Trip Planning..Part One: The Dissapointment

I love planning and have started to plan our summer vacation and mini vacations (aka weekend trips) because I found from previous experience that
  • yes it makes our calendar look crazy busy and overwhelming
  • but in reality it isn't that busy at the end of the summer we don't feel like we are exhausted.
  • if I don't do this early then we don't do much of anything and then Labor Day rolls around and we feel like we wasted the summer.
So I started planning our trip to Niagara Falls as part of my recreate the vacations of my youth plan I have.  The first stop on my planning list was to you know: "google" it and find a bunch of information from people that have been there and done that because I don't believe in re-inventing the wheel. A lot of people have done the leg work so I can pick and chose things to fit what works for my family.

I was so frustrated by this because there was not a lot that I could find that was current, and what I was looking for was an estimate of how much time it took to travel place to place and how much time to spend at each attraction.  Lets face it the Falls themselves are pretty compact in location but there are a few other things to do as well that are a bit further afield but not terribly far away so it is not like I would need to plan multiple hotels.

There is a bit more to do than looking at the falls, there is some history there too but the key for me is finding things that my boys will enjoy, they will be 8 and 10 for this trip.  So young but not terribly young.   I did find it interesting that many of the blogs I checked out included trips to attractions that were essentially theme parks or arcades, and I don't see the point of that unless your vacation destination is the theme park.  Oh well c'est la vie and all that. :)

I remember my Mom getting a bunch of stuff from AAA for various trips and oh my those paper Triptiks were so cool.  Well I have a membership too and I should use it for more than getting free tows, right?  Off I went to the site to figure out what I could do, and hey guess what they have those tour books that I remember from my youth, so I ordered them and some maps and eagerly awaited their arrival.

They arrived and I was so excited, then I sat down to look at them.  I started with the maps because really I needed a good big map so I could see the attractions and distances for sure there would be one in this treasure trove, right?  WRONG!



The biggest section that covered Niagara Falls was a mere 9in x 12in.

The tour books didn't offer much more info about the destinations and attractions but they have some potential for finding food because I need to make sure that I can find places that I feel are safe due to the food allergies in our family.  I will delve into the food issues later because we can always fall back on going to the grocery store and creating picnic lunches.



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