Rockwood conservation, Niagara Falls, and Park Royal Family Fun Center

Ryan and I have had three incredibly fun and busy days in a row.  On thursday, a friend invited me to join her and her family at Rockwood conservation area.  It is about half an hour away from me, but a nice drive and there is no traffic coming home even during rush hour, so it beats the distance to professors lake.  I had never heard of this place before, and now can not wait to go back again!

We arrived at about 1pm and decided to eat first thing.  Our friends were hungry and though I had ate before we left, Ryan still had half his lunch to finish, and of course I packed a cooler full of (mostly) healthy snacks.  I was pleasantly surprised when I saw lots of empty picnic tables under a large shelter overlooking the lake.  We were able to eat our lunch in peace, with very few wasps around our food, with lots of space.  Our kids of course could not sit still at the table for long, but they had a lot of space to run around there which was mostly contained, except for two entrances.  After lunch we head down a large set of stairs (with a ramp for strollers) to the beach.  It was a small beach but just perfect for us.  The sand was soft and the water was warm.  The water was shallow at the beginning and about chest deep (on me) at the buoy lines, which is the perfect depth in which I am able to swim around but be able to stand and make sure Ryan is safe and close by as well.  We spent hours in the water.  Ryan loved spinning around in his tube, and started a game of swim tag with our friends, which led to tickle tag.  Him and his friend also were playing a game of sink the watering can and try to be the first to spot it when it rose up to the top of the water again, until the time it never resurfaced!  Fortunately for the watering can, later someone else found it at the bottom of the lake.  We also had a bit of sand time when Ryan buried his feet in the sand and dug some trenches.  He much prefers being in the water to playing in the sand though.

Although I dont know if we had our fill of the water, after several hours of water play we decided to go for a hike.  We knew that there were caves somewhere in Rockwood conservation area and Ryan was really excited to see them.  I was unable to find them on the map, but was told to follow pot hole trail, which we did.  It was a beautiful scenic and fun walk.  The boys mostly walked on their own and explored the rocks, bridges, and scenic views along the way.  At the end of the trail was a mill ruin - Ryan gasped and was so excited we found something at the end of our journey.  They spent about 10 minutes running around the ruin exploring every inch of it and Ryan was collecting all the rocks he could find (which I put back before leaving even though he wanted to bring all of them home).  It was 6pm at that point and I wanted to get home for dinner and Ryans bedtime was fast approaching, so we were going to go back the same way we came (the short route) even though our friends were continuing on the long route.  But Ryan was begging me to go the long way with our friends so I gave in.  We quickly discovered on the map that if we continued on, there were caves ahead, but at that point if we continued to the caves it would probably be getting dark on our way back, the mosquitoes would be out in full force, and dinner would have been really late pushing bedtime back even further.  So we told Ryan who really wanted to see the caves that we would come back again and definitely see the caves next time.  The trail back was not as scenic as the way there.  There were more uphill inclines.  And by half way back I started getting really tired.  I was so done with walking.  Ryan as well was tired and spent most of the walk back in his stroller.  Wanting to get back quickly we separated from our friends who wanted to walk at a more leisurely pace.  I speed walked most of the way back... a long way back, and was so happy to get back to that van.  I had been walking for at least 1.5 hours, in the heat, with lots of hills and am not used to it.  I can not wait to do it again, but next time will not take the second way back but stick to the more scenic shorter route.  As it was we did not get home till 7pm.

