Okay, the lawn is mown, the laundry is mostly under control, and the mail is taken care of. On to the good stuff. In two weeks we managed to hit Boston (for just a few hours), Niagara Falls (an all day event), Saranac Lake, NY, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. First was Niagara Falls.

Some highlights:

1. We rode the Maid of the Mist–how could we not?? I got as many pictures as possible with my camera and phone before we got too far into the spray and then we switched to a little waterproof camera we’d purchased at Target (not the disposable kind). It was awesome, except that my plastic poncho kept blowing up in the back and I had to struggle to keep it down and keep my clothes dry.

2. We walked up the decking on the MotM side of the American falls and saw a rainbow. We stayed mostly dry.

3. The elevators back to the top of the Falls stopped working. My husband asked if there were any stairs back up and the park personnel told him, ‘Yes, but they’re only for emergencies.’ ??? I’d consider being trapped at the bottom of Niagara Falls an emergency. Luckily, the elevators were fixed within ten minutes and we shot back up to the top.

4. Next we walked around to the other side of the American Falls and braved the Cave of the Winds, meaning we donned new ponchos and cheap foam sandals and trekked up to the ‘dirty’ side of the American Falls. The spray was crazy wild and worst of all was the Hurricane Deck. I quickly had to change out cameras to the waterproof one, and my husband insisted on getting a picture of himself on the Hurricane Deck. So I positioned myself and waited for a trail of people to pass me on the decking…and waited. After deciding I was never going to get a clean shot, I moved…right into the line of fire…er water. It was literally all I could do to hold up the camera. The water was sailing over my husband’s head and smacking me straight on in the face. Water sluiced down the front of my poncho, drenching my t-shirt as I tried to snap a photo. I felt like I was aboard a whaling ship. Finally I got the shot and hurried off the decking.
The bad news? We got home to discover that the camera DIDN’T CAPTURE ANY OF OUR PICTURES!! Arrggh!! But at least we have all our other pictures.

5. We ate a quick lunch at one of the little snack bars and hubby realized he’d lost his credit card. We were hoping it was still at the Visitors Center where we’d bought our tickets. The lunch was spent with me peacefully eating my hot dog and the three boys in my family freaking out over a few little bees, dodging, weaving, changing tables–it was embarrassing.

6. We were reunited with our missing credit card at the Vistor’s Center–hubby hadn’t even signed the payment slip, and that was a huge relief. After that we saw the Imax film on Niagara Falls, which actually had me a little teary, and the Aquarium, which my kids really enjoyed. And that, my friends, was enough.

Quote of the day from my 10-year-old: “Why are we spending so much time here? It’s just water-spray. We can see water-spray at home!” Nice.