Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? The answer in our case is Yes, Yes, Yes, and let's add a few more stops just to make sure we hit everything possible. This elongated weekend had us departing on Friday night to Pittsburgh and making our way up to Buffalo to depart back home. Our style of hitting the highlights of the city and moving quickly to another proved valuable in a trip that had us visit— Pittsburgh, PA, Sandusky, OH, Cleveland, OH, Niagara Falls, NY, Buffalo, NY, and somehow as I type this stuck in Chicago, IL with a layover that seems to never want to end.
On Friday night, we arrived a smidge past midnight into Pittsburgh. This slight delay caused us to rush through the Pittsburgh airport to catch an attendant who may have been slow to close at midnight. Fortunately, they were open because of the delays and we were able to get our main source of transportation for this trip. After a quick drive, we were at the hotel for our evening. At this time, we would like to thank our generous sponsor Roger Sissom for the hotels on this trip!
Grant was hungry and the North Shore of Pittsburgh had a few pizza joints open.
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Intercom: The flight to San Diego has been canceled.
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We pause this story to bring you breaking news. The flight from Midway to San Diego that was scheduled to depart at 9:30 pm has been canceled due to Southwest’s weather systems shutting down.
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Before people could catch their breath after letting out a grown, I dashed to the ticket counter getting third in line. Everyone’s phone began to ding notifying them of their rescheduled flight. The two gate agents appeared overwhelmed as the line ballooned behind me. After a few minutes, the gate agent announced no hotels, but a $300 credit for a future Southwest flight. While I was in line, Grant was booking a hotel and then coordinating care for Sophie (dog). Thankfully Emily agreed to come over and check on her and is a lifesaver!
Fast forward to an expensive Uber ride, a new hotel in a random location not close to the airport, about 6 hours of sleep, and another Uber ride and we are now back at the airport on our way to San Diego.
We now return you to our regular programming.
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After a restful night of sleep in Pittsburg, I got up early and made my way to the Andy Warhol museum. This museum had a fun pop of color and some impressively large-scale paintings. Afterward, Grant met up with me and we attended the Three Rivers Art Festival that was happening downtown in a place Grant wanted to see called Point Park. The entire city is extremely artsy with galleries everywhere.
We walked back to the hotel and took the car for a joyride of the city. We ended up in the “Strip District”, which is a neighborhood that showcases the culinary side of the city. It is also where the Heinz Museum is located. Sadly, we went in and we’re not excited about the exhibits so we left for…Randyland. This free art exhibit is at someone’s house who decided to turn old trash into art. A quick pitstop before our final stop - the Duquesne Incline.
In 2021, cash is near obsolete. A phone can store your credit cards, keys and virtually replace anything you need. The problem was that the Duquesne Incline is stuck in the 1800s when it was created. Upon arrival, we were greeted by two older not so friendly women who said “cash” only. We said we had none and asked for an ATM. They said it was “broken”, but the ATM at the top was working. So we got an IOU ticket and went up to look out at Pittsburgh. The views were spectacular as we were able to see where three rivers—- Allegheny, the Monongahela, and the two rivers meet to form the Ohio River. The problem was that the ATM at the top was broken as well. We quickly came down and explained what happened. The women refused to waive the fee and demanded payment. Grant left to get cash and I was left as collateral in incline jail to be bailed out. With no ATM anywhere near the site and a festival going on, there was a fairly long delay. Anytime a car came and went the watchful eye of the two women were directly on me making sure I did not bolt. Eventually, Grant came back and we departed for Sandusky, Ohio.
Sandusky is a small town with a huge theme park, Cedar Point. Time was getting away from us, but we purchased tickets for their Frontier Festival. The festival must have been a celebration of cherries because they had cherry bbq, cherry fried chicken, cherry pizza, and a few other rather fair foods to nosh on. Afterward, we attempted to go on a few rides, but the lines were a bit debilitating. The park closed at 8 pm so we only had about 2.5 hours at the park, but we made the most of it.
