This is a catch up post. There will be several.
On Tuesday, September 15th, we arrived back into the US from Canada to visit the Niagara Falls area. We stayed in Lockport, NY which is approximately 15 minutes from the falls. Entering back into the US was not as complicated as we had anticipated and we did not have to surrender anything at the border, we only had to declare the items that we were bringing across the border- one pack of breakfast steak, a pack of carrots and an apple. We did have a border officer walk into the motor home; he looked around, asked a few questions and walked out. Once across the border we enjoyed the drive into Lockport through the country and seeing all farms stands with pumpkins and vegetables. We arrived at Niagara County Camping Resort and ate lunch and then called our friends, the Kalers, who were also in Niagara Falls.
While we were waiting for the Kaler family to have dinner, we decided to wonder around the falls area; Niagara Falls is divided into several different areas where you can get different views of the falls. We crossed a bridge onto Goat Island and Luna Island to view the American Falls and Bridal Falls, Horseshoe Falls and later after dark we viewed of the falls with colored lights shining onto the water. Since we have been traveling we have been awed by God’s creations and Niagara Falls was one the most magnificent of creations. Words cannot express the beauty of seeing the falls in person and hearing the water as it rushed over the rocks into the gorge below. Wednesday, we crossed the Rainbow Bridge into Canada to view Rainbow Falls, where we saw the largest rainbow that any of us had ever seen; it stretched across from US to Canada side. The overall view of the falls from the Canadian side gave a more superior view of the front of the falls instead of side view from the US. The spray from the falls was so heavy when the wind was blowing it appeared to be raining. The kids enjoyed jumping back and forth from the Canadian to the US side of the bridge at one section that was marked by a plaque at the division of the two countries.
On Thursday we visited the Lockport Locks in Lockport, NY but had to leave early when Carson was running down a path to the locks and fell and scraped his arms, knee and added a nice knot with a cut above his right eye. Zachary was able to see the locks with the Kaler family while we cleaned Carson’s cuts and scrapes. The injuries were not serious enough for stitches just a half of box of Band Aides and a tube of Neosporin along with two Junior Tylenol. The final cure for the afternoon accident was a pack of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and ice cream to help Carson forget about his “boo-boos”.
On Saturday, we planned a visit to Buffalo to the Buffalo Science Museum to visit the Body World’s & the Study of the Heart, traveling exhibit. On the way to Buffalo, we stopped at the Lockport Locks on the Erie Canal, since the day before we had to leave early on Thursday, due to Carson’s accident. The history of the locks date back to 1822 and they were the idea of Nathan Roberts, who wanted to devise a way to allow boats to pass through the canal even though there was a sixty foot drop existed in Lockport on the way to Buffalo. Nathan Robert had the idea for twin locks with five locks each and in 1823 the construction of the locks began and was completed in 1825. The original cost of the Erie Canal was $7 million dollars which would be equivalent to $4 billion today. The locks and canal were improved many times over the years and were used commercially until the 1950s. The locks are now used for tour boats and individual boats but they are no longer used for commercial vessels. We enjoyed watching a tour boat pass through the locks and watching how the locks actually work, allowing the boat to pass down the canal.
After a brief stop in Lockport to view the locks on the Erie Canal we arrived in Buffalo at the Buffalo Science Museum. This exhibit uses bodies that have been donated and preserved through a process called plastination. The exhibit was very informative and the definitely convinced our children that smoking is very unhealthy after they were able to view a “black lung” from cigarette tar and nicotine. One most amazing displays were the embryos ranging from 5 days to 32 weeks. You could see the tiny fingers and toes of the 10 week old embryo, this display should be seen by mothers thinking of ending a pregnancy. There were displays with full bodies showing with ligaments, tendons, and muscles and others showing internal organs and bones. Zachary and Carson were amazed at the exhibits and did not seem to be bothered by the bodies; Carson was most interested in the two camels (a baby and its mother) that were plasticized. After we toured the Body World exhibit, we visited two other floors in the museum. A large portion of the museum was being used for the Body Worlds exhibit but there still were several areas to explore, a dinosaur area, stones and minerals area, and a kid’s play area. Carson’s favorite thing in the museum was the big floppy eared bunny that he got to touch and fed a carrot. The play area was a “big hit” too with puppets, a water table and building blocks.
On Sunday, morning we met the Kaler family at McDonalds for breakfast before leaving Niagara Falls for our trip to Michigan. We enjoyed the breakfast and fellowship with our friends and we hope to plan another visit with the Kalers while our families are traveling. The kids enjoyed sitting at the kids table with their friends and having McDonald’s hotcakes for breakfast. We left the campground in Lockport, NY heading back into Canada (just passing through) since this route will decrease our destination drive by over two hours. Again we are preparing to pass through the border and accounting for all the produce, meat, and being questioned by border patrol on our reason for going into Canada. Next, stop will be somewhere in Michigan, our destination in Michigan will be Mackinaw City, MI.
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