I’ve been thinking about how to write about our two-week Thanksgiving trip. Given the fact that we visited four very different places, I decided to create an entry for each location. Back in June, while we were still in Seattle for our summer trip, I received a notification from Going (formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights) about a mistake fare to Paris from JFK with American Airlines. If you know me, you know I swear by Going and have had a referral code with them since we signed up years ago. However, I am horrible at using it. I just tell people to join and never send my code. If you want to sign up, here it is: Going referral code. Someone I recommended Going to just purchased a deal to New Zealand for $600! So that was my sponsored plug. Now, onto the real travel content.
When I got the email about the Paris mistake fare, I couldn’t believe it. The price was $200 for a non-stop flight from JFK, so I booked it immediately and started planning. We live in Northwest Arkansas and rarely fly from XNA, so being open to other airports has broadened our flight deals. Initially, I had thought of booking a flight from XNA to JFK and back and spending some days in NYC. Then, I remembered that I had been wanting to see Niagara Falls for years, and the Buffalo Bills were playing while we would be in town. That helped sweeten the deal for my husband.
We decided to fly from Arkansas to Buffalo for four days to see Niagara Falls and attend Monday Night Football. But what we didn’t account for was how we would fall in love with Buffalo in such a short amount of time. We left on November 11 and were scheduled to arrive in Buffalo by 11:00 pm that night. While we were waiting to board our connecting flight in Atlanta, the gate agent announced that the flight was oversold. Most people would get a headache from hearing that, but Ricky and I LOVE oversold flights and always try to volunteer to get bumped.
You might be asking, “Why would you choose not to fly if you paid for it?” Well, we didn’t have any timed reservations the next morning, and they offered to put us on a 9:00 am flight to Buffalo so we wouldn’t lose too much time. They comped a hotel and meals for that night in Atlanta and gave us $700 credit each. Usually, we would use all $1400 for future travels, but since we had a big trip ahead and Delta gives you the chance to use the money in a variety of ways, we opted for a digital debit card. This card funded all of our Uber trips in Buffalo. We also received an Airbnb gift card, which we used for a beachfront place in Costa Rica, and we left half of the credit for future Delta flights.
We ended up making it to Buffalo on Sunday morning and headed straight to our Airbnb to shower and change. We got a very basic Airbnb for Buffalo, and I believe the cost for four nights was $170 (ridiculous)! It had everything we needed and was very reasonably priced. Our first day was all about Niagara Falls. We walked the USA side for a bit and saw the rapids, which were unbelievable to me. Seeing Niagara in the fall was breathtaking, with all the leaves turning. We walked to the Canada side (remember to bring your passport for reentry and 50 cents for the fee), and it was seamless and took less than 10 minutes to get from the USA to Canada on foot.
The Canadian side has more touristy things like casinos, restaurants, hotels, and bars, making it more bustling. Personally, I enjoyed the nature and peace of the USA side, but both sides had their own charm. If you’re looking to spend the whole day there and do a lot of activities, the Canadian side is your best bet. Surprisingly, the Maid of the Mist was still open even though it was almost mid-November, and the weather cooperated. This experience was a must! Seeing the falls up close and witnessing their tremendous power was a special and unforgettable experience. After the tour, we walked back to the US side, took an Uber home, and enjoyed Carbone’s pizza for dinner (not gonna lie, we had Carbone’s multiple times).
We woke up a little late on Monday because we knew it was going to be a crazy day! Our first stop was the AKG Art Museum. With limited time, this was our best option, and it was conveniently close to everything! The museum had just reopened a couple of months ago after extensive renovations, and we felt lucky to experience it. They had a pretty robust Impressionist collection and an extensive collection of sculptures, including some incredible Rodin’s. Some of my favorite artists had at least one or two paintings there: Rothko, Picasso, Kahlo, O’Keeffe, and Monet. They also had a cool modern art collection and some pieces by Andy Warhol. If you’re a museum nerd like us, we highly recommend visiting the AKG Museum. We had breakfast at the museum’s cute cafĂ© named Cornelia, which gave me Taylor vibes, so it was a no-brainer.
