For nearly twenty years, I lived just a handful of miles from Niagara Falls–I have been there a ton of times. But when you live so close, you never “spend a day” at the Falls. You just go for a quick trip, look at the Falls, ooh and ahh briefly and then be off on your way. True story.

But yesterday, I experienced the Falls. I acted like a tourist, because we brought James’ family with us. They are visiting from Virginia and wanted to make sure to take a day trip there. And I went places I’ve never gone before. We were there for five hours, and I have to admit that I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. I thought maybe an hour an a half? We went up, we went down, we went out and in, we saw it from the top and the bottom and the middle. It was amazing. And for the first time in my life, I experienced the Cave of the Winds. That in itself was worth the trip. A little scary? Yes. Definitely jaw dropping.

Hands down, everyone had a blast.