Fall Foliage Trip to Niagara Falls

We went to upstate New York for this camping  trip.  Our family stayed in a cabin in Grand Island, New York, during the designated Halloween Weekend at this campsite.	Halloween Weekend consisted of awesome Halloween decorations everywhere, as well Halloween-themed activities for kids.
One of the cool kids activities at our campsite was painting pumpkins (during a very windy day).	Alexi and Mateo are obsessed with cats, so they painted cat faces on their pumpkins.
A mini-golf course was right next to our campsite.  Of course there is a mini-waterfall, representative of Niagara Falls which is a ten minute ride away.	Sharon LOVES mini-golf; she played with her family every summer down the shore.  She had a great game and came in 1st place(!)
Mateo sets up the perfect putt with his blue ball, that matches his shirt.	Alexi sets up his shot with his yellow ball, both his favorite color and the color that matches his Crocs.
Right next door to mini-golf was go-carts, which are one of Alexi's most favorite things in the world.	Mateo immensely enjoyed riding in a go-cart with David.
Alexi and Mateo got to go trick or treating at our campsite!  Alexi dressed up as a chess knight and Mateo was a Revolutionary War general.	Can you spot a chess knight and general in this pic???!!!
Alexi and Mateo pose with their goodie bags full of treats...	...and they only encountered one trick along the way!
After trick-or-treating we drove to Niagara Falls to see it illuminated at night in various colors.  Pictured here is one of Sharon's favorites...GREEN!	Niagara Falls is free to visit at night, and attracts many visitors from all over the United States.
Niagara Falls illuminated in a pale green...	...and here the patriotic red, white and blue.
Alexi and Mateo woke up early each morning of our camping trip and headed straight to the basketball court.	Is this shot going to go in the hoop?  Mateo and Alexi's eyes follow the ball.
Early in the morning we headed back to Niagara Falls.  We took Alexi to Horseshoe Falls when he was two on an earlier fall foliage trip.	First stop: Maid of the Mist Boat Tour.
We went on the Maid of the Mist for the first time ever as a family of four.	Mateo and Alexi show off their *PINK* ponchos, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Maid of the Mist is named so appropriately; you get incredibly close to the mist coming off the Falls.	We saw a RAINBOW while on Maid of the Mist.
We got soooooo incredibly close to Niagara Falls...	...and we got TOTALLY SOAKED by the Falls while on Maid of the Mist!  It was AWESOME!
Drying off on this windy day after our *FABULOUS* Maid of the Mist boat ride.	Family photo by Niagara Falls, with iconic Canadian landmarks in the background.
Niagara Falls looks different in daylight, though still absolutely beautiful.	Mateo and Sharon pose in front of yet another rainbow at this lookout.
In the late afternoon we visited Cave of the Winds and got SOAKED once again(!)	In the Cave of the Winds Tour you get incredibly close to Niagara Falls.
Mateo is SUPER EXCITED for Halloween!	Alexi is SUPER EXCITED that he found a one dollar bill at our campsite!
We enjoyed riding paddleboats at our campsite...for the first time ever, Mateo got to paddle!	Sharon and Alexi paddled out to the middle of the pond.
On Indigenous People's Day, Sharon had to work, so while Sharon was teaching remotely in the cabin David took Alexi and Mateo to the batting cages.  Alexi missed his Little League Season this spring due to the coronavirus pandemic, so he was super excited to get back up to bat.	Mateo is up to bat&ready to make contact.  He has always loved baseball, and this was his first time going to batting cages.
On our drive back to NYC we spotted this sign and made a stop.	Sharon adores roadside farm stands operating on the honor system.  This one had exactly what we were looking for...PUMPKINS!!!
These are the best pumpkin pickers a girl could ever ask for in the universe!	From this table we selected both an orange and yellow(!) pumpkin, and dropped our payment in a plastic bag with rocks and put it inside the door to be found the next morning.
David wanted to get back to his Ithaca roots, so we stopped at Thai Basil in Ithaca to enjoy eating inside an actual restaurant.  Due to the pandemic, we have not been inside a restaurant since early March.	Sharon and Mateo are total foodies who LOVE Thai food!
Alexi shows off his love of cats with his facemask.	We had a fabulous fall foliage camping trip to Niagara Falls.