All these questions will be answered and you'll also get a couple more interesting facts. Lightning travels both up and downwards. Lightning is actually white. Lightning hits water just as easily as it hits land. Its just a little bit more notice when it hits land.
Lightning can hit in more then one place.
Often lightning splits in to two different bults. Here are a few pictures of lightning for you. This is called spider lightning Not really sure what the next one is called but its cool.