Day 30 - Buffalo Falls & Wings

Today involved an amazing spectacle and an unexpected disappointment.

We drove to Buffalo from Cleveland in a journey that saw us hit the 5 000 mile mark and pass through another two states. The weather was hot and it felt like a mid-summer's day. Just outside Buffalo is today's main attraction, Niagara Falls. I had actually seen them before from the Canadian side and it was interesting to see them from the other side. Once we parked up we struggled to find the pathway to the falls, nearly walking up the path to the Canadian border. We decided to go on the Maid of the Mist. We paid for our tickets and then took the elevator down to the docking point. We had just missed the last boat and that meant a wait of about thirty minutes. The person by the entrance assured us we would be the first on and that led to us having a prime spot at the front of the lower deck of the following boat. We were all given bright pink ponchos and as it turned out, we were going to need them where we were standing! As the boat moved off, the American Falls sprayed the left-side of the boat in a fine to heavy mist and a rainbow suddenly appeared sprouting from the pooled water. I looked up to my right at the boundary with Toronto and by the time I looked back to my left another rainbow had appeared above the first one. We were now heading straight into the heart of the semi-circle where the other falls surrounded us. The sound of water crashing increased the further we entered and by now vision was difficult as heavy sprays had turned into a drenching and at eye-level there was a shroud of mist. I managed to look over the front of the boat and noticed numerous waves moving in all directions with nowhere to break. The boat began to pivot and lurch around before leaving the vortex. The thundering sound lessened as we slowly made our way back to the docking point. Alice and I were both soaked and laughing hard. It was an exhilerating experience and the closest you would ever want to comfortably get to these beasts of the natural world.

We made our way back to the car drying off quickly in the sun and then we headed to our hotel for the night which was in Buffalo. We dropped all our things off and headed straight out to dinner. Yes, it was to have buffalo wings and it was where it all started back in 1964 at The Anchor Bar. The legend says that these tasty morsels came into existence when the the owner of the restaurant russled up a quick snack for her daughter and friends one night with random ingredients to hand. Thereby creating the first batch of buffalo wings. If this place is where it started, all I can say is, others took this idea and improved on it vastly. The medium wings I ordered barely had any sauce on them and the sauce itself was dripping in oil. Alice had the mild and they were worse. We were both certain that they had absolutely no sauce on them whatsoever, they were just chicken wings cooked without seasoning. Poor. On top of that our soft drinks were both flat when they arrived. I never understand why restaurants cheap out on the soft drinks, come on, even putting a can in front of me is better than getting the most out of a two litre bottle. The bar is also one of those places that have the shutters closed leading to the impression of a shifty establishment and where we were seated was opposite a stage with a large bowl on it with piles of dirty plates and dishes. No surprise that this has been our worst eating experience of the trip so far. I'm sticking to random reviews online for future buffalo wings establishments. We will give them a break for now though.

We went to a local Tim Horton's as we walked back to the hotel so we could at least enjoy a sickly sweet dessert and hot drink. We talked about the amazing sight of the falls and the unpleasant taste of those wings. Highs and lows indeed.

Song of the Day:
T.L.C. - WaterfallsRead more