More pics from our vacation to Niagara Falls, Ontario . . .
On Saturday morning, we headed out to Marineland . . . although I had never heard of this place before, one of my photography clients had told us we should go. And I'm so glad we did--it ended up being a favorite from the whole vacation! It's similar to Sea World, but not as busy or commercialized. More like a family-run marine park, and we ended up spending the entire day there.
I could've sat and watched this Orca whale all day . . . such a magnificent animal.
There was this huge pen of deer (I'm guessing several acres of land with probably 50+ deer) . . . you could just walk into their pen and interact with them. If you wanted to pay for deer food, you could, but you didn't have to. Ian found a deer and followed it around--he later learned the deer's name was "Prince" and said it was his newest friend.
As the animal lover in our family, Ian just couldn't get over how cool this whole experience was for him. Best. Day. Ever.
A group of black bears . . . probably close to 30-40 bears in there.
Along with lots of animals, there were also rides & roller coasters . . . all included in your ticket price.
They had a show that we went to, and that was super cool to see the beluga whales, dolphins, and sea lions do the various tricks . . .
Online, I saw that you could pay extra to feed beluga whales . . . we waited until late in the day to walk over to the exhibit, and I expected it to be pretty pricey. When I checked, it was less than $10/person so I knew that we couldn't let this opportunity pass by. This was Ian's face when we told him they were going to be able to feed the beluga's. He thought sure we would just be able to watch other people do it.
Such an incredible opportunity--the boys LOVED this!
Cole got his first kiss :)
So much excitement--he about couldn't contain himself!
One last ride we had to try out. Cole & I went on it first . . . it was a tower that stood 450ft. tall. You got shot up into the air, then after bouncing up and down a bit at the top of the tower, you were pulled to the top of the tower, then shot back down, feeling like you were free falling on the way down. It was AWESOME, and since there was hardly a line, I convinced Mark to go with me on a second ride. He wasn't too sure, but agreed to it anyways.
He did not think it was AWESOME :)
Ian wanted to stop in the deer pen one last time to say good-bye to Prince
That evening, we were all exhausted and worn out, so we picked up pizza and just chilled in our hotel room for a while. When it was almost dark, we walked down to the falls to see them illuminated.
On Sunday morning, we packed up. Mark & I headed out for one last trip to the falls--even though we had seen them several times that weekend, they were such a breathtaking creation!
So many fun & amazing memories from our time away with our little family . . . a vacation we will never forget!