Saturday 10th June – Return to the Canadian Niagara Falls

Ben and I left the house just after 9am to catch a street car along College Street to Budget to pick up a 7-seater hire car which had been booked for the day.  Simon and I had thought that getting six of us to Niagara and finding parking may be a little easier in a car rather than the RV!  We got our silver Ford Flex with only a couple of thousand miles on the clock and I drove back to the house - I'm today’s designated driver.

We were happy to find the rest of the group starting the process of making bacon sandwiches to energise us for the day ahead. 
Being a lovely warm and sunny Saturday in June, the roads heading out of Toronto were extremely busy, so the journey out to the falls that should have been an hour and a half took just over two hours.

With Ray and Ann by the whirlpool on the Niagara River

Spot the tiny red and yellow cable car somewhere above the water

We revisited the Niagara river whirlpool area where a cable car crosses the turquoise water one side to the other, before continuing to the falls themselves after finding some parking.  It was busy at the falls but you could still see the spectacle quite easily and it meant that there were more people around to take group photos.

The falls looked stunning today

 

The view across to the US side where we stood only a few days before

There was a strong breeze along the walkway which showered us with some welcome water at random intervals, as we strolled along stopping to take in the vista.  It isn’t just the improved weather compared to Tuesday – in our opinion the Canadian side of the falls is prettier than the view from the USA.  We all agreed to take a trip on board the Hornblower boat which takes you as close to the falls as it is possible to get. We also did this before the Franklins Wedding but I can’t remember us all getting this wet!  

Luckily, with it being so hot today no one minded the soaking at all.  After we had dried off and grabbed a snack by the falls, Si and I made a dash back to pick up the car to pick up the rest of the gang.  I then drove us on towards Niagara on the Lake, stopping off at a winery on the way for the four drinkers to sample some of the produce.

Niagara on the Lake is such a pretty town.  The wide streets are clean and bordered with brightly coloured immaculate flower beds and each side of the street contains individual quirky shops for you to peruse.  Our secret ply was to make the In-Laws fall in love with the place and choose to move there, to live out their retirement in style - with us visiting regularly of course!  You can even get property for a decent price but sadly, the lure of the Grandchildren back in the UK is too strong so they’re not having it.  Never mind.

We window shopped, taste tested and people watched up one side of the road and back down the other until the oldest public House in Ontario, the Angel Inn, called to the drinkers in the party so we went to quench our thirst.  Conveniently just across the road from the Angel was a Greek restaurant which the group agreed would be great for dinner.

The Angel Inn - the oldest pub in Canada

Enjoying our Greek dinner

The roads were still surprisingly busy around 10pm but thankfully not as crowded as they had been that morning.  It had been a long but lovely day out.  Char especially had become fond of Ann and Ray during the day and I know it meant so much for Simon to be able to share the experience with his parents.  They said the natural wonder was even better first-hand than they had hoped.

It was a later night than we had planned – what with Simon and Ben having a 4am alarm call the next morning!