Buffalo, NY Vacation - 2010

The family and I went to Buffalo, NY last week for our vacation (3/27 - 4/3/2010).

Sunday
We left Sunday at 1 PM. Actually, we left at 12 noon, but went back to get our passports. We drove through many small towns in Pennsylvania. It was raining and foggy and sleeting part of the way there. With weather like this, I wasn't sure how this vacation was going to go. It took 8.5 hours to get to Buffalo. When we finally got there, it was 9:30 PM. We ate milanesa for dinner. We stayed at John's place.

Monday
John lives in this one hundred year old house. It has a lot of character to it, with decorated glass doors, "candle" lights, and protruding bricks on the exterior. The whole small neighborhood of 30 or so homes all are like this. It reminded me of the DC house I used to live in.

It was the first day and it seemed we had all the time in the world at this point. We ate at home at then drove to downtown area. We stopped by the waterfront. The kids played on giant rocks and large pieces of wood. They loved it. Meanwhile I was freaking out they were going to fall in the water.

Afterward, we passed two warships that I wanted to tour. John almost tried to sneak on board. I don't know if he was kidding or not. But I paid the admissions price. It was mostly just us touring two large warships and a submarine. The first ship stilled looked like the way they used to use it during WW2, but the second one had most of it's rooms converted into "museums" and it was not how the rooms were originally used. The submarine was very tight and didn't have a lot of space. I went to the front of the first ship and yelled, "I am king of the world!" ala Titanic. I enjoyed the tour and seeing all the machinery and equipment.

At night, we went to Boulevard Mall and ate dinner there. We bought some stuff at Sears and JC Penney including mini speakers, clothes and shoes for Tom and Bobby.

The day's weather was slightly cold.

Tuesday
Mandy, Katie and I went to Bally Fitness in Amherst while John slept and the Tom and Bob stayed at home. This Bally was better than one I usually go to. I had a good work out with the weights. Katie went to the Kid's Club - it was like she was in school.

We visited Niagara University and took a look around John's office and the gym room.

At this point, the weather was really warming up.

Wednesday
We drove to Toronto. We stopped by the suburban Chinatown. It's basically a suburb with lots of Chinese stores and most of the people driving in that area were Chinese. I don't see that often. We ate a food court. John picked paiku fan (pork chops with rice); I picked a Hong Kong style dish of chasiu (pork), chicken, rice and their yummy garlic mix.

We spent most of our time in Pacific Mall, a giant store with many, many, many tiny individual stores inside. I got Tom an anime doll and got Katie a Hello Kitty doll. The kids wanted all this ninja stuff like swords but I felt they were too sharp and dangerous even though they really were "sharpened."

We drove through Toronto and the kids had Subway for dinner. Where we drove was was a somewhat rough neighborhood (at least for kids) but might have been fun otherwise.

By Wednesday, I could feel our vacation passed the midpoint.

The weather was unusually warm for Buffalo today and the remaining days.

Thursday
John's house is next to Delaware Park. It has a lake and trails. We stopped by the zen garden (very small) and then drove to the Frank Lloyd house. He was a famous architect. We were supposed to get a free tour today but they canceled. We were ripped off! Just kidding! We toured the outside of the house by ourselves. It has a contemporary look. It felt more like a school or some other big structure instead of a house.

We took a tour of the power plant by Niagara University. It had displays and exhibits and we could email each other e-postcards. We were high on the top of a cliff overlooking Niagara River and could see the water below us. The power station has these fantastic structures that look like AT-AT Walkers from the movie, The Empire Strikes Back (Star Wars). They were cool!

Later, we saw the devil's hole and then we walked down these very crooked (at places), old stone steps that kept curving around from the top of the cliff all the way down to the river itself. We walked through some rougher terrain and reached a secluded spot with giant boulders and three fishermen. The kids played near the water and touched the many rocks there. We brought some home for souvenirs. They had these freakishly huge boulders that were cool to the touch.

John, Tom and I went to another more interesting spot nearby where the water rushed and gushed by stronger. The water was very cold and refreshing. We all took small sips of the apparently-very-clean-looking water, but promptly spit it out just in case. It tasted like normal water. I got my left foot wet. We took these pictures standing on these rocks that laid in the water, having to jump there and me trying not to freak out about falling into the rushing river. Especially when Tom did that.

The fishermen caught some pretty big fish and then released them back.

We went up the cliff again, and took pictures next to the edge of the cliff, beyond the safety fence. I took a picture with Tom, and again tried to not freak out! I jumped up right next to the edge.

Friday
I think we were kinda exhausted from all the walking yesterday, especially me after lunch. I took a nap. Remind me not drink soda with lunch.

At 3 PM, we went to the Albright Knox Art Museum right next to the house. It contained art work from such famous people as Andy Warhol, Monet, Van Gogh and my favorite, Dali. It also had a cool exhibit called the glass room, where everything inside that room was made of glass. It was cool.

At 6 PM, Mandy, Katie, John and I went back for free tango lessons. We danced tango and it was fun. John asked two girls to dance. On my first dance, this somewhat older woman, with a slight breath of alcohol just came up to me, grabbed my hand and led me away to dance. I tried to tell her I was with someone but it was of no use apparently. After a few dances, I went back to dance with Mandy, who at that point was dancing, or at least holding hands with Katie. Later they had experienced volunteers you could dance with, and I danced with two of them, including the teacher. John did not dance with the volunteers.

I was so under dressed for the event. Many people dressed nicely and they had two dressed up people give us a pretty good demo. But there I was, with my dark t-shirt and blue jeans... with a slightly moist neck from the dancing. But that's just me. And I enjoyed it. It might be a good social opportunity for John to meet someone if he actually wanted to pursue something.

Saturday
We went to Niagara Falls on the Canadian side. They had a whole bunch of tourist stores, rides, arcades, restaurants, casinos, flashing lights, haunted houses, dance nightclubs and similar attractions in the area. It was a very lively and active place with lots of people. It's only on the Canadian side. On the US side, there's not much in comparison.

We did a three tour ride of the wax museum (nice), Ripley's movie ride (two relatively short rides with moving chairs), and Ripley's Believe or Not! Out of three, personally I enjoyed the wax museum the most. I lost battery power in the wax museum, otherwise I would have more pictures.

By the time we were were finished it was past 8 PM. We ate dinner and went to the falls. It was cold by this time. But we got to see the falls through colored lights shining on it. It was very misty and wet near the horseshoe area. We got right next to the falls and saw the black water rush past us and go down the cliff.

On the way back, I stepped into the casino. There was a lot of dressed up people in the area. I went to the casino and got Mandy some free coffee. Tom and Bob drank decaf.

Sunday
The owner was scheduled to arrive to pick his car at 12 noon. We packed up and left around 11:30 AM. On the way, we stopped at a WalMart in the middle of nowhere. I said, if I lived here, WalMart would be my life.

It was a very good vacation. Conditions were favorable and the weather cooperated. I could do what I wanted, when I wanted, explore new sights and not have to worry about things.

I am happy and grateful we could all have a nice trip!!