Happy New Year! - 2024

Happy New Year, everyone. As all good things come to an end, 2023 did too, but with it, it gave me and my family a lot of learnings, memories, and most of all, experiences. Come to think of it, our last moment before entering 2024 was also a moment to cherish. It was the first time we had gone to visit the Space Needle (iconic tower of Seattle) New Year celebration!

There were a lot of parties and celebrations going on to celebrate the last day of the year. My parents and I went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, which served Thai cuisine. I love their fried rice and Pud Thai the best. After dinner, we were excited to go to Seattle. It usually takes about 20-25 minutes to reach there by car, but due to so many onlookers wanting to watch the magical experience, we ended up reaching 40 minutes after we started. The journey itself is so beautiful that there was no doubt the destination would be enriching as well. There is a big bridge connecting you to the city. You feel like you’re almost riding on water, the two big volcanoes (Mt. Rainier and Mt. Baker) looking down upon the cars from either side as you’re cruising along.

If you’re travelling during the day, you can see the sun glistening on the lake, the travelling cars basking in the golden glow. The islands lush and green, you can clearly see the snow-capped mountains on a sunny day. While on the other hand, the city lights practically shimmer like glitter during the night. It reminds me of our rides to Marine Drive, when we were living in Mumbai. I see the same resemblance of the twinkling night lights when I’m driving up to Seattle during the night; it’s nostalgic. Those were my favorite nights in Mumbai, when we used to take a long drive up to there, and sit on the edge of the marine walk, licking Rustom ice-cream sandwiches.

As we headed over to the Space Needle, I could see lights and fireworks everywhere, people dressed up in glimmery outfits, ready to embrace the new year. The first show of the night at the Needle was the light show, where they turned on various colors of show lights and disco lights. They played it in a rhythmic style with pink and yellows blinks up there while disco lights flashed over us. It most definitely seemed like a party. These shows happened 4 times before the final show, and it was definitely worth waiting for.

As we stood in the crowd waiting for the final fireworks to begin, it was such a vibe to be a part of a large community, all of them celebrating the new year and starting a new chapter in their lives. 10 minutes before midnight, the magnificent drone show started. It was one of the best ones I’ve ever seen. Drones are small airplanes with a camera and lights. They are controlled by a controller similar to what you use in videogames. Based on how they are programmed, they can move at certain times and position and change their lights to represent a bigger image. For example, the drones all moved in the shape of a rocket ship and an astronaut, representing the shape by way of colors.

One of the most special parts of the show was when the drones represented the space needle itself; the round part (which represented the viewing observatory) spinning and then slowly sliding into place, lighting up the entire needle. Soon after, they started the 10 second countdown for the new year, the drones counting with us and displaying a huge 2024 as the clock struck midnight. That was also when the fireworks started.

At first they were short bursts of light and smoke, but soon after they started fizzing and radiating color and light on us all. There were star shaped fireworks, regular rockets, and fizzing jets of light. The best part was when there was a continuing onslaught of fireworks for one minute straight and the lights from the Space Needle were matching the lights of the fireworks. It felt like we were getting our own special Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) as we had a great start to a manifestation of a great year ahead. - Navaka

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