Vacation Post #1

So I think trying to talk about my entire vacation (16 days) in one post would be a little too difficult, so I think I'll break it down over the next few days.

We left on Friday, August 10th. First destination was Niagara Falls. We got to the campground (a KOA) and were utterly shocked at how expensive it was. As a family we never stayed at KOAs but Chris' family had and he had fond memories and I remember Darlene saying that it was their campground brand of choice. However, since I'm a state/national park kind of gal, I was thoroughly disappointed in this campground.

Not only was it $50 a night (for a bare tent site with no hook-ups!) but the sites were so close together. If the site next to us had been full we practically would have been breathing down each others necks. We were to later learn on this trip that not all KOAs are created equal. They vary greatly in price and amenities.

But back to my story....

So we arrive at the campground in the early evening- set up the site, make dinner, etc. Then we headed off to the Falls. For photographic lighting purposes it might have been better for us to wait until the morning to go to the falls, but we were on a pretty tight schedule and since we could go at night we figured we should.

We decided to go on a tour of the Cave of the Winds. Perhaps "tour" isn't really the right word. You take an elevator down towards the bottom of the falls, and then follow some platforms and stairs and get right up at the bottom of the falls. The wind and the water power is amazing! However, since it was night our pictures aren't so great. Without the flash it's pretty dark, and with the flash all it picked up on was water droplets near the camera- not what we were trying to photograph 10 feet away. Oh well. It was still fun and we got a few pictures.

After we were back at the top of the falls we took a few more pictures and then settled in for fireworks, which they have most weekends during the summer. This was a nice treat and I got to test out how the new camera did with fireworks- much better than my old camera!

After fireworks we walked around the park a bit and took more pictures of the falls and then headed back to camp.

I was glad we took the opportunity to do the Cave of the Winds. I've been to Niagara twice before (this was Chris' first time) but both times before we had only viewed the falls from the top. Many people suggested that we should view them from the Canadian side, but we didn't do that. Maybe next time?