- This week on Great Family Adventure.

- We're exploring Niagara Falls, Canada, and we're getting wet.

- Let's go!

- Let's go!

(upbeat music) (kids laughing) - [Emily] We pulled into Niagara Falls and it was a special trip for us because we're coming here for Nick's birthday.

Now, normally we travel around in our trailer- - Canada.

- And it's part work.

We're competing, we're doing different things, but we haven't really had that family vacation in a long time and what a better way than to come to Ontario, his birthplace, but a different location that we haven't explored as a family.

(upbeat music continues) Funding for Great Family Adventure is provided by Discover the World.

Collette offers small group explorations, tours, destinations and local experiences designed especially for small groups.

Explorations by Collette Guided travel since 1918 [Exciting music] In4Adventure.com inspiring, educating and encouraging outdoor adventure for 20 years, we've been fueling innovation on the water.

Our commitment is to improve the quality of life for people all around the world.

At ISLE We believe life on the water is a life better in balance and by these additional sponsors.

(playful upbeat music) - This year for my birthday, we decided to go to Niagara Falls.

With October, we've got the gorgeous fall colors.

The kids have never been here before and it makes for an incredible vacation, so lots to do and a lot of fun to be had.

- Just outside the city, there's actually tons of trails for biking and hiking throughout this entire region, so it's really cool to get out and explore a little bit of it on our bikes.

(upbeat acoustic guitar music) It's not about how far you go with the kids, it's about appreciating where you're at with the kids.

- Parker, what do you think of the waterfall?

Isn't that cool?

Look at that.

Watch this, watch Daddy.

I can move it.

Ooh.

- [Emily] As a family, we're always looking for road trip opportunities in the fall, just looking around you at the trees.

I mean, they're beautiful all year round, but the different colors, the reds, the oranges, the greens all mashed together just make for a spectacular family time and just appreciating the evolution and the lifecycle of the world around us.

(kids yelling) - Run.

So we went on Niagara Helicopters and went for a tour with our pilot, Rene.

We flew over the American Falls and the Canadian Horseshoe and it really gave us a truly amazing view of the falls that you can only see and experience with a helicopter.

- [Emily] For those that know me, know that I'm absolutely terrified of flying because you're letting go of all control.

- [Nick] So Emily was definitely trying to act brave for the kids so that they wouldn't get nervous, but I've been with her for so long now I can tell when she's putting on a bit of an act and she was terrified.

- Totally worth going up because we did get that view, so I wouldn't have done it otherwise just because it really is a unique perspective of the falls.

Hey guys, what did you think about the helicopter?

- It was so much fun.

- It was super, super, super, super, super fun.

- Since this is Nick's birthday trip, we love water.

Nick's happy place is being in the water and knowing that here in Niagara Falls there isn't really a great place for us to go kayaking at this time of year, it was really cool to find other ways to incorporate fun in the water together as a family.

The first activity, jet boating.

- During the safety talk for the jet boating, they told us that we were gonna get wet.

They gave us ponchos for our pants, over our tops.

Sounds like we might get wet out here.

- And we're wearing garbage bags.

- [Nick] (laughing) And we're wearing the garbage bags.

- All right guys, who's ready to get wet?

- Woo hoo!

- Woo!

(rock music) - We got so wet.

I mean, my bra was wet, my shirt was wet, my underwear was wet.

I mean, I was wearing four shirts, I think, and there wasn't a single dry layer anywhere on my body.

- So in kayaking, I could paddle up class one, maybe class two rapids, but with the jet boat, we were able to go upstream for the class five rapids.

I can't even imagine the horsepower behind this thing.

It was so powerful, blew me away.

- Come on, we're good go go.

(family yelling) - There were moments of intimidation that could have definitely, you know, not anticipating the sheer volume of water hitting them in the face, but we love adventure, the kids love adventure, and so for us to have that experience as a family, just getting plastered by these waves, it ended up being a lot of fun and together we actually overcame some fears as well.

It was a little nippy, but luckily hot chocolate and having the right stuff to bundle up really made it the end to the perfect activity, and we were ready to take on whatever else the day had to offer.

