tonight on "nightline," it was a night for the record books. just minutes ago, megastunt man nic wallenda, successfully braved the winds and water to walk a high wire clear across niagara falls. bill weir is there and he is the inside story on this man on a wire. and two fathers on one incredible journey, each finding his way back from unimaginable loss, this father's day, the story of the gift that children give their parents and transformtive power of a parent's love. plus, purple pasta, green eggs and ham, can you make them? yes, you can. tonight one very crafty man.

good evening. i'm terry moran. wow! the scene was set tonight niagara falls. tonight after months of intense preparation and 27 years of anticipation, nic wallenda's quest to honor his family's legacy kicked off. bill weir is at niagara falls where it all unfolded tonight. bill. >> what an incredible night, greets again from here at niagara falls. i was lucky enough to have one of the best seats in the house for tonight's old school, knuckle whitening megastunt standing right here as nic wallenda, this 33-year-old said to all of us, thanks for all

your help. i'll see you on the other side and stepped off on to the wire. it's been sthad the journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step. well, this is what the first step looks like on a journey into the daredevil mind. >> it's unbelievable view. you know, i'm so blessed to be in the position i am. to be the first person in the world to be right here. >> sure, the walk isn't that far, only about four football fields long, but in thrill seeking as in real estate, location is everything. and despite the adrenaline fueled old history of this place, no one as ever ab tempted to cross the majesty of the niagara horseshoes falls. it was all too complicated, the mist too heavy, the governments of the u.s. and canada, to resistant to bring back the kind

of barrel over the falls reputation of centuries past. but nic wallenda comes from a family that does not give up. after spending years and a personal fortune trying to make this happen, tonight he saw the fruits of a passion planted at age six. >> tell me that story, you and your folks were performing nearby. >> they were performing in buffalo new york and we came to see the falls. how awesome would it be able to walk a cable across niagara falls. so at six, that's how i thought. >> he is the seventh generation of a high-strung family that has been dreaming of ways to startle crowds since his great grandfather carl answered a want add for a hand balancer with courage. after countless performance hs, the patriarch gave his life for the thrill of the wire, falling ten stories in puerto rico at age 73.

seven wallenda's have lost their lives to the family business. but 33-year-old nic was determined to break free of that sad legacy, proving he could go bigger than carl and stay perfect in the process. >> this is what dreams are made of, people. per sue your dreams. never give up. mine might seem strange, but anybody who is dealing with any battle, focus on that other side. >> millions of people around the world watched him try tonight. return to the kind of fascination that bloomed with the likes of harry houdini. while an audience held their breath. television brought us evil ka nooefl, thrilling stadiums with his motorcycle leaps but also showing that he was truly working without a net. some of the most spectacular crashes in megastunt history. wow! it's been a mistake. it looks like he's going into the canyon. >> and though he failed to carry the snake river canyon, it was a blazing moment in pop culture.

mtv's jack ass and the go procamera has given rise to a new generation of do it yourself daredevils with new technology, helping to push man's limits beyond any reasonable sanity. but we can't look away. and tonight, was another example. as nic reached the soaking center of the falls. >> you know that mist was thick. it was hard to see at times. >> his wife an eighth generation acrobat, rooting on the man she's known all her life. despite the blinding mist and roaring falls and screaming crowds, and self proclaimed king of the high wire, completed it. >> he entered his 26th man of the walk. >> greets. >> he breaks the tape. nic wallenda, walking his way into history. >> and after clearing customs --

>> let me see your passport, please. >> it was time to celebrate. >> at the middle of wire, i started thinking about my great grandfather, paying tribute to him and all the walks that he did and was successful on. that's what this is all about. paying tribute to my hero carl wallenda. >> as his great grandfather said, life is on the wire, everything else is waiting. now nic is back to waiting for his next megastunt. he has the permits to be the first man to walk a cable across the grand canyon. terry. >> bill, what a beautiful spectacle it was. thanks for niagara falls to bill weir. coming up, two fathers on an incredible journey. this father's day, how they're honoring the children. oh, hello. i'd like to tell you about netflix.

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sunday is father's day, a day for children to honor their father's. but tonight you'll meet two fathers who are honoring their kids by giving back to those who need it most. abc's matt gutman joined two men on a journey that transformed them both. >> reporter: this is len's 28th trip. it's paul's first trip. flying in from opposite sides of the country. >> it's complete chaos. >> i can tell you that haiti was not in our plans. >> haiti, where nearly three years ago a devastating

earthquake killed about 300,000 people. lot of children lost parents, lot of parents lost children. that is why they are here. >> hi, paul. nice to meet you. >> both of them father's, each has lost a child. >> we brought them together at one of the few trauma centers here in haiti. >> we're in a club that parents don't want to be in. >> i agree. >> it's a club that they never would have chosen, responsibility to honor their children in a way they never expected. here to help rebuild haiti and themselves. for len, haiti has become home, as much as in where these days, the quake that killed so many, also claimed his daughter britney. >> brit lit up a room. she walk into a room and light it up. she was spirited, she had great personality, and just loved people. >> britney traveled to haiti on a college service trip and

then -- we're standing right now in what remains in the hotel, montana. tonight it is the scene of two simultaneous rescue efforts. >> britney, buried in the rubble. her body discovered a month later. >> i need to see where my daughter was last seen. i want to go stand there, look. i want to make sure. >> we went with len as he made his painful pill grammage back. >> it's sacred ground to walk up this road and the smell coming out of this -- the smell of death was just so horrific, but the hardest thing i had to do, matt, was walk away from that pile and know that my daughter was underneath that. >> just hours before her death, len received a text message from britney. he didn't know it then, but it would change the entire course of his life. they love so much and everyone is so happy, i want to move here and start an orphanage myself. that message, giving a father his mission.

