The First Day in Niagara Falls, New York

      Honestly, our campsite at Niagara was not that nice. The good news though was that it was right beside the Falls. As soon as we got there I couldn't wait to go check them out. I was not disappointed. It is almost a breathtaking sight to behold. I think everyone should check out Niagara Falls in their lifetime if they have the opportunity. I would recommend getting or bringing your passport with you on your trip because you will get a better view and have more tourist activities to do. I was actually surprised that is it not just one waterfall, but three! 

    Allegedly the Western New York has some of the best pizza in the country so of course we had to check that out too. We went to little Italy to find some! Unfortunately little Italy was not that well preserved and had mostly shops that were not even Italian. We did find one cute little Italian restaurant called La Hacienda (sound Mexican, right). Walking in the reataruant felt like walking back into the 1980's. The owner personally greeted us at the door and just made for a very welcoming experience. The pizza was also delicious so it was a win for our first night in Niagara. We could not wait for the next day to do the tours The Cave Of The Winds and Maid Of The Mist.

  

Adventure Aquarium and Connecting with Old Friends!!

    Even though the Georgia aquarium is the biggest aquarium in the world I preferred this aquarium. It was not as large, but the crowds were so much smaller. The Georgia aquarium was wonderful, but with all of the people there I could not move! It could have also been that at this aquarium my husband was with me, and we also met up with some friends! 

    My friend Karen and I have not seen each other in 8 years and were both pregnant with our first at the same time. She had another little girl, that is now six, and I had 4 more little ones with another one on the way. It was exciting to see our children make friends, and to be able to reconnect with her as well! We also had a super fun time going for dinner afterwards and enjoying free ice cream cones. All of our trips have been fun, but Philadelphia was the most enriching because we saw so many wonderful friends! This was our last day in Philadelphia. The next morning we left bright and early for Portland, Maine. 

Eastern State Pennitentery and Tour Bus

     Our tour passes also included the Eastern State Pennitentery and a double decker bus tour so we decided to do both in one day. The Pennitentery was an old jail so not the most cheerful place to visit. The rainy weather that day didn't help with the mood either. It was very interesting though. It was the first system built of its kind when it opened and was built to look like a church. The prisoners were all put in solitary confinement and only allowed their Bible and a skylight so that they could look to God. I am not sure the success of it, but this prison became a popular model of prison reform. Before this time jails were just dungeon type of things that everyone was thrown into together. Over 400 jails were built and modeled after this jail, it is called the "Pennsylvania System".

      The tour was pretty interesting. We have never done an official tour of the city  so we learned a lot. Since it was raining no one wanted to sit on the top, and everyone was crammed below.

We were on the back row with a large group from the Czech Republic. They were looking at us and talking and I could tell they were counting our children. When they looked at me I held up six fingers and they all laughed. It confirmed

they were discussing our family size. I am so use to it by now. I have been getting looks, snears, comments, and praise over my family size since I was pregnant with my second child (who

was born 12 months after my 1st).  

Please Touch museum

The Please Touch Mueusm is one of the top 10 children's muesum in the country which is great when you have a lot of children! I was actually thoroughly  impressed with the size and grandeur of the building itself! It obviously was not built for a children's mueusm, but the conversion into one is beautiful! My children had a great time exploring all of the fun exhibits there that included a water room, city, train room, space room, and my personal favorite the Alice in Wonderland room! As amazing as it was I still prefer the the Franklin Museum. I am sure if my children picked they would say they preferred the children's museum. Awesome Place!