- So we just finished our Niagara jet boat.

What an incredible way to kickstart our trip to Niagara.

We got absolutely soaked in the gorge.

See what we can get to next.

(gentle upbeat music) - For Nick and I, carving out time to do things that are really important to us every day is kind of important.

We're professional athletes, we work, we have a lot of things going on, and so for Nick to be able to go and get a run or a swim in or just some physical activity during these family vacations is really important.

When we're doing fractions, the bottom always stays the same.

We carry the bottom over.

The kids are homeschooled, so even when we're on vacation, it's important to me to sneak in one or two lessons, much less volume for the week, but at the same time, it keeps it fresh in their mind.

(gentle upbeat music continues) Every time.

How old do you think daddy is?

- [Tucker] 32.

- You think Daddy's 32, how old do you think daddy is?

- 36.

- Daddy's turning 34.

Nick and I have a long history of writing each other cards from dating all the way back.

Any opportunity to write a card, a trip, anything, and we actually have full of more than 100, 200, probably 300 cards inside this bucket, so cards are really special to me.

This is just verbalizing things that I'm not very good at communicating.

- How's it going?

- How are you, Emily?

- Hi, Emily, I'm Charles.

- Nick.

- Nick, nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.

- Welcome to the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens.

- [Emily] We travel all the time, so for me to go check out a botanical gardens, it's really special, and also this one has a butterfly conservatory in it, and they talk about how the landscape and what they planted is actually good for the insects and the environment of this area of Canada.

- You can see in here, this is where they all start through the that cocoon or chrysalis, and they're all waiting and they're going through their change, their metamorphosis.

- Wow.

- And then they emerge.

- [Nick] Charles was super knowledgeable about everything to do with the butterflies, their lifecycles, their habitats, the different species that were there.

- And I'll tell you interesting thing though, that Atlas that we talk about here, the Atlas moth is born, there are no mouth parts, so it never feeds.

So they emerge, they fly around, they mate.

That's the primary, these are all adults.

- Yeah.

- They mate and then they die and it's usually only a couple of days.

- About two days.

- A couple days, that's right.

- Oh.

- Yep.

- I have a question.

- Yes, sir.

- Tucker had 10 million questions throughout the entire experience, was a really big part of his science education on this trip.

They gave us this little booklet.

It was like a treasure map, you know, basically to see if you can find these like 10 different species of butterfly in there, so Tucker immediately was just searching the whole time.

Is this this one?

Is this this one?

- Who knows?

Tucker might end up being an etymologist and study butterflies himself.

Even this one.

Oh, is the blue one.

Wow.

I can feel, oh.

- What was your favorite butterfly?

- Blue butterfly.

- The blue one.

The blue morpho, I think he was my favorite too.

- Welcome to Niagara Parks Power Station.

I'm so delighted that you're here today to have a great tour with us, so let's go and check out the model.

- [Nick] It was truly incredible to have the CEO of Niagara Parks guide us through this whole new attraction and show us all the cool interactive experiences within the power station.

- What's special about this power station is back in the late 19th century, as they built them into the early 20th century, they wanted to harness the power of the Niagara River, so this is what's called a Run of the River Power Station, meaning they use all the water coming down the river and they brought it into the power station and all the water that was used for hydro power generation was returned to the lower river, so there's no dam, it's all natural that way, and it's a very clean energy.

- [Emily] One thing that's really cool about the Niagara Parks Power Station is that it's history, art, science, environmental studies, all in one hands-on experience for the kids.

- [Nick] We went down through this glass elevator all the way through what used to be the old power station and see all the different levels.

The tunnel was what the water from the hydroelectric plant used to have as the tail waters that used to end up into the Niagara River.

Now it's just an awesome little walkway, or skipping path, that leads us all the way to the bottom of the falls and ends with a gorgeous view all the way at river level.

- [Emily] After we went through the tunnel, we came back up and got to experience what they call Currents, which is a light show on the inside of the power plant.

- The Currents Light Show was truly incredible.

