Once there we checked out the falls themselves. Although we had visited the falls several times we had never visited in the summer so this was a new experience for us. We had only seen it before with snow and ice and on this visit it was warm and sunny with no snow in sight!

The Canadian Falls

The American Falls

Once we had given the girls the lowdown on where everything was we separated and arranged to meet later in the evening. We when decided to go on the Maid of the Mist boat ride as it had never been operating when we had been before.

Fortunately there wasn’t much of a queue and after paying our $14.50 each we were given a rather attractive blue plastic poncho and on board we went.

Sailing past the American Falls

And approaching the Horseshoe Falls

We really enjoyed the ride even though you do get very very wet!

After this we took the people mover bus to the butterfly conservatory. The buses run all day and you can get a pass for $7.50 which allows unlimited use all day. The butterfly conservatory is 9 km away so unless you choose to drive (and loose your parking space) the people mover is the best bet.

The butterfly conservatory is pretty large and there are thousands of butterflies of all sizes and colours. I love butterflies so really wanted to do this and was so glad we did. here are some of the beautiful butterflies on show.

Lots of Blue Morphos feeding on fruit.

A Blue Morpho in all its glory.

A Banded Peacock

Beautiful orange and black one

Owl butterfly from the top.

Even butterflies have to do it somewhere! These are Common Mormons

After the butterfly conservatory and stopping off for some dinner we wandered back to the falls and managed to see several rainbows.

We also visited the new ride in the visitors centre called Niagara’s Fury. This is a film made in the Ice Age animation theme showing how the falls were formed. You then go into another room onto a platform and take a ride down the falls. You are given a rain poncho before entering with the promise you will get wet. However if having a tiny amount of spay on your face constitutes getting wet then I suppose technically they are right. We were disappointed with this ride and would not recommend it.

We waited until after dark to see the light show which unfortunately started nearly half an hour late. We then drove home and got there about 1 am. Phew what a day.

I will post these pics and more in my photo album in due corse.

In the evening we didn’t really do too much as the jet lag was catching up with them and they went to bed early.

On Wednesday we went up to Algonquin Park. We had a really good drive up there and stopped off at Tims in Bancroft. This was their first taste of Tims and they really liked the donuts and muffins. We then carried on the journey to the park.

We were lucky with the weather as it was nice and warm but not too hot so walking around was pleasant. One car park we stopped in had lots of black butterflies fluttering around. I managed to get a couple of pictures. They are apparently Mourning Cloak butterflies!

We did the beaver pond trail which goes round two beaver ponds. We saw the dam they had built as well as a couple of lodges where they live.

We then visited the visitors centre and took a look at the photo gallery they had there. There are some stunning photos on display and anyone into nature and photography should definitely visit. We also went round the exhibits they have on show and of course the girls went in the shop.

At the rear of the centre is a viewing platform where you can see across the park and we took some more pics there. When we had visited before they had a feeding station for birds and squirrels etc. This time however the area was a little run down and no food out so no birds or squirrels.

After having a bite to eat at the restaurant we ventured on to one of the many lakes in the park. We spotted some tracks in the sand and when we looked them up they appear to be coyote – unless anyone knows different!

We did a few other trails but failed to see any significant wildlife. The girls wanted to see a moose, but none were playing the game!

At the weekend we took the girls to Toronto where they stayed for two nights. They had a great time and went up the CN Tower, explored the lakefront area and of course shopped. We picked them up on Sunday evening and they were excited but pretty exhausted.

Yesterday we went to Toronto Zoo as this was somewhere they really wanted to go. We drove down together but then split up so they could do their own thing and us oldies were not cramping their style!

We saw some lovely butterflies pictured here.

There were also some amazing animals – here are a few. I will put the rest in my photo album section as soon as I have a few minutes.

This is an acrobatic orangutan baby posing is a slightly undignified way!

A rather stunning tiger

Some lazy river hogs

Just how cool is she?

A grizzly bear who was unfortunately wandering around in circles which is never a good sign in a bear!

And this handsome creature is a Southern hairy-nosed wombat. Now he has a face only a mother could love!

Today we dropped the girls off in Cobourg where they are spending the day on the beach. The weather is going to be great in the mid 20′s so they should get a bit of a tan.

We emailed her but she did not answer, we then phoned her, but it just went to voicemail. Then hubby tried contacting her via Facebook and told her to turn her phone on. She did and when we told her what had happened and that she now had no flights and had possibly lost her money she was devastated. Not sure if it was the loss of a holiday, the loss of money or the possibility of not seeing us!!!

We told her not to panic at the moment and that whilst she was at work we would do some research and find out what was going on.

There was no way the existing flights were going to happen so I started looking for new flights and found the prices to be twice that which they paid due to the closeness of the timing. I did however find Air Canada flights that were just 100GBP more between them which was the best I could find.

We then found out they had paid via debit card and would not get a refund and they did not have enough money to rebook the new flights. I asked which debit card and found that it was a visa debt card. When I researched this I found that this was in fact treated very similar to a credit card and you could actually get your money back. So armed with this info we go back to her and told her to contact her bank to confirm this was the case.

Another phone call later it turned out that yes they can get the money back but it could take four weeks, but luckily the bank felt sorry for them and gave then a loan to cover the new flights until they got their refund. So new flights were booked and they are now back on track to visit early next month. PHEW!

One very stressful evening for all of us.

On a lighter note we are still attracting the butterflies with our butterfly bushes. I took these pics of a monarch butterfly who paid a visit today.

This is the butterfly from the top.

And another photo of its underside.

The photos are not the best as the wind was blowing, moving the plant about and the butterfly kept flapping its wings and refused to pose properly for me!

Here is a link to information about it:

We walked all the trails and covered lots of km’s in the process. Here is what we found:

Marsh Boardwalk: This was disappointing as it was closed. You could walk the end of the trail through some woodland with some strange shaped trees and then it opened out on to some marshland, but the board walk ended there, so no where else to go.

Next we went along the Owen Point Trail. This trail is a sandy path going along the shoreline. You are surrounded by beautiful bamboos as every so often there is a viewing point where you can see the beaches, islands and of course the wildlife. There are many bird species here are some are endangered making some parts of the beach inaccessible at certain times.

Jobe’s Wood Trail was as the name a wood trail. We saw the biggest black and grey squirrels we had ever seen here. The black squirrels in town make our red ones look small, but these made the black town ones look tiny.

There are also a few other trails which we walked, but most were through woodland. The trails above were the best ones and worth visiting.

Not the best park we have been to, but good none the less.