Day 3: Buffalo and Niagara Falls

After our day trip through western and central New York, We arrived in Buffalo and met up with one of Corey’s friends from back home to change and drop our bags off to reserve a couch each for later in the evening (Thanks to Karl and the brothers of Sigma Tau Gamma at SUNY Buffalo for hosting us for the evening).  We donned our khakis and boat shoes, hopped in the RAV4 and headed to Niagara Falls for the evening for a night at the Seneca Niagara Casino.

We failed in our search for $5 blackjack tables but settled for the $10 tables, free beverages and the great company of our table mates and dealer, whose name was Michael. While we didn’t win big, we didn’t break our bank either, and we each had an excellent time. After hitting the roulette table for a few spins, we headed back to Buffalo for the night.  After we woke up in the morning, we thought long and hard about a breakfast spot for the morning….ladies and gentleman, today we had our first Denny’s stop of the trip.

We drank our coffee, read the paper online, and left Denny’s for our day trip to Niagara Falls and the world famous Maid of the Mist.  We parked the RAV and walked to where we saw a raging river and rapids. After asking some strangers to take some photos of the two of us by the rapids, signage pointed us towards our intended destination: the Maid of the Mist boat tour. 

That's a lot of water

We arrived at Niagara Falls and walked all around the park before making our way to the falls, which were absolutely spectacular.  We then bought our tickets and headed down an elevator at the end of an observation deck that jutted out over the river and had an excellent view of the falls.  The Maid of the Mist was VERY cool; the boat took us right by the American Falls and then into “The Whirlpool” which is a horseshoe shaped area surrounded by the waterfalls on 3 sides (very impressive).  We were surrounded by mist and we got soaked the whole time.  

After the Maid of the Mist we had one more stop at Niagara Falls, which was to walk up a long boardwalk that goes right up next to the falls.  This let us see how powerful the falls really are, because as we approached the top of the walk we were hit with a constant wall of wind and water.  After a few hours at the falls we headed back to the car to change out of our soaking wet clothing (Joe was literally pouring water out of his shoes) and to head into Buffalo for another night.  We decided to check out a restaurant named Anchor Bar, which according to almost all of our sources is the place where the Buffalo Wing—here called the Chicken Wing—was invented.

Anchor Bar

Spicy Barbecue and the ORIGINAL Buffalo Wing

 

Needless to say these wings were hands down the best either of us have ever tried. We hear the secret of Anchor Bar’s wings is in the expensive and (relatively) healthy oil they use, and obviously the secret sauce recipes.  We actually met the owner of the bar, which was established in 1936, when he sat down next to us at the bar where we were eating and he and a friend started spilling the secrets of Anchor Bar’s famous wings.  When we finished up with our feast we headed back to the University of Buffalo to spend the night with Andy Fried and Jordan “Cash” Daniel, our good friends from the beautiful Sands Atlantic Beach Club.

All Cabana Staff please report for ice.

Naturally these two professional Cabana Boys showed us a great time, giving us a tour of their local favorites, from bars to late-night food that could rival Chapel Hill’s own TimeOut (I’ve never said that before). 

Oddly Enough this is called the Garbage Plate Special

It was great to see these guys in their natural environment as opposed to the at the stress-filled beach club…Thanks to Andy and Jordan for showing us a great time.

Oh, hey Andy!

We are up bright and early today (Sunday) to head to Cleveland—a short 3 hours away from Buffalo—our first stop outside the state of New York.