Part of it was educational where you're learning all about the experience and the storytelling that Tucker was really into.

And then the other part is very interactive and visual and artistic, which Parker was really into as she did her interpretive dance all around.

I would highly recommend it as a must-see if you come to Niagara Falls.

(gentle music) - [Emily] Once we were done at the power station, we actually went to Illumination Tower.

Now, the kids had just had all this interaction with light and power, but now they actually got to go and control light themselves, and this isn't any light, this is the light that is shining on the falls on themselves.

- See, the rainbow's moving now, check it out.

Oh.

Wow, there they go.

Isn't that so pretty?

- No Niagara Falls for you today.

The kids turn it off, sorry.

Come back another day.

Birthdays are a special day because that means maybe even get to sleep in a little.

I did tell Nick the kids wanted to surprise him.

Usually he's up before them, so I told him, "Nope, you gotta stay in bed."

And he did, he actually stayed in bed this morning, which is fantastic because it gave me some time to get the cards ready that we had made.

We actually ordered room service, so we had breakfast in bed.

I mean we were set to the nine for a birthday celebration, just make Daddy feel special.

- I wrote happy birthday inside.

- Wanna go wake him up?

Yeah!

Let's go!

(gentle upbeat music) - It was a full dad moment to be woken up on your birthday, kids jumping on bed and then confetti cannons going off.

Let's just say I went from a deep sleep to wide awake pretty quickly.

Though really, honestly, I wouldn't change anything for the world.

(gentle upbeat music continues) It was honestly one of the best ways to kick off a birthday ever.

(upbeat music) - With the weather being a little wetter, we decided that we were gonna spend some time doing some indoor activities, so I asked the kids, "What do you think Dad wants to do for his birthday?"

And of course, the kids picked bowling and the arcade because they wanted to do that obviously, and they wanna do it with Dad.

(upbeat music) - Here we go!

That one might be dead on.

Oh.

A little tap, go for it.

Keep it straight.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - [Emily] One thing we have done before, but not at this level, is the SkyWheel.

There was a little break in the weather and we got to sneak outside and jump into the SkyWheel and what an amazing view of Niagara Falls from the top of that Ferris wheel.

It's absolutely stunning.

- [Nick] Tucker got a wiggly tooth, and so we were totally distracted with this wiggly tooth and the whole experience of trying to pull out this tooth while we were on the Ferris wheel.

- Ow.

- Oh no.

We're sure tons of people have proposed up here, but how many kids have lost a tooth at the top of the SkyWheel?

- So my parents came down to Niagara and met us so that they could watch the kids and Emily and I went out on date night for my birthday.

For those of you who don't know, Niagara is Ontario's wine capital so we decided to head to Two Sisters Vineyards and go taste some wine.

- Hello and welcome to Two Sisters.

I'm Dieter, I'll be your sommelier this evening.

- [Emily] Dieter kind of walk us through their award-winning wines, but also we had him pour us some wines that we don't usually have.

- [Nick] And taught us how to age the wine so that you get the full flavors of it and how the Niagara region has unique flavors with its cold weather.

- [Emily] We decided after the vineyard that we needed to get some food in us before the night continued, so we went to Table Rock House Restaurant where the food was amazing, but the view, I mean, we were like completely overlooking the falls and it was a perfect time of the evening.

The light was shining on it.

I had a beautiful gnocchi panjin and Nick had a pork chop, both things that were special, things we don't order very often, and so we got to enjoy our food, each other's company, and just the incredible view.

- Dining at Table Rock House Restaurant overlooking the falls, it really was just such a romantic evening, and what an awesome way to celebrate my birthday.

- Nick's birthday celebration was fantastic between time with the kids, breakfast in bed, the vineyard, the dinner, but in the end, it's all about him and our experience together, and so to be able to end his birthday celebration with a cheers overlooking Niagara Falls was something we'll never forget.

(gentle music) - Next on this family vacation was the Fallsview Indoor Waterpark.

Our family had never been to an indoor waterpark before, so the kids were blown away with all the slides, all the fun and how wet we'd been getting with this entire trip.

