Niagara 2

Today we hit the attractions. The restaurant in our hotel was flooded with people all scrambling after their scrambled eggs. Huge masses of people all vying for their morning sustenance. I managed to grab some pretty awful eggs and some pretty great home fries. The restaurant, in keeping with the hotel's seeming thesis, had incredible views of the falls. A white washed tomb of tourism. All show and no go.  But we ate and were off for the day into Clifton Hill.

Clifton Hill is a street devoted to kitsch. Ripley's believe it or not resides there, as well as many many other touristy type of attractions. It all seemed to me like a county fair on steroids. The first place we went, Bronto's Adventure Playland was pretty awful. It was basically a McDonald's Play Place with a very small Veggie Tales thing way in the back. I was scared for what the rest of the day would hold. But we managed to forge through all the muck and get our hands on some solid attractions that held up to their price tag, more or less.

We hit the dinosaur mini-golf, which was kind of awesome and would have been more so if the kids could have held it together through the entire thing. Jenny gets pretty competitive during these kinds of things and I was really wanting to devote most of my attention to putting her in her place... She, of course, won. The dinosaurs were actually really well done and the volcano spouted fire from the top... what more could you ask for. Note the golf ball that some body threw in the T-rex's mouth... nice shot!

We then went to the Sky wheel. This was everything it promised to be. We went around and around, stopped at the top. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I am very VERY afraid of heights and manmade contraptions, but I held my mouth shut, clung to the seat and enjoyed the view. Henry, who is really like me in all things but looks, actually enjoyed the ride and found it in his words "peaceful". Thank God.... one of my weaknesses to scratch off of the list.

(Me looking especially Glimli-ish)

However, the next ride we went on, the ride that I thought he would love most of all, the Ghost Blasters ride, was not one of his favorites. I mean come on, you shoot through this "G" rated haunted house and blast the crap out ghosts with laser guns!! But, the haunted aspect of the things proved too much for my little guy, and he pretty much just clung to me the the whole time. :(

Nora and Jenny went on this XD Theater thing. Its the kinda thing that makes me want to show the world what I have just eaten. So Hen and I sat this one out, Henry out of trauma recovery and me out of preservation of nutrients. Last but certainly not to be ignored was the Movieland Wax Museum. Henry posed for his best Rambo face and Jenny sat with the president. Nora got completely freaked by the end due to some sort of horror themed ending, which we balked on before it got too traumatizing. That about did it really.

 We walked around for a while. The trip to and from Clifton Hill was about a half an hour walk each way, something that we all enjoyed as it would its way past incredible views of the falls. We ate at an Italian place that had really good food, but Jen wasn't in the mood for Italian, alas, egg drop soup. As we were walking back a retiring tight rope walker decided it would be a good idea to walk from the top of the Skylon Tower to a neighboring hotel. He, I guess, is going to be doing this for the next couple of weeks and then fading into retirement. He was pretty high up there.
Back to the hotel for a European Tourist packed dip in the pool and one more night of high priced and high up views.