New York Trip Day 1-3

We're back! Where should I start? There is so much! We missed Bradley more than ever since this was our first time to be away from him for longer than a few hours. He probably missed us too, but I'm pretty sure he was completely distracted being spoiled by his grandparents and having a playmate the same age as him. He was happy to see us again, and the de-spoiling process has begun!

All of our flights went well and were thankfully uneventful. No delays, no lost luggage. What more can you ask for? We breezed through the rental car process and got on our way (with the aid of GPS) in the big city of Buffalo!

After doing some price shopping beyond the airport, we found a cheap hotel that we booked for the first two nights. After we took a nap we started wandering around the town then had Italian for dinner!

^at the OKC airport waiting to leave.

^Coming into Chicago for our layover

We got there a bit earlier than planned for our rental car so the didn't have the economy car I reserved ready. Instead they upgraded us FOR FREE to a 2011 Chevy HHR! Nick loved driving it. We prepaid for a tank of gas and got it 20 cents cheaper than the average rate in the area which was $3.80/gallon.

We checked out the "Little Italy" district in Buffalo, but that was a sad disappointment. There were just a few hole-in-the-wall pizza places squeezed in between everything else. I guess the Italians have gone elsewhere!

Pretty much the whole trip we just drove around towns and got lost in neighborhoods, then used the magical GPS to find our way back to the highway. It really helped to see in person what the towns look like, and we were surprised by some of the ones we thought we would like. The main problem we had with them was that they were just too close to the city and too busy. We are looking for just a little further away from all of the hubbub--kind of like Norman is compared to OKC. But we found a few towns that were just right!

^to celebrate our first night in NY we got some Spumante at a local liquor store :)

Our second day there we decided to check out the shore of Lake Erie and make it the second Great Lake that we have been to. Surprisingly it was still mostly frozen! We had the beach to ourselves and enjoyed the peaceful views on the boardwalk...

^it was so surreal looking out and just seeing ice as far as the horizon. You truly feel like you are at the ocean. But here we felt like we were at the North Pole! Ironically the weather that day was very pleasant and in the upper 50s.

To end the day we traveled a bit more south along the coast to see a couple more beaches and talk to some locals, then headed "home" to get dinner and relax. We checked out the next day at noon and hit the road north on highway 78!

One thing we noticed right off was how close in proximity all of the towns really are. You can literally turn a few corners and have gone through 3 different towns. This made it a bit difficult to know which town we were in if we saw an area we liked. I wouldn't be surprised if in total we went through at least 30 towns. Example: We flew into "Buffalo" airport, but the airport was actually in "Cheektowaga". Our hotel just past the airport was actually in "Lancaster". Ha!

There is lots more to show and tell! Check back later this week for the continuation...