It really just tied it all together.

(upbeat music) - The cool thing about it being indoor is that even when it's a little nippier outside, I mean we're up in Canada in the fall, it was so warm inside the building and the water they keep over 80 degrees.

And not only that, but there was so many different things to do once we were inside the waterpark.

We got to sit at the base of this bucket that drops like every 20 minutes, and the reason that it drops every 20 minutes is because that's a lot of water that has to fill up a very large bucket and we sat right at the base and got pummeled.

I mean, it's just a theme throughout the entire trip is getting pummeled with water.

- As a professional kayaker, I've been told many times that it must feel like when paddling that I was being flushed down a toilet.

What we got to actually experience what it would be like to get flushed down a toilet through the entire bowl water slide.

It was actually more fun than you'd think.

(upbeat music continues) - Woo hoo!

- So Parker, look it, up there!

(Nick imitating plane engine flying) (gentle upbeat music) - If you look up something that you have to do when you're visiting Niagara Falls, the zip line just right up there.

- I'm excited, zip line time.

- [Emily] We were really excited as a family to get the opportunity to do the zip line, but I was a little unsure how the kids were gonna react.

Tucker is normally quite intimidated, but for some reason today, he was just game on.

He had moments where he was nervous, but all in all, his enthusiasm for doing it and his willingness really surprised me so much so that Tucker and I actually went first.

- Woo!

- Woo!

Hey, Tucker!

As you're going down, you're like, "Right, I'm at Niagara Falls," and you look up and you're like, "Holy crap, this is a whole nother view of Niagara Falls right now."

That was really neat.

I was all focused on like nailing the zip line thing properly, but then sure enough, right in front of you, one of the best views that you're gonna get out of the entire area is on that zip line.

- Woo hoo!

- Parker's pretty light, so there's a chance she might get stuck halfway through this cable.

We might have to come back and get her, but we'll see how it goes, pretty awesome.

I think she's pretty excited.

Give me a big thumbs up!

- Maybe.

- [Emily] Now, one, two, three.

- Woo!

Yeah!

It's a super cool view to be able to zip past the American side of the falls as you're facing the Canadian Horseshoe.

You've got all the fall colors on your right.

It honestly was just truly gorgeous.

Whoa.

- You made it!

- Parker, you made it!

- It's so much fun.

(Nick laughing) - Hey, look, for real, I'm super proud of you, Tucker.

- I had so much fun.

- That was awesome.

- It was so fun!

- I was super proud of you too!

You guys were brave.

(gentle upbeat music) Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

We couldn't leave Niagara Falls without doing the Voyage to the Falls by Niagara City Cruises.

- I would definitely say, if you wanna feel the power of Niagara Falls, Voyage to the Falls definitely gives you that, the gusts, the foam's flying at you, the water, just the sheer power of Niagara Falls is right there in your face, so the appreciation for the power alone is a lot higher when you're at the front of that boat on Voyage to the Falls.

- This is crazy!

- This is crazy!

In perfect theme with our entire Niagara trip, we got way wetter than we expected, but it really was a truly amazing experience and a view that you can't get elsewhere, so what a way to end our trip.

(gentle upbeat music continues) - Nick was born in Ontario, Canada, and so when I talked to his family, you know, they've been to Niagara Falls, Canada, before, but I've never felt it, never seen it, I never got to experience it like we have this week.

We came here with pretty full cups, but now as a family, we know for sure that each one of our cups is totally overflowing with awesome adventures and just new experiences and a deeper appreciation for this region as a whole.

(gentle upbeat music) (rock music) (rock music continues) (rock music continues) Funding for Great Family Adventure is provided by Discover the World.

Collette offers small group explorations, tours, destinations and local experiences designed especially for small groups.

Explorations by Collette Guided travel since 1918 [Exciting music] In4Adventure.com inspiring, educating and encouraging outdoor adventure for 20 years, we've been fueling innovation on the water.

Our commitment is to improve the quality of life for people all around the world.

At ISLE We believe life on the water is a life better in balance and by these additional sponsors.