Road Trip: Part 2 - Buffalo and Niagara Falls

Once arrived and better half in tow, we were off to our friend's place right near the Buffalo Airport for a mini meetup of our own and to get our bearings of the city. There were presents and offerings and all types of goodies to share, including some local pizza and wings. Apparently there is a whole subculture to Buffalo in the pizza department: not as thick as Chicago, not as thin as NY and it's referred to in sheet sizes. Oooo eeee ooooo...where am I? But despite this initial weirdness, the pizza was awesome! And it was from a Mom & Pop place, there will be no orders placed for any chain pizza places under my watch. I consider those pizza abortions and an insult to real pizza.

After this mini meet, we were off to our first hotel of the night, Adam's Mark of Buffalo. This appears to be a midwest chain, so I wasn't familiar with it at all, but it was a beautiful hotel with free wifi and a cute gift shop where I bought up a bunch of cute Buffalo themed items for the family. We also splurged on a nice pastry breakfast for two and had so much left over that we were able to wrap most of it up and keep it for munchies along the way.

Then it was off to the Niagara Falls, but first we wanted to make a day out of it and decided to go out early and check out the rest of Niagara Falls, NY. We found this great park in the middle of the city just before The Falls called Hyde Park where we had a little picnic and enjoyed the view. It was such a cute and quaint park and even featured a rose garden that seemed like a relic from the 50's with it's mod type architecture. After our time in the park, it was off to The Falls.

Dotted along the way were these cute highway signs with a little graphic of a water fall, just in case you forgot where to go. Once we approached, the whole scenery changed: Niagara Falls, NY is a lovely suburban town with nice houses and nice lawns, but then all of sudden it becomes a tourist spot and it happens quite suddenly. Not in a bad way, don't get me wrong, but it's just something you need to witness, it's kind of cool actually.

So once we get there, we head up to the Observatory which had it's own uniqueness, to say the least. Up at the top, we catch some glimpses of The Falls as well as Canada and Rainbow Bridge which would take you up to Canada. Then once we got our bearings, it was time for a nice walk around The Falls and Goat Island.

The first things you see as you approach are the massive runoffs from The Falls. The sound of the water and the speed at which the water travels as it runs by is amazing. Then once you reach the actual Niagara Falls, you are treated with more sights and more sounds. It's incredible. After we got our fill, it was time to meander back and as we did we found some holes in the nearby tree line that allowed you to dip your feet in the waters that would lead to the Falls. Now, yes this was very illegal, but we had found a great area that was fine up until around 5' off of the shore to stand in, so there was no way we were going to get rushed away. But still, don't do what we did (even though it was pretty awesome).

Finally, we made our way back, checked into our second hotel, the Buffalo Marriott, rested a bit and then it was off to the official meet up back at our friend's place near the airport.

Cayuga Wine Trail and more to follow...