Our next stop was Cleveland, Ohio where we planned to spend the night. Something we were not aware of …Ohio has “service stations” along the highway that are completely identical and very disorienting. When we entered Ohio we stopped at one and grabbed a drink from Panera. 3.5 hours later we stopped again at a different service station that also had a Panera and just refilled our cups. Of course, this made us need to go to the bathroom, but we held it long enough to go to our dinner restaurant in Cleveland, the Barrel Street Bourbon Room.
I am not sure what Cleveland is known for, but this Cajun restaurant did not live up to the 4.7-star Yelp rating. Nearby was the Christmas Story House, which they had turned into a museum and gift shops with the neighboring houses. The house is located on an unassuming street with houses still being lived in, which made coming up on the house a surprise. For our nighttime adventure, we drove downtown to look at their sites including the Playhouse Square that is famous for its outdoor crystal chandelier. We got out to take a photo and were nearly sideswiped by a Jeep weaving in and out of traffic. The restaurant left Grant still a bit hungry and he struggles to sleep on an empty stomach. Not much food-wise is open late at night in Cleveland and that is probably for good reason.
After Grant turned from hungry to hangry we decided to leave and head to our hotel. I made one last-ditch attempt for a non-fast food substitute and convinced Grant to go to Cleveland’s Little Italy for a slice of pizza. Bust.
The GPS had us take a weird route back that found us on the east side of Cleveland. This was the wrong side of Cleveland. The same Jeep that nearly hit us somehow was in front of us. Out of nowhere, we hear poof, poof, poof…this same Jeep had rolled down their window, pulled a paintball gun, and began to shoot paintballs at the car they were across from. Not knowing what was happening, Grant swerved into an apartment complex's driveway to get out of the crossfire. As we came back up we realized it was just paintballs as the car they hit was still reeling from the trauma. This raised our blood pressure and made for Grant to comment that Cleveland is his least favorite city ever. A quick drive-through visit to Wendy’s and we were out.
The next morning we made our way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The museum had musician wardrobes, memorabilia, and instruments highlighting music's most memorable moments and artists. From there we decided to get a jump start on our long commute to Niagara Falls. With a quick pitstop in Eerie, PA we made it within 3 hours.
Excited to be at our final destination, we wasted no time in making our way to Niagara Falls State Park. We were able to squeak ourselves onto the last Caves of the Wind tour for the day. This self-guided tour puts you right next to the American Falls where you get an up-close and personal view of the raging waters. They give you a pair of sandals and a poncho for this one as you are bound to get wet. Being the last tour of the evening there were not many people willing to brave the falls, which allowed us to have prime access to some photo spots. By that time, I gave up trying to stay dry and just embraced being wet. I ripped off the poncho and ran to the spot where the waterfall met the deck. Why not!
The next morning was Monday so we went over to the Maid of the Mist when it opened and got right on. The boat goes right up to the Horseshoe Falls and affords you the best view possible from the US side. The ponchos did their job and we remained relatively drive. We cleaned up a bit at the hotel and hit the road for Buffalo.
The one thing I knew about Buffalo was that they originated the Buffalo Wing. It also happened to be perfect timing as I was turning hangry. We stopped at Anchor Bar and ate some wings. Fun fact— wings are just wings no matter if they were the first or the last. We wandered around two neighborhoods in this area Allentown and Canalside bit before we got a bit restless. Grant was commenting that we should just head to the airport with the hopes of getting on an earlier flight. I thought…when else are we going to be in this area and we should take advantage. Fast forward 4 hours later and we all know Grant was right on this one. :)
We drove to Ellicottville, which seems like a quaint sleepy mountain town, and left for the airport. Airport drama ensued. All is sorted out.
At the airport, the question quickly shifted from “Are we there yet?” to “Are we home yet?” or “Can we just go home yet?” The good news is that as I am finishing writing this we are in the air and should be arriving early into San Diego. Hopefully, soon I can say we are home.