Niagara Falls and dinner at the Skylon Tower

27.12.2008

Today is the day that Keith would see Niagara Falls for the first time. However, we didn't end up actually leaving the house until 3 p.m., I'm not exactly sure why. My cousin came to visit with her new baby, Emily. Maybe that's why. She just started walking and is very quiet. My mom says she looks like my other cousin, Danielle, when she was a baby. Part of Keith's Christmas present was dinner in the revolving dining room above Niagara, but first we take him down to the parkway so he could see some stuff e didn't see last night. "I feel like I have to memorize everything before I go," he says. "Why, are you never coming back here again or something?" He smirks and keeps memorizing. I think it's funny that everyone congregates around a small outlook near the brink of the waterfall. It's not like it's so small that you wouldn't be able to see the natural wonder a few metres away. In fact, the view and the photos are much more attractive further away anyway, so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to just stand there in a group and take some ugly pictures with a whole bunch of strangers in the background, but here we all are, clumping up. Anyway, we make our way to the Skylon to get in line for the elevator to the top. As we stand there, my eyes are instantly drawn to a sign that advertises the "early bird" dinner we are getting. "Prime rib...salmon... seasonal vegetables...chocolate....what is that? mouse?... I don't know about you, but if they don't give me a mouse for dessert I'm calling the better business bureau..." Someone has made an egregious spelling error on the sign. Spellcheck doesn't catch everything, and now there are giant signs all over town advertising a prime rib dinner for $35.50 with rodents for dessert. After dinner, we walk around Clifton Hill. It's a lot different from when I grew up here. They made the whole area more "family friendly", getting rid of tacky signs and the novelty sex shop I used to work at. I thought that was the whole charm of Niagara Falls. The redesign actually incorporates MORE lights and MORE jarring aesthetics than ever before. The giant Frankenstein on top of the Burger King is still there. There is a new climate controlled ferris wheel that you can ride for about $12, the Ripley's museum was been repainted to look like it fell over on its side. They took away the tiny genie lady in the bottle, and the fortune telling machine. The talking Egyptian statue is still there, but it looks like someone punched him, because his chin's not on straight anymore and his mouth doesn't really match the words coming out of his mouth. There's also a new MGM attraction, and a bunch of other new fun houses and video game centres that I didn't really investigate on the other side of the street. But I found it worse than it used to be, despite their efforts. We continued along the parkway again, getting our free sample of fudge at the Hershey store and then looking at the Christmas lights, which are on display all around. They are a bunch arranged in the shape of Disney characters, and a whole bunch more arranged to look like wildlife creatures in Dufferin islands. It's a requisite to drive slowly in a little traffic jam through this nature park to look at illuminated deer grazing, Noah letting animals out of his ark and the dinosaurs munching on prehistoric jungle vegetation. Later we watch Space Chimps and most of You Don't Mess with Zohan, which sucked.

The no-electricity breakfast