Welcome to Williamsville

Saturday, September 11, 2021

After a long and uneventful drive we arrived in Williamsville, NY, a nice little suburb just outside of Buffalo and home to our niece and nephew. We planned to stay for a week. Our agenda consisted mostly of playing with their three kids and eating – a lot.

My sister from Long Island come up for the trip so we had a full house. At least the ratio of adults to kids would be closer to 2:1. Being used as a jungle gym for a week was going to require frequent rest periods.

Within the first 24 hours we’d had takeout at Dinosaur Bar-B-Q (the best bar-b-q we’ve ever had), gone to Duff’s to get wings (some of the best we’ve ever eaten) and Paula’s to get larger than life donuts. They make a huge variety of donuts but some of their most popular include the peanut butter filled and cannoli filled. We got 60 wings and 18 donuts and although we didn’t eat them all the first day they were gone more quickly than you can imagine.

On Monday we did some roughhousing inside and then pretended to work up an appetite by running up and down the block while the kids rode their bikes. We had to prep for the evening’s meal at the Steaming Crab. Those boys just love their crab. The meal started off with a large piece of cheesy bread infused with crab flavoring. We ordered seconds. Then we ordered three huge boils that included shrimp, clams, mussels and, of course, crab. Along the way we ordered three more pounds of steamed mussels. Who can afford to feed three growing boys?

Tuesday morning found us eating a late breakfast at a restaurant called Break’n Eggs. Afterwards we had intended to go apple picking but along the way we re-routed to another farm to pick raspberries called Greg’s U-Pick. It turned out to be a charming place with a large store of freshly picked fruits and vegetables and a bunch of farm animals. Kids and adults alike had a great time feeding the goats, cows and pigs. Turkeys were running around wild and there were chickens everywhere. It was delightful. We eventually got around to picking some raspberries too. At the end we consolidated our haul into one, large container. Dinner was at a nearby place called the New York Beer Project. The menu was strictly pub food but it was very good. The noise level was so high that it drove us out as soon as we had completed our meals.

Wednesday, after two of the kids went to school, we found ourselves at an interesting little coffee house called Great Lakes Coffee Roasters. They had a large back room with games and TVs. We enjoyed a relaxing adult conversation and talked about plans for renovating the house. The coffee was delicious, too.

On Thursday we headed to Canalside, a lovely park along the Erie Canal. Much of the park was dedicated to war memorials. The park is also a museum with many war relics dating mostly from World War II. There was a battleship you could tour for a fee ($16.00 for adults), which included a tour of an old diesel submarine. Along the way we found some old war planes, a tank, a portion of a 16″ gun and other similar items. We had a great time walking along the shore stopping to see all of the sights.

That night we finally made it to Alethea’s Chocolates. It’s both an ice cream parlor and a candy store. We’d been there many times before and it never disappoints. The candy store has a large array of the usual suspects in both milk and dark chocolate and of course they sell the local speciality called Sponge Candy. I like it a lot.

We were off early the next morning for another long drive. Our destination: Gainesville, VA.