Road Trip: Erie/ Buffalo/ Niagra

Monday, aka back-to-work-day!

Kate and I ventured on our first road trip of the summer/ spring season.  This time we decided to go north.  We planned on leaving Friday morning and head straight to Buffalo for most of the day and end up in Niagra NY for the night.  However, we couldn’t wait that long so Kate called her girl Addie up, who lives in Erie, and asked her what she was up to.

It’s Thursday night, we are at a local bar right down the street from Addie’s house drinking 25 cent drafts (They actually served them to us on a big tray)!  We drank, did a little bit of the stinky leg, and I made sure I gave Kate’s friends multiple Bunny Ears in all of their pictures.  Hopefully I’ll get those from them soon so I can include them in this Blog.  Needless to say, we had a great time with them and Addie was so kind to offer us a comfy Futon for the night.

By next morning, I was in a heated battle with Captain Hangover.  I popped a few aspirin and drank about 2 gallons of water.  We were on our way to the beautiful city of Buffalo.  Too bad it was raining for the entire 2nd leg of the drive.  However we made it and to our luck it stopped raining as soon as we arrived in the city.  It was just super foggy!

Kate and I love to eat.  So of course, our first stop had to be a restaurant.  We picked a place called Merge.  I had found it on the old web when I did a Google search for vegan restaurants in Buffalo.  It was delicious!  We got an amazing bean/ split chick pea soup, mushroom and spinach pita pizza and a black bean wrap.  YUM!  I also did a shot of Wheat Grass I would later regret.  Definately a place worth checking out if you ever find yourself in Buffalo.  If you’re not a Veg-Brain, you would def. still enjoy yourselves here!

DOUBLE YUM!

We finished up in seconds flat and decided to take a walk up Elmwood Street (the cool, hip street in Buffs).  Kate browsed some sweet shoe stores, too bad she wears a size Huge Foot. We ended up taking a break at Spot Coffee to check out their City Paper.  We proceeded to their Food Co-op.  Which was very similar to Pittsburghs.  They had a huge Spice rack where I ended up buying some Masala, which would eventually make Kate’s car smell like nutmeg for the rest of the trip! Spiceeeeeee!

While walking around Buffalo, I snapped a photo of this cool, deteriorating Lion on Delaware Avenue, right outside of Merge.

Having finished up our walking/ shopping we decided to go up the Falls to check into our hotel and check out Mother Nature’s Glorious Fountain!

We checked in to the Super 8, buckled up our Roller Blades, and rolled down a path following the entire length of the river, eventually leading up to the falls.  Here are some lovely pictures haha.

 

Kate Rollerblading!

Take a picture!

That is just crazy!  Great view on the NY side!

On our way back to the hotel for a little nap and shower Kate snapped a photo of the smallest STOP SIGN known to man.  It’s actually quite funny!  It looks like a Witchdoctor came and shrunk it’s head.

After our lovely nap and shower.  We were getting hungry again and googled best Restaurants in Niagra, NY.  We found a little place called Chu’s Dining Lounge right up on Main Street.  After reading the good reviews it got from former customers we decided to go there.

It ended up being a huge Chinese Banquet Hall, complete with Chinese Karaoke and a Bar.  Of course we were the only ones present for this evening’s meal.  Our waitress was a crazy little Chinese woman who gave us royal service.  We had an amazing meal!

We were driving back to the hotel to get ready for some Casino fun when I snapped this crazy photo of the Casino.  The road and view reminded me of the Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz.  Pretty neat!

Let’s just say the first 2 hours at the Casino stunk!  We lost money and our gaming skillz.  We walked out of the building at approx. 10pm.  It was raining.  We looked at each other and decided to go back inside and have as much fun as we could.  Hell, it was our last night in the Falls!  We went to the lobby bar and had some lovely beverages.

We snapped this guy right before things got crazy!  We became BFFs with 2 moms, 2 cops from Boston, and the bartender inside the Casino.  We walked around listening to live bands, playing Star Wars Slots, and drinking complimentary beers.  Needless to say we had an awesome time!

This brings us to Saturday.  Driving back to Buffalo for another restaurant I had found called the Pizza Plant (another vegan friendly pizzaria, sandwich shop, beer garden, and pod haven).  We grabbed a buffalo chik’n sandwich and stuffed pizza with broccoli, pesto, mushrooms, and spinach.  SOOOO GOOOD! They even oven-baked their French Fries.  We were in heaven.  Def check that place out next time you are in Western NY.  www.pizzaplant.com

After that we were tired and were in no mood to drive.  But we did and eventually ended up back in Pittsburgh, as tired as ever.  But what a fun trip we had!

Thanks again NY and Erie for such a sweet weekend.  We’ll be back! PEACE!

Advertisement