Columbus was rooting for us and we're rooting for Buffalo

Sorry it's taken a while for this first post, but we're in typical Michael and Alison vacation mode and we're staying busy from 6am to midnight! :)

Day 1 began with a trip from our hotel in Columbus to the airport to get our rental car. We decided to take the amazingly convenient bus that went from downtown to the airport. We have one giant bag and Michael did a great job getting that thing on/off the bus but he definitely had to do some serious maneuvers to make that happen. We were certain the bus driver was laughing at us/wth us. We got to the airport and as the bus pulled away I asked Michael: "where is your backpack?". I could see in his eyes he had realized he had left in on the bus, so I yelled "RUN" and he did. I wish I had a pic of this part, but he was running and waving his arms trying to get the driver's attention. She was speeding away. Then, Michael disappeared into the distance running at full speed. I was busy looking up the number for the bus lost and found.

In the meantime, Michael was approached in mid-run by a Good Samaritan in a Land Rover who offered to chase down the bus and let them know Michael was on his way. Michael kept running and another bus approached him and guessed he had left something on the bus, so he offered to give him a ride to the next stop to retrieve his bag from the bus. He got to the stop and the driver was waiting with bag in hand. Columbus was rooting for us. Michael then had a 7 minute all back to the terminal. Great stuff!

After adventure one, it was time to start our drive. 4 hours to Erie. It was a good place to stop and have lunch, but first we checked out the beach. Very nice and the water was cold. There was also an adorable diner right next to the beach entrance. If we were there for a while, we would have eaten there, but we had another place picked out. We drove downtown and ate at U Pick 6 Taphouse. Yummy pear pizza and pizza muffins (genius invention). Then it was back on the road to Buffalo.

We arrived in Buffalo just in time for the last tour of the day (3:30) at the Teddy Roosevelt Inagural Site. I wasn't sure why this was his Inagural site, but you learn all about that at the house. Apparently McKinley was shot in Buffalo, and so Roosevelt had come there after the shooting. The tour guide was an adorable older man and we thought he was just perfect for the job. A really well done little museum marking this occasion.

Then, we went the to check into our Airbnb on Prospect street. It was a cute little room in the back of an older home in a row of all these historic homes.  It was perfect except for the fact that it did not have air conditioning for the unusually hot Buffalo; no biggie. There were so many cute houses, but so run down.  We were certainly not going to walk anywhere from there.

First we went to the Chateau Buffalo urban winery and cidery that  had a Groupon for a wine/cider and cheese pairing. Oh my! What an experience. These guys were super friendly and kept bringing more  things to try. We had to tell them to stop!! The NY cheeses were delicious, but the drinks weren't great. But, we loved the adventure and the experience. I think we were there for 1.5 hours. Ha!

We then drove over to Anchor Bar and had original Buffalo wings. Not that delicious, but a must do! Then, we had dinner at Allen Street Poutine Comapny. We liked the variety, but it wasn't amazing. And the whole time we walked around in that area everything looked so run down. We kept saying "We're rooting for you, Buffalo!". We then went to look for some breweries. One was near the theatre district and we were finally able to see the resurgence of Buffalo that people speak of. Much nicer! And there were people everywhere. Maybe Buffalo is doing ok. The first brewery was too busy, so we went out of town s bit to Resurgence Brewing Company and loved it! We sat on the patio and had beer/cider. It was cool and we weren't all sweaty. Such a pleasant night we almost didn't go back to our non-air conditioned room.

The next morning, we were up early to do a run. Michael gave me two options for the run: Delaware Park or La Salle Park on the water. I can't turn down a water run, so we went there. So sketchy. A police car practically followed us during our run. Again, we were rooting for Buffalo, but this time on top of some buffaloes.

After we got ready for the day, we drove down Delaware street with beautiful mansions and through a giant cemetary where Mildred Fillmore is buried. Much nicer area than the waterfront. Then, we had some breakfast at Five Points Bakery. This place was adorable. They do toast. And all kinds of it. So yummy. So, Buffalo...maybe you're going to be ok after all. Just know we're rooting for you.