One of the cool things about Niagara Falls being a “wonder of the world” is that growing up I only lived about an hour away!  Which means I’ve seen those Falls a thousand times.  That might just be literal.

So it’s safe to say that when our friends from Victoria (who are originally Saudi Arabia – I’ve mentioned them before!) were passing through town on their way back to Saudi for the summer, we knew we needed to take them to The Falls!  They are definitely a sight to behold:

I have to say, as much as I love all of my American friends, the Canadian side of Niagara Falls is way better than the American.  There’s really no denying it.  I mean, we got the horseshoe, and you guys got this sad little line of falls that you have to walk out on a beam to even see.  Okay, okay, enough of me rubbing it in…

It’s always a real treat (I’m being sarcastic) to get a photo withe The Falls in the background because there are so many people around.  Especially in the summer.  It’s even more fun in 100F degree weather!  But seriously, this has to be the best family photo ever:

hahaha…doesn’t it just sum up every family photo you’ve ever had?  Seriously – it’s nearly impossible to get kids to co-operate, and so I think pictures like this are awesome.  It shows the true nature of the day.  :)  Gosh, I love this family.

We all decided to go on The Maid of the Mist which is a boat that takes you up close to The Falls to see and feel the incredible wonder of nature!  It’s super cool.  We’d actually never done it, so this was a fun treat!

First we had to line up in this insane line-up to get on (and that’s a story in-and-of-itself that I will refrain from…the long and the short of it is that it was tedious).  And we got to wear awesome blue plastic ponchos which are definitely not only flattering, but breathable in the heat…okay, not really.  They’re super sticky (mine was especially sticky after I got stuck to some gum when leaning against the wall!), but worth it when you enjoy the mist of The Falls!

On a sweltering day with little to no breeze, being this close to the water was both torturous and delightful!

A sad side note: we had a full proper picture taken of all of us (courtesy of the boat ride company) and we lost our copy in our hotel on our way to Pennsylvania (details on that trip coming up soon!).  :(  So now we’re hoping to get another copy.  So sad.

In any case, after our ride on The Maid of the Mist we headed over to Bird Kingdom to check out some unique birds and other such tropical  species.  It was nice and cool inside and we saw some pretty fabulous creatures!

No day at Niagara Falls is complete without running into strange characters such as Spongebob Squarepants:

We continued our nature theme by going to The Rainforest Cafe for dinner.  If you’ve never been there before it’s lots of fun, especially with children.  It’s themed like a rainforest (duh) with artificial trees, animals, rain, thunderstorms, a night sky with stars, etc.  It’s cool!  The food is pretty regular (burgers, etc.) yet expensive, but it’s the atmosphere that you’re paying for really.

It was a great day with great friends, and we’re glad that we got to show them around one of the seven natural wonders of the world!

Have you ever been to Niagara Falls or one of the other natural wonders of the world?