Niagara; September 11 2024

Amidst the stress of apartment-hunting and packing, my roommates and I did a Thing.

See, one member of our household went off to Niagara for college, and my kid didn’t get to say goodbye. Naturally, there was only one solution:

Go to Niagara Falls for the weekend!

We kept the plans hush-hush and surprised her with packed bags when she came home from school on Friday. Getting there was something of a hassle – we missed our train by less than a minute and wound up taking a bus partway there instead. Two of us use walkers, which was made clear was an inconvenience for the driver and station staff. But, once we were there –

It was a fantastic time, truly. We had tickets to Fallsview Indoor Waterpark, we went to the Bird Kingdom, and I took my kid to her first haunted house. Then, on my own, I went through the house at Nightmares Fear Factory, which was a ton of fun. They take a picture of you during one of their scares, which…

Yeah, naturally, I had to make my souvenir picture my new author picture. My friends had the following comments to make on it:

“It’s giving ‘watched a stranger trip but catch themselves in public.’”

“Like you’re seeing a carton of eggs fall off a shelf but you’re powerless to stop it.”

“Definite dad vibes.”

… and then came the recommendation to make it my official photo. The comments were too funny Not To.

What else did we do – we had dinner at the Rainforest Café, raced Go-karts, and bought some fun souvenirs! We also stayed up past midnight going to see the falls lit up at night. It was an exhausting and lovely time.

It’s weird, in a way, that I never did much travelling until after I had a kid. I never took vacations before. There were events I’d go to – conventions, typically – but I didn’t go anywhere for them. I’ve only taken two trips since my kid was born; once to a good friend’s wedding, and now this trip. Of course, before, I worked around my ex’s school schedule, for the most part… But looking back, it’s a shame we didn’t do more in our downtime.

But things are more fun with my kid, anyway.