Upstate New York

Eric and I left Chicago on Thursday morning for the annual Matt Moran Memorial Golf Tournament in Eric's hometown of Marcellus, outside of Syracuse. This is an annual gathering honoring one of Eric's great friends, Matt, who passed nine years ago. Plus it's an annual weekend the Doust's all get together for the siblings to hang and the kids to play w/ the cousins. This is my second year playing in the tourney and having a great weekend w/ Eric's parents, his brother Scott and his wife, Cindy and their three kids, Cheyne, Natalie, and Eric; his brother Barry and his wife, Suzanne and their three kids, Aidan, Alyssa, and Quinn. Eric's sister and her daughter unfortunately couldn't make it this year.

To start off the trip, my luggage didn't make it to Buffalo, but our golf bags and Eric's luggage did. Soooooo, since we had a two hour drive ahead of us to Eric's parents house, we had to stick around town for four hours before my bag arrived on the next flight. It was lunchtime, so we went to the birthplace of buffalo wings - the Anchor Inn - and dang they were gooooood!!

Next we hopped in the rental car for the short drive to Niagara Falls! We hung out on the U.S. side, but we heard the Canadian side was better - mental note to take passports next time. The clouds were ominous, but we had an umbrella so we felt good. It was very pretty, and the noise of the fall was amazing. Then it started raining, so we headed back to the car. About half way there, it was absolutely pouring, with a ton of lightening overhead, so we felt very uneasy about walking back over the Niagara River on the metal bridge. Yeah. So we huddled under a tree under the umbrella, while the sideways rain drenched our legs and feet. With nothing to change into - I was the lucky one riding around in the rental car in my hoondies.