Phillip Hong
25 January, 2009

 

Our Michael Huynh is quite sick of going to Niagara Falls nowadays. Southern Ontario's only "natural watermark" to be identified around the world strikes this unfortunate nerve in him.

 

Recently, the Falls has been a destination for him and accompanying copines - we went there a total of three times in the past three years. This frequent "same old" has driven our Mike from going anywhere west of Suburban Toronto.

 

And that was all started with a few fireworks in the snow during a New Year's Eve celebration down there. It naturally carried along its presumed excitement and frankly, there was supposed to be this "joy" that would be the resultant emotion from driving so many kilometres down the Queen Elizabeth Way.

 

First, the hotels were outrageously priced. The hotels across the American border and Buffalo posted rates that were about a quarter lower than what Canadian-side hotels were suggesting. Weeks in advance, we knew we had to stay on the Canadian side because Mike did not carry a passport; he finally applied for one six days later.

 

The end of 2005 was advertised as "a bash unlike any other". As we were underage, alcohol was completely out of the picture and against my morals at that time. "Clean" was the game.

 

"We're not going to wait outside for four hours just to see a bunch of fireworks," remarked Cortney. She and her boyfriend were personal friends who accompanied us. We had just found out that there would be an "early" set of fireworks for children who couldn't make it past midnight.

 

The Once-a-Year Naivete

 

In the end, we stayed for only the early countdown. Kind of proves we were still children. When midnight hit, we saw the real thing through a television set in our hotel room, safe and warm.

 

And Mike vowed never to have fun in Niagara Falls - well, he actually had second thoughts about an escape to the Falls as being "fun".