Amazing Year Day 114: House Hunting

I’m always looking for something new to do. While I still have to check off sky diving from the bucket list, I would prefer more low key, cost effective activities to add to the start of the weekend. This weekend, we sure did find the solution: open houses!

While, neither my parents or I are exactly in the market for a new dwelling, it sure didn’t hurt to peruse what Western New York had to offer. You can call it The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.

It felt like we had our own HGTV program, as each of us pretending to know way more than we did about the real estate business.

 

Amazing Year Day 113: See You Soon

Sadness engulfed our journey to Toronto as my wife was returning to Taiwan. Sure, it’s only two weeks apart, but it was hard to say goodbye for now.

The only thing that brought joy today was this interestingly painted car:

Amazing Year Day 112: A Writerly Encounter & Dead (Tasty) Sea Creatures

There are two parts to this wonderful day.

Part 1: I’ve had the pleasure of being in two separate online picture book critique groups. The first of which included the ever fantastic Miranda Paul, whom I had the pleasure of briefly meeting in person at the SCBWI summer conference a few years back. However, I haven’t personally met any of the current wonderful writers in my current critique group. That changed today thanks to an invite to catch up with the creative and sharp Michele Meleen Shields. It was a pleasure to talk shop with you while also watching your adorable son romp through the Buffalo Zoo.

Part 2: My wife and I are not often back in Buffalo, so it’s even rarer for my entire immediate family to be able to get together for a nice dinner. Special thanks to Mom ‘n’ Pop 2018 for taking all of us out to a wonderful seafood feast!

 

Amazing Year Day 111: A Dorky Reunion

This wonderful Wednesday featured a galactic gathering of old friends at Diversity Springs, USA. Nostalgic hot cups of talk complete with a Wesley Willis soundtrack. No picture can do this night justice OR I simply was having too much fun to snap some photoronies.

Amazing Year Day 110: Move Over Tacos

Hola Tacos. You hombres had your moment of glory, and now it’s time to hop inside the truck, because Tuesdays belong to Food Trucks!

Amazing Year Day 109: Fun with Foooooooooooooooooooooooood

The family gathered at D’Avolio a cozy Italian cafe in Williamsville. Shoutout to my sister for choosing the place, and my parents for paying (never too old for parental charity) They just happened to serve what my wife regards as the best gluten free pizza of all time!

 

For dessert we enjoyed a leisurely stroll through Glen Falls park followed by delicious ice cream! It was soo good, I forgot to take pictures.

However… there is something AMAZING about this ice cream shop you need to know…. on the second floor they have an ’80s kid’s dream come true:

This epic day of food was not over. For in the evening, a good friend and I ventured to “A Cook’s Tour” a benefit in honor of Anthony Bourdain’s birthday whereby scores of local (and damn tasty) restaurants served scrumptious morsels. All proceeds went to suicide prevention related charities.

BONUS PIC: Simba has fallen and can’t get up. Perhaps he ate as much as I did today!

 

Amazing Year Day 108: You put what on a sandwich?

The highlight of our final day in Pittsburgh was a visit to the original Primanti Brothers, a sandwich chain famous for smacking french fries smack dab in the middle of your sandwich. Say what?

And of course no visit to Pennsylvania is complete until you rock some Rita’s Italian Ice. It’s like rainbow angels peeing in the snow. Sooooo good!

Amazing Year Day 107: Artsburgh

Thank you Pittsburgh for permitting us to peek into your peculiar parts.

Amazing Year Day 106: The Taste of Erie

It doesn’t take much to excite the pallets of this family. Thank you Erie, Pennsylvania for hosting so many succulent food establishments that are yet unseen in Buffalo. Specifically, thank you Chick-Fil-A and Rita’s for making our stop en route to Pittsburgh a tasty one.

 

Amazing Year Day 105: Going Down

Back in Buffalo, the time had come to sample Darien Lake’s newest coaster: Tantrum. It’s a fitting word, as this “juvenile” coaster has a lot of growing up to do in order to impress us veteran coasterers.