Hart Family Vacation 2024 (Day 7 - 1,000 Island Region, Toronto & Niagara Falls)

Day 7 of our vacation - we drove from Kanata to Rockport (just over an hour drive). We had purchased tickets to take a boat cruise through the 1,000 Island Region. 

As we drove along the water, we were in awe of the houses! Seeing this house got us pretty excited about the cruise.

We got checked in and headed over to our boat dock, waiting a bit for the loading process to start. 

Once on the boat, we took some family selfies...

Thought it would be neat to get the Canadian Maple Leaf in the picture. Easier said than done, haha.

And we are moving! This particular cruise was 3 hours long. 

The houses and landscaping (gardens, fountains, docks, etc) were beyond impressive! Wow! 

The cruise took us under Thousand Islands Bridge (Hwy 137). 

Notice the red sets of chairs? All of that land belongs to this house!

We had found this tower (Thousand Islands Tower) during our trip planning. We would've loved to go up in the tower, but it was closed the day that we were traveling through the area. (so sad!).

We heard many stories about the houses and islands as we toured the area. Very interesting to hear.

Matt, Kaitee & Will went down to the lower level for a portion of the boat ride. 

Matt had heard about Boldt Castle a few years ago and put this stop on his bucket list. We tried to get tickets on a cruise that included a visit to Boldt Castle & Yacht House, but it didn't work out. It was still early in the season and there was only one cruise line that would stop at Boldt Castle on the day we were driving through the area. Unfortunately, that cruise was a 5 hour cruise. We knew that we wouldn't have time to do the full 5 hour cruise on this particular trip, so we opted for the 3 hour cruise which took us around the castle and yacht house. Maybe it will work out on another trip. It is a beautiful castle and we'd love to see the grounds & interior. 

Boldt Castle (with Yacht House in background)

We got back on land and went to the gift shop for some ice cream before hitting the road for Toronto. 

We tried to find a few Canadian chain restaurants to eat at while in Canada - the first one we tried was Harvey's. We all gave it a thumbs up...as did the seagulls that were hanging out in the parking lot!

We found this Mountie Moose at a rest stop...and then found this traffic as we got closer to Toronto. 

Once in Toronto (which took a lot longer than we planned due to heavy traffic), we stopped at Casa Loma to walk around the grounds and snap some pictures. It was stunning!

We then headed downtown to get our picture with the Toronto sign and to see the CN Tower. We found the sign and took in the beauty of the area.

As we drove towards CN Tower, traffic came to a stop and it took us over 30 minutes to move less than a mile. It was horribly frustrating. As we started to move, the kids put up a fight - they were using the open wi-fi from the tour bus (ahead of us in this picture)! With no phone service in Canada, they were thrilled to sign in to wi-fi for a few minutes!

By the time that we got close to our turn for the CN Tower, we passed it up so we could continue towards our hotel. As the day went along, we lost almost 3 hours of our day to the heavy traffic around Toronto. It was frustrating. Toronto looks like it is a beautiful city. 

As we pulled into Burlington, Ontario, we were amazed by the sunset. Matt found a place to pull over - he and Maddie walked into the field to snap this picture.

We checked in to our hotel and looked at options for dinner and further plans for the night. One option that we had discussed throughout the day - heading to Niagara Falls for a few hours. It was late and we were all tired...but we knew that the nightlife in the Clifton Hill area was fun and definitely a different experience than a daytime visit to Niagara Falls (which we planned to do on Day 8). The decision was made - we grabbed a late/fast dinner and hit the road for Niagara Falls (45 minutes), arriving there around 11:00 pm. 

We purchased tickets for the ferris wheel and enjoyed the view of the falls.

The kids purchased tickets for a round of go-karts.

After the go-karts, we walked down to the view the falls. Magnificent! 

We stayed here for a while, taking in the falls during the quiet of the night. When we saw a skunk walking on the sidewalk behind us, we decided it was time to head out! We had to do a double take! Crazy!

By the time we headed back to the van it was 1:00 am. Most of the shops and eating places had shut down for the night. There were still quite a few people milling about, but the streets had definitely cleared out. 

We packed up and headed back to our hotel, crawling into bed around 2:00 am. We were exhausted - a lot of time in the van (bumper to bumper traffic didn't help!) and outside (it was hot and muggy all day so that didn't help the energy levels). Hitting Niagara Falls at the end of our day was just what we needed, though. Hopefully it will be a favorite part of this trip for years to come. 

Favorites from Day 7
Matt - All of the houses around 1,000 Island Region, Falls at night

Becki - Boat Cruise and Houses 
Kaitee - Seagulls @ Harvey's, Clifton Hill

Will - Seagulls @ Harvey's, Boat Cruise, Clifton Hill

Maddie - Go Karts, Falls at night, Seagulls @ Harvey's

The kids also mentioned "Dad's ice cream cone" as one of their favorites. While eating our ice cream cones after the cruise, While Matt licked his ice cream, he watched the scoop fall off the cone and onto the floor. It was the saddest, funniest moment. Luckily, the lady at the counter witnessed the whole thing and had pity on him and scooped up another cone for him.