me until a new, tiny, orange friend decided to rent some space on my pink purse for a few minutes. Thanks little dude.
  
• Taking a circa 1935 elevator (ugh) down a cliff to the White Water Walk to be greeted by category six rapids and a stone wall upon which tourists stick their gum -- just lovely
• Sitting outside at a sidewalk cafe, Antica, and gorging ourselves on delicious pizza
  
• Swimming at the hotel pool and taking in the 10 p.m. fireworks over the falls from Berrie's room
• Limiting the kids to three attractions. They chose Brick City (a room filled with Lego sculptures of Niagara Falls, a 10' tall replica of the CN Tower, an AC/DC concert, the Taj Mahal, etc. as well as wall-sized Lego art), the Guinness World Records (crappy, walk-through, "book" with replicas of things like the world's tallest man) and the Mystery Maze (another "must miss" adventure)
• Enjoying the view, one last time, from the Niagara SkyWheel: a gigantic ferris wheel over the falls
  

Yesterday we spent the afternoon on the boat at my brother-in-law's cottage. The kids are finally at the age where they love taking on air and being ejected into the lake from the inner-tube. It scares me a little to watch but is also a source of constant screams and laughing which is much-needed.

So far, a great weekend. I don't want summer to end.