New York, New York

Ok, so technically that title should be "Buffalo, New York", but that's not a song, now is it.

We headed out for my sister's graduation on Wednesday afternoon. We flew on a teeny plane from Appleton to Buffalo through Cincinnati. Totally uncomfortable, but we made it. We actually arrived about 10 minutes early in Buffalo. We picked up the one bag we checked and headed over to the rental car desk. The lady at the counter took one look at Adam and upgraded us to an SUV. It was a Suzuki. It was a sweet car. Adam really liked it and was complaining last night how he missed his radio controls on the steering wheel. After some navigational adventures we managed to find our hotel. It just happened to be right down the street from the HSBC arena where the Sabers were playing. We just happened to arrive right in the middle of the traffic jam created when crazy hockey fans leave a game in which their team was victorious.

When we arrived at our hotel we immediately noticed it was a little too high-class for our tastes. They had valet parking and really no way to stop and check in without just kind of parking on the side of the circular driveway. When we checked in we discovered that the king-size non-smoking room we had confirmed just hours earlier was a "request" rather than a "guarantee" and we had a double instead. Adam kind of went off on the desk workers but eventually we got the keys and headed to the parking garage. After some elevator confusion we got to the room and almost immediately headed back down to the bar. We spent a couple hours there, most of which were disturbed by two blondes who were being shamelessly hit on by old men. When they revealed they worked for Victoria's Secret I thought I was going to have to ask the bartender for a mop to clean up the drool. Heh. Anyway, we headed back to the room and attemped to sleep. When you're used to a queen size bed it's kind of hard to adjust to being right on top of the other person. Many sides and heads were elbowed, Adam claims I pushed him out of the bed once (which I don't believe), and the night was generally not very restful.

We woke up on Thursday morning to a very loud alarm. About two minutes after it went off I got a call from my brother about breakfast. We hadn't expected everyone else to be so organized. After showering we headed downstairs. We discovered we hadn't activated our parking pass and we couldn't get out of the garage. I ran back to the front desk, but even after it was activated it wouldn't let us out. When we were finally freed from the garage we headed up to the Original Pancake House. After heading the wrong direction off the freeway, we finally arrived. We were totally late. Everyone met everyone else and now Adam has met everyone in my family. After breakfast we headed to the Albright-Knox and the Science museums with my brother and sister-in-law. We headed over to the Chinese restaurant where lunch was to be held and we were actually early until Evan and Jodi realized they didn't have their gifts. So we made a trip back to their hotel and by the time we got back to the restaurant everyone else was there. *sigh* After more food and conversation we ran to the car through the pouring rain and went to a local mall for a while. Then it was off to the graduation ceremony. Amazingly enough we found the rest of our group pretty easily. The ceremony itself wasn't that bad. It ran a little less than 2 hours and the speaker was one of the best I've ever seen. It was actually entertaining to listen to. Aside from some disturbing children (about whom Jodi tells me she plans to blog), and the uncomfortable seats, it was an ok time. After tracking down the graduate, we headed back to the hotel and played a few rounds of Chronology. Then Adam and I headed back to our hotel and went to bed. This time we each took one bed to avoid the chaos of the previous night. I think we both slept a lot better.

We got up bright and early on Friday to go have breakfast with everyone before Evan and Jodi went to catch their flight to Houston. We did the Mother's Day thing since it was so close and said our good-byes. After Evan and Jodi took off, the rest of us decided to meet up for lunch and head to Niagara Falls before Adam and I had to leave. It was great weather for the Falls. We parked on the US side and walked across the Rainbow Bridge into Canada. We stopped for lunch and then walked a ways down the path. We also stopped at the Hershey store on the way back. Then it was time to head back to Buffalo. We had to pay to get back into the United States. They charge you 50 cents to get back in. What a load of crap... Anyway, after sneaking some Cuban cigars through customs (shhh, don't tell anyone) we went back to Buffalo and made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Our flights back to Appleton were uneventful considering that Adam's dad had called earlier in the day to tell us Cincinnati was under 6 inches of water. Both flights actually arrived at their destinations early and there was really not a whole lot of turbulence. Adam's dad met us at the airport and after some visiting at their house we headed back home to unpack and unwind. All the hamsters were in their cages and looked like they hadn't even noticed we had been gone.

All in all it was a good trip. Everything went pretty smoothly and the weather was a lot better than it was supposed to have been. Adam is putting his pictures on CD at work today so they'll be posted on the photobucket site soon. Evan already has his up at Doddsnet.