>> if i could find a gift, it's that sense of purpose that brit left us. how uld you not as a parent honor that? >> len is building that orphanage, he took us to site, western coast, it's a town britney was to have visited the week she died. around here, they call him big boss len. to finance the project, len and his wife took their dream house, using much of their own money and one donation at a time, aunts, friends, strangers, are pitching in too. he's build hundreds of homes in the u.s., but nothing like this. you've been a contractor for 30 years, where does this rank in fact construction? >> the greatest challenge in my home building career ever.

>> soon enough, len became one of the biggest employers around here. hiring crew of 75 in a country with 60% unemployment. the bereaved father now a surrogate to so many. >> you gave up your dreams for your child's dreams? >> yeah. that's what parents are supposed to do. any parent i know that's what they do. >> it's what pall does. several years ago, paul's son, andrew, sigh died suddenly of the flu. he was just 5 years old. >> he was a hilarious kid. by the time he passed away, he had a repper to of 250 songs. >> after andrew's death, paul started a foundation, world vision project, using his skills as an eye surgeon to travel around the world, perform desperately needed eye surgeries. the need in haiti is great. only 50 ophthalmologists and

nearly 10 million patients. this is his hospital considered one of the top trauma centers in all of haiti. rotting place where the triage unit in a tent. guards with sawed off shotguns stand watch with crowds of people hoping to get inside the gaits for treatment. >> people leaving babies here. people bleeding out. it's just chaotic. >> far different from your practice? >> it's night and day. >> when you're in the operating room and you're in a place like this and how often do you stop and think about andrew? >> he's with me all the time. i really feel in a sense like i'm also living my son's life. he only got to live five and a half years, part of what i'm doing is doing things that he might have done himself. >> paul is working with local doctors hoping to transfer kills, performing dozens of surgeries under tough conditions. on this day, patients walted for hours in a steaming hall way, flanked by an open suer. >> i have a patient, there's

nothing i can do for you. i have patient after patient after patient. it just broke my heart. it was one of the most challenging things i've ever done because this was preventable blindness. >> he keeps going, knowing that he is literally giving the blind sight. >> so he's gone from blind to almost 20/20 over night h. >> this sunday is a day in which children honor their father's, but these two dads are honoring their kids instead. finding strength in their bottomless suffering, slowly working to fill that void. >> lot of people would be bitter about the country that took away their daughter. it's never hard to come back here? >> no. the people of haiti have helped us. they've given me as much as i've given them. that's how i feel.

>> maybe, that's how a father always feels. i'm matt gutman, for "nightline" in haiti. >> dedication of two dads. thanks to matt for that. for more about the organizations that you saw there, go to abcnews.com and you can help. coming up, purple pasta and green eggs and ham, a recipe for colorful cooking. hd-3. cigarette? you coming?

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finally, it was dr. seuss who famously wrote i do not like them, sam, i am. i do not like green eggs and ham. tonight nap pa valley chef serves up green eggs and ham that even sam will strie that, all that and purple pasta too for our series.

>> it's the only thing i've ever wanted to do. since i was 7 years old, when i was in kindergarten and they asked me to write something down, what do i want to be when i grow up, i want to be a cook and own a restaurant. >> first thing is green eggs and ham. it's cooked on the outside, but soft on the inside. we're going to go in with some flour. butter milk for flay voer and help hold the panko bred crumbs over here. the es pair gus is the green. the ham is going to be prosciutto bit. >> egg goes in 375 degree peanut oil. it will have a little cheese. i love this cheese, cross between gor gone sow la.

my first memory nilky. still feel the weight of my arm's mom holding it and holding my thumb to show me how to make notch chi. >> thes a pair gus is heated up, get these going in the same direction, happies a pair gus. quickly open them up. look at that egg voek in beautiful and delicious. prosciutto bit. green eggs and ham, one of my most favorite. >> to get paid for your hobby, fisherman or golfer or tennis player it's extraordinary. >> this is one of my favorite grapes of all time. i make zin fen deal. i have 20 acres around my house. we have 207 year old vineyards. >> i'm the the guy out there plowing in the middle of night. you don't have to use super expensive wine. you reduce down until it's a

syrup like that. cook the pasta half way. we're going to finish it in the zin fan dale and turn purple and delicious. don't worry, kids. we're all right. it's sauteed and beautiful. i have some pasta that i've blanched. go right into our reduced zin fan dale. the last-minute cooking is going to boil inside the zin fan dale. you want a bright white plate so you get the whole look. little bit of fresh cheese over top. you have one of my favorite simplest dishes of all time. cooking for somebody, being a servant for a guest, an making them happy, giving them one of the best experiences in their life, absolute best thing about this job. thanks for watching abc