After leaving the museum, we walked through the Forest Lawn Park, which we later found out was designed by the same landscape architect who designed Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted. Inside the park is the world-renowned Forest Lawn Cemetery. It may seem odd to admire the beauty of a cemetery, but Forest Lawn is absolutely breathtaking. In the afternoon, we had tickets to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s first residential project, the Martin House. I must admit, I had no expectations for this tour, but Ricky was excited as he is a FLW fan. However, my perspective and admiration for Frank Lloyd Wright changed and grew exponentially after this tour. It is definitely something you must do when visiting Buffalo. Every aspect of the structure was meticulously thought out by Wright, resulting in a masterpiece of architecture.
For dinner, we went to the Anchor Bar, the place where Buffalo wings were created. I never associated the name of the wings with the town, so it was a pleasant surprise when planning what to do in town. This place deserves all the hype. I don’t do spicy, so I opted for boneless BBQ wings, but Ricky ordered bone-in buffalo wings, and I have to admit I stole three from his plate. They were crunchy, delicious, and unlike any wings I’ve had before.
After the Anchor Bar, we headed back to the Airbnb to change clothes and get ready for football! I’m not a football person, as soccer is what I consider “football” being a real Latina. Over the past year or two, I have tried to learn American football and develop a basic understanding of the game, but my real-life experiences are limited to Razorback football. Ricky kept trying to explain why attending an NFL game would feel so different, and I can’t fully explain it in words, but it was indeed a unique experience. The game was a nail-biter and extremely exciting, the fans were passionate and funny, and the adrenaline pumping through me was unmatched. That being said, my tics decided to revolt against my adrenaline, but I would still rate the experience 10/10 and do it again.
I have spoken in the past about how my Tourettes is aggravated when I am in sensory overwhelming environments, which is every second of an NFL game. I should have had some foresight, but I guess I underestimated what the game was going to feel like. That night and the next day (aka our flight day to Paris) were horrible for my tics. I can usually suppress them for minutes at a time when going through TSA or during the flight, but the day after the game, they were through the roof. It was mainly my vocal tics that were heightened, but those are the worst; they were extremely loud, constant, and annoying. The flight to Paris will be something I definitely tackle in the next blog.
A few years ago, I was helping a university group conduct a study on TS (aka I was a guinea pig, which is one of my favorite parts of TS—I swear I am not being sarcastic), mainly because they gave me a $500 Target gift card at the end. The therapists had asked me if my tics felt like a green light, speed bump, or a massive stop sign on any given day. Usually, I am so used to them that my day feels like green lights. On not-so-great days, I would say speed bump. Very rarely do my tics “stop sign” me, but that day was a massive constant stop sign with blaring red alarms LOL.
There wasn’t much I could have done—maybe bring my earplugs to the game, which I planned to but forgot, or bring extra pills on the trip to increase my doses, but I also forgot about that possibility. All I could do was ride the waves of tics and wait until it got better. I would say the people of Buffalo get a score of 9.5 on reacting to my Tourette’s (maybe I will start ranking cities on Tourettes friendliness?).
Most people didn’t care enough to ask or even do a double-take. The ones that did ask were very polite about it. A lady on the bus to the game asked if I was okay, and I told her I had Tourettes. She responded with, “OMG, you can cuss when we lose the game and blame it on your TS.” If that was the response I got every time I told people, my life would be much easier.
There’s a saying about Buffalo being the city of good neighbors, and it sounds silly, but it is one of the truest statements. I don’t think I encountered anyone rude or disrespectful. Everyone we interacted with was extremely kind and helpful. The town was full of culture, art, nature, and it was fairly walkable. People often think of Buffalo and immediately think of visiting Niagara Falls, and don’t get me wrong, Niagara was beautiful. But there was SO. MUCH. MORE that made Buffalo incredible, and at the top of the list would be its people.
