We were talking about Niagara Falls. Let’s continue where we left off…
On Wednesday our plan was to watch the fireworks and catch the bus back to the hotel. But although the fireworks start at 10:00pm, that’s also when the last People Mover bus leaves. We had a dilemma: (1) watch the fireworks (and walk back) or (2) catch the bus (and skip the fireworks).
With a little thought, we realized there was no dilemma. We had seen fireworks before, we reasoned. And this had been a long day, we reasoned. And the ordeal at the casino-cum-mall had so taken its toll that a walk back was too much to think about. So we sat down at a bus stop at 9:15 and waited.
9:30 no bus. 9:45 no bus. Finally at 9:50 one arrived. The driver said there was one more behind him, but we boarded anyway and gazed out the windows in the direction of the falls hoping to catch a glimpse of the fireworks.
Five minutes later, the bus stopped at The Maid of the Mist. We looked at each other and got off, realizing that with only five minutes to go and one more bus coming, we could stay near the bus stop and at least see a little of the celebration.
We sat in the soft, cool grass. Both sides of the falls were clearly visible. A 3/4 moon hung in the sky between two large Maple trees that were silhouetted against the night sky. And at 10:00 sharp, the fireworks began.
Trudy had earlier suggested that we keep our eyes peeled for a bus instead of going all ooh and aah and gaga over the fireworks. But we were just 50 feet from the stop, and the car traffic stopped as soon as the fireworks began, and so we went all ooh and aah gaga, anyway.
It lasted far longer than we expected, and we got triple the pleasure as the explosions echoed off the buildings behind us and then off the cliffs on the American side. And when the colors shifted to big red bursts punctuated by small white ones, I said, “Red and white: here’s the grande finale.” And grande it was.
Red, white, boom, white, crash, boom, bah, red, white, red, red, white. Faster and faster, crackling and crashing, explosions coming now faster than you could keep up, the raining flowers interwoven in the sky so that you could hardly tell one from the other.
And then it was over.
There was a brief silence. And then the crowd started cheering. And the cars that had stopped in the street began to drive off. And the people standing at the edge began to wander back to the many places they had come from. And then our bus came around the bend.
And we went back to the hotel and collapsed into blissful slumber.