Sean took friday off as a vacation day and wanted to take us to Niagara Falls.  We dont go out to these type of places a lot so we were excited to spend the day doing something fun as a family.  Niagara Falls is great and there is tons to do ... that is, if you have the money.  It is also very expensive because there is just so much and if you add it all up and do everything it would cost hundreds of dollars!  We havent been there in years and didnt know where to park, so we ended up parking close to the falls, which was a big mistake.  It cost $20 in parking and when walking around we found lots of other parking lots as low as $3 or $4 for the day.  If you just want to see the falls, and dont want to walk up any big hills, paying $20 to park closer may be worth it.  But for us, who were walking up the hill anyway, it was not.  We started by looking at the falls and browing in the table rock store which we found to be very expensive and left empty handed.  We were not really there to shop anyway.  Ryan was excited to see the falls at first and oohed and ahhed but when we got closer he just wanted to move on.  He did not want the mist to go in his eyes.  Silly.  We walked up a huge hill, and made Ryan walk even though he complained a bit about his feet being tired (it is hard to push a stroller up a steep hill with a 40+ pound preschooler sitting in it).  We took a rest break half way up and at the top Ryan got in the stroller for a bit of a break.  Cant blame him - it was probably 40 degrees and the sweat was pouring off all of us.  We took a LONG lunch break at TGI Fridays.  I was excited to go here as I love TGI Fridays in the States... they have the best tostados and pecan salad there.  I was disappointed that the Canadian menu is different than the American one, but the food, though expensive, was still delicious.  I had the strawberry fields salad which was covered in caramelized pecans and strawberries.  Yum!  There are so many attractions on Clifton Hill you could do if you had the money and desire.  Ryan really would have loved to do the ferris wheel (maybe next time), and there were 3 mini golf courses he wanted to try (maybe not dinosaur themed, but we could and did do mini golf closer to home).  There were some haunted houses (too scary for a preschooler), and a neat looking glow in the dark bowling place.  There was a big lego workshop, a dave & busters, and a bunch of arcades.  We chose to do the mid-way because I knew Ryan would love it and Sean and I could enjoy it as well.  Ryan was so excited he did not know where to go first.  We used a coupon so that we spent $20 but got $25 worth of tokens.  It was more than enough as it lasted us at least 2 hours.  Ryan went on 3 kiddie rides, and played a lot of games (similar to chuckie cheese).  He played air hockey with daddy, but his favourite was the roller coaster simulator ride that blows air in your face and moves side to side, bumps, and vibrates to make you feel like your in the screen.  He went on it twice.  He cashed in all his tickets from the games for a spiderman ball, a airplane glider, a spinning top and some other toy that is broken already.   There was a bigger rollercoaster simulator ride in the midway that I would love to do another time with him as well as a laser ghost ride.  Ryan saw the fun house when we left and wanted to do it so badly.  But it was already 7pm, and it would have cost $20 for just him and I to go in.  It did not make sense.  Instead we told him we would try and stop at a park on the way home so he could play for a few minutes.  We walked all the way back to our car (didnt get there till close to 8pm) and ended up stopping at a McDonalds playland so we could let him play while we had dinner, changed him into his PJs, and he ate his dinner in the car on the way home, before falling asleep around 9:30 in the car.  We got home just after 10.

Finally, today, Sean suggested going to Putting Edge to give Ryan the mini golf experience he wanted yesterday at Niagara, but I was not so keen on spending close to $30 just for one round of mini golf.  So I found a different place where we paid the same $30 but got much more out of it.  We played a round of 5 pin bowling (Ryan was just as good if not better than us at it), an 18 hole round of glow in the dark mini golf, and unlimited time in the bouncy castle, slide, and play area.  The place is called Park Royal Family Fun Center in South Mississauga.  After going today, I recommend it to anyone looking for mini golf or bowling with kids.  The bowling alley had gutter guards and there were ramps available for the toddlers and kids (Ryan used it half the time and half the time did not - he was just as good without it as with it).  The mini golf was not as elaborate and big as putting edge, but it was decorated nicely, still glowed in the dark, and had some nice moving parts on some of the holes, like turning windmills, bowling pins, a loop de loop track, etc...    And if you just do mini golf it is half the price of putting edge ($5 per player).  There is also a deal where in the summer if you register your child, they get free bowling games when you go.  The place was pretty empty and it was Saturday.  There was a birthday party going on but the golf course was empty when we were on it, the bowling alley was just us and one other family, and the play area was sometimes empty as well.  Ryan had the bouncy castle to himself most times.  What a great couple days!   It feels like we had a mini vacation right here at home.  :)

Ryan has found a new application on his pet pals game for the leap pad.  He can record his voice (up to 1 or 2 minutes I believe) and play it back.  All the way to Rockwood, home from Rockwood, most of the way to Niagara, and even part of the way to Park Royal he has been making up songs one after the other and playing them back.  He makes up the funniest and sometimes sweetest lyrics.  I love listening to him.  I recorded one, but it is not the best.  Some of his lyrics I liked most went something like this:  I love mommy soo much.  I love mommy to all the planets and back.  I love everyone in the whole world, even all my friends who live on different streets.  Fall turns to winter and then its spring.  We are going to the beach today.  God made everyone.  God made me.  I love my leap pad and yoshi too...    Sometimes he fills in his improvised songs with silly nonsense words as well when he cant think of what to sing right away.