In my opinion day 4 was the best day yet of this vacation. Ella is feeling much better and therefore more cheerful which makes a world of difference.
So we got up this morning and headed to the African Lion Safari, just outside Cambridge. I think this was everyone’s favorite attraction that we have seen. Very shortly after we arrived they had the Elephant bath time where a bunch of the huge animals come down into the pond and have a bath. When they were walking towards the pond they were all trunk to tail so with a little baby in the middle, pretty cute. When they got to the edge of the water the trainers basically let them go. You could tell they enjoy this part of the day because they literally took off running out into the water.
After watching bath time we thought we might be in for a little trouble as it started to rain a bit. So after a long debate about whether we should take the rental car through the safari or take the tour bus we took the car. Everyone else wanted to take the car but I was a little hesitant. When we had arrived and parked the car, two vehicles pulled in behind us which had just drove through the reserve. One woman was talking about how the hood ornament on her car was now missing along with some rubber, and a man with foot prints all over his car scoped a pile of poop of his hood. All I was thinking was how picky these rental car companies are. Marking down every single little scratch on the car and make you pay for it if there is a new one when you return. But in the end we did take our car. We could have also by-passed the monkey section of the drive but we figured we would drive through and risk it anyway. Very glad we did, those primates were some of the most interesting and fun creatures to watch. Luckily we seemed to be the only car that didn’t have a single monkey jump on it while going through, so not a scratch or foot print.
It was very neat being able to drive around all these animals without having anything in between you except you car. Some of the other more notable animals that we got to be up and close too were Giraffes and Rhinoceroses.
After we completed the driving portion we went into a whole other section where they had petting areas setup for some of the goats and little camels. They were also offering elephant rides so Jen, Alex, and Caile took got tickets and waited in line to take a ride. The whole time Ella and I were waiting for them she kept telling me it was now her turn. So when they were done we took our turn and went for a ride as well.
They next part of the day is where it started to go downhill a little especially for Jen. It was our plan to stop into St. Catherine’s on our way back to the hotel so we could eat supper and do some shopping, as they had a large mall with both an Old Navy and a Children’s Place store, which are Jen’s favorite places to shop. So first we ate at Boston Pizza where Jen was not overly fond of her meal. Then when were done we headed across the parking lot to the mall, but being a Saturday night and after six everything was now closed 😦 Although this was very disappointing it was nice for me to see that it wasn’t only rural Annapolis Valley Nova Scotia that closes it’s malls at six on one of the days where most people have more time to go shopping than during they do during the week.
Once we got back to the hotel and got settled a little we decided since we had been in Niagara Falls for a few days now, it would be a good time to go walk down in front of the falls. These two waterfalls are amazing pieces of nature. We were going to stay down until the lit up the falls with different colored lights, but that would have been too late for our sleepy girls, and I was parked in a no parking zone.
Tomorrow we are packing up this hotel room and heading across the border to stay in a different hotel room for the last couple of nights on this vacation. The plan so far is to finally do some shopping for Jen and spend some more time around the falls themselves.
Sandy McFadden 