Confessions of an Ex-Travel Agent

What my kids look like when I tell them we are going to go on an "adventure"!

OK, so we got home from a week at the beach exactly 2 weeks ago.

We were home 5 days before we went to my parents' cabin for a long weekend over July 4th.

During those 5 short days we did a lot of laundry, cuddled the cat, re-packed and, oh yeah, hosted a birthday/sleepover party for Olivia's 8th birthday with over 25 people.

We were to be home for a week before our next adventure was to begin -- a two week vacation to New England -- but Joy's dad entered a rehab hospital 5 1/2 hours away so, faced with a forecast of over 100 degrees at home, we all decided to take off for a kamikaze trip to Erie, PA.  Since travel is in my blood, I knew I had to find something to do other than referee bed jumping competitions and playing in the hotel pool (which, granted, was a lot of fun)!

A little monkey in the middle!

Looking at a map, I saw that Niagara Falls, NY was only 112 miles away from Erie.  How could we NOT go??  Besides, all those hours in the car, and all the sightseeing will be good training for our New England trip (which we may be doing in our underwear, because I am not sure when it is I am going to pack for this trip that we are leaving for in 3 days, since we are never home!!)

After visiting with Grandpa Verner, we only had time for the "Been There, Done That" tour of Niagara Falls, so we will definitely have to go back again.  We were able to do the Cave of the Winds tour which takes you under the falls on a series of boardwalks -- when we go back next time, I will NOT be doing this again!

Although the kids universally delighted in this expedition, I had my heart in my throat the entire time worrying that one of them would slip and fall into the mighty river as they raced across the slippery boardwalks ...

Seriously, how is this flimsy little "fence" supposed to keep people from falling in???

Of course I was also trying to take pictures while negotiating my camera under my "souvenir" raincoat and trying to see out of my glasses that were covered with mist!

Reeeeeally hated the "Hurriane Deck" where you were pummelled with "mist" on steroids and could barely stand up because of the force of the winds ... I am not sure when I became an old person, but this  little trip confirmed that I have squarely arrived to the wimpy age.  My kids all had a great time laughing at me -- come to think of it, Joy may have been laughing too as I shuffled along clinging to the rails!

Me: "Thank God we are down", Them: "Can we go again?"

A view of the boardwalks from the top -- yeah, I know it doesn't look that scary from here!

Once we were back on dry land we walked to the various overlooks for the Bridal, American and Horseshoe Falls.

At the brink of the Horseshoe Falls

We ate dinner at the Top of The Falls restaurant which offered pretty good food with awesome views,

$8.00 mac ' cheese with a view!

 and then waited for dusk to fall so we could see the falls illuminated.

As we were walking along the footbridge back to our car, we had front row seats to an unexpected, but spectacular firework display.

When we climbed in the car at 10:40pm for our 2 hour drive back to the Erie hotel, Hannah said, "I will remember this day forever".  I know that we all will.  Ironically this impromptu trip will probably be the highlight of the kids' summer as I am not sure that the waterfalls we will be hiking to on our New England trip will compare favorably with Niagara Falls!

We had no trouble getting the kids into bed after our Niagara Falls trip, but getting them up the next morning was not quite as easy!

To entice them, we told them we were going to visit Presque Isle State Park  so they could see Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes, and play on the beach for a little bit before the long drive home.

According to Joy, Lake Erie is the only lake in PA that has waves.  I am not sure how or why there were waves on a lake, but there were, and the kids had some fun playing in them.

Of course, as we were on our way home, they had strict instructions not to get wet ...

Yeah, that didn't work out so well for Charlie!

Being in our family is not for the faint of heart, or the homebody!  This is what happens when your mother (or partner) used to be a travel agent!! Our 48 hour whirlwind mini-adventure is over, and now that we are home we have 3 days to prepare for our upcoming tour through New England -- tune in next week for more summer adventures with a Mama, a Mommy and their zoo!

Oh, and P.S. my birthday is coming up and if you would like to contribute to the "Mommy needs a new camera because she got it soaked in Niagara Falls and it is not working right anymore" fund, please let me know and I will tell you where to send your checks and money orders!!!