Day 3 - Niagara on the Lake and Andrew's Birthday

We decided to avoid the craziness of downtown Niagara and headed out to Niagara On the Lake where part of our group was going to do a jet boat ride up the rapids on the Niagara River in the whirlpool area. They had a blast riding the waves and getting wet from the spray.  If you like speedboats and getting wet, this is definitely a must-do activity. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures, but you can check out their website to get an idea of what this was.

The rest of us walked around the  village, did some shopping, and had some ice cream, cause that's  what you do in a little town like this one.  I think we picked the best ice cream shop (it seemed like this place had one every 30 feet).  I wish I could have taken a pint home with me! Chocolate covered sea salt toffee with caramel swirls in vanilla ice cream. Yum!

Today was also Andrew's 13th birthday. So to celebrate, I baked him a red velvet cake for after dinner.  Because the oven is so small, I had to make a 2 layer cake and bake each layer separately.  I was a bit concerned on how it would turn out, but Marc had read that putting a pizza stone in the bottom of the oven helps even out the heat. It worked like a charm!  To make his cake extra special, I put a saxophone ornament on it for decoration. I just happened across it earlier that day while shopping and thought he'd like it.  Based on his reaction, I think he did.

By now, you may have noticed that we are making our plans day by day.  We have a rough idea of what we want to do, but have waited until the night before to solidify things.  Originally we thought we'd go see the Falls lit up and watch the fireworks, but we needed to leave pretty early the next day in order to get to the Ben & Jerry's Factory tour before it closed at 6pm for the day.  Since  going to B&J's was pretty high on our to do list along with getting enough sleep for the long drive, we decided to skip the nighttime activities at the Falls.  We went to bed early (compared to other nights), so we could get up and leave before 7am.  Hopefully, we'll get there before it closes!