Friday, January 20, 2023

24 Hours in Wintery Downtown Buffalo

 

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Last weekend, we went on a little staycation to canalside Buffalo for our oldest son's birthday. It was kind of the perfect Buffalo in winter experience. Our youngest even asked if we could do it all again, but next time for a whole week. (ha)

(PS, my sister took the photo above and if you are eagled-eyed enough you can sort of Where's Waldo me, Matt, and Luke.)


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We drove into the city as the sun was setting after a very stressful Bills playoff game. I'm so glad we won - I think the excitement of the evening would have been a little subdued if we hadn't.

It was pretty gorge seeing the sun dipping below the skyline. 


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We stayed at a Marriot right in canalside, and barely checked in before we set out for our first excursion - ice skating! Our hotel was central to literally everything...the rink was particularly close. It took us no time to walk over there.

It was suuuper busy - likely because it was basically Saturday night vibes with the extra day off on Monday. Thankfully we all have skates, so we didn't need to go through the hassle of rentals.

I loved the view while we skated - I wish this existed back when Matt and I were dating! Not that we can't have a date night there now, but this would have been so perfect for the early days. We were busy keeping up with kids (my gahhh the way some people fly around on the ice and basically steamroll anyone in their path), but it would have been so nice to just have our own moment there.


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It was not a warm night, but we were bundled up pretty well so despite walking around town not exactly being enjoyable, it wasn't terrible. There were some leftovers from the Ice Fest Weekend that had wrapped up earlier that day and we enjoyed checking some of it out. There were some cool ice sculptures up near where Shark Girl is that I would have liked to get closer to, but everyone was pretty cold and hungry after skating!


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After a little bit of trying and failing, we ended up at Pearl Street for dinner - which honestly, was better than what we'd had planned, I think. It was so slow - there were very few people there (a first for Pearl Street...I've never been there when it wasn't slammed before) and the food was so good! The kids loved ordering lemonades from the bar, haha.


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I got a salted caramel porter that was soooo gooood, split a cup of beer cheese soup with Matt (insane), and had a poached pear salad for dinner that was so big I packed up more than half of it and had it for lunch the next day. It was all top notch.

My birthday kid enjoyed his night...I just cannot get over him being 14. Sigh.


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When we got back to the hotel, we were all too full to have the cookie cake I'd made for Luke, so instead, we opted to visit the pool. Nothing like a have-the-place-to-yourselves night swim! The kids had so much fun despite getting sleepy....it was hard to get them out of the pool.


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The next morning, I met my sister in the lobby to get some Starbucks. It was such a pretty morning...we had a pretty packed schedule, but I kinda wish I'd had more time to kick back and just take in the view.

After we caffeinated, we walked across the street to Tim Horton's to get some breakfast sandwiches. Which we quickly followed with a a birthday song and cookie cake. And then another trip to the pool.

The kids swam for a bit, and then it was already time to pack things up and check out ahead of the Sabres game. Our hotel was just a couple blocks away from the arena, so after we loaded up the van with our things, we walked down the street for the game. Such a pretty day! It was fun to be in the mix of excited fans again - it had been way too long since my last game!


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I fell in love with this sweater in the Sabres store...ugh. Obsessed. It was $105 (gross) so I couldn't charm my way into this one but omg...if anyone sees this go on sale as spring sets in, you must alert me.


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Doesn't it just give you chills? The vibe in the arena is everything.


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The Sabres didn't show up for us (booo), but we still had so much fun all being there together. My Jake keeps saying he's totally into sports now because of it (lol).

We had such a great weekend! If you want to see it in video form (plus more pictures!), I put it all into a highlight on my Instagram called Buffalo. (If that direct link to the highlight doesn't work, my Instagram is @jenn.rych)

We love you, Buffalo! <3

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