BUFFALO

It's been a while since our last post, and a lot has happened. The sail, or motor to Buffalo was uneventful as the wind was on our nose and arrived much earlier than we had anticipated. Active Captain had great reviews for the Buffalo City Marina, but we could not find it on our charts. Apparently they have just recently ramped up to offer dockage to transients with full amenities, so we found a phone number and called. We had also called several other marinas, but could not get a live person, so we decided to use the City Marina. You tie up on floating docks with water and electric that allows you access to the park that is within walking distance of some very reasonable (even free) public transportation, great restaurants, and many historical sites, including a Maritime and Air Museum with USS Little Rock Cruiser and the Sullivan Destroyer as well as a submarine and many other military displays. The park also has a variety of entertainment and activities almost every day including concerts, exercise classes and educational programs. After getting the AC going to cool off the boat we explored the City and had a nice dinner. This is our "dock mate" USS Little Rock. You can see Manana in the background.

Tuesday was our day to go to Niagra Falls. Denise had been there a few times but I had not. It took us a while to figure out how to get there, but, after a few calls, we found we could take the public transit bus all the way to the park entrance. We were amazed to find that the hour long trip would cost us a total of $10.00, and that was for an all day pass that would allow both of us to ride any bus, anywhere, all day long. The bus ride also gave us a bit of a tour of the area that we would be taking our boat through on the way to the canal. Niagra Falls was very impressive and we were able to see just about everything. I won't bore you with the details but we've included some pictures. You probably heard about the guy who walked across Niagra falls from the US to Canada, but we saw a man on the Canadian side that walked a tight rope every day from one hotel top to another. The amazing thing about that was the fact that he was in his mid 60's!

See the man on the tightrope?

On Wednesday, we toured the Maritime Museum and started preparing to leave the boat while we went to Denise's family reunion in Port Huron, Michigan. One of the things we were concerned about was that the Marina allows other boats to raft up to you, especially on the concert nights on Thursday and Friday. We didn't realize that when we first docked there, but we were assured that they would take every precaution to make sure nothing would be damaged. We met Marty and Sue, and found they both worked for the Buffalo Police department and Marty was a Police Officer. He also introduced us to Doc, who he was in partners with in a Marine Assist business and was involved with three of the marinas, including the City marinas. They, and all the dock hands at the marina assured us they would look out for our boat. Doc also offered to take our mast down for about half the price of the place we were originally planning to use. Even Active Captain gave him great reviews for taking the mast down and it would save us some delays on getting into the canal. So, we reluctantly left our boat early Thursday morning to catch a city bus to the airport ($2.00 per person!) The commuter jets we flew were small but they flew low enough that we could see ports on Lake Erie and Lake Huron that we had visited and also flew over the port we left from on Lake Michigan. Yes, that's right. In order to get to the Detroit airport and on to Port Huron, we had to fly to Chicago first. The reunion was held at a hotel near the entrance to the St. Clair River that we had gone through on our way down. Although the hotel had messed up the reservations, we were finally settled in with a view of the Blue Water Bridge to Canada and the River. Our trip just happened to conincide with the Port Huron to Mackinaw race, so we got to enjoy all the festivities and entertainment as the racers gathered. We even ran into some people we knew and were invited on some of the boats. Denise's family began to arrive on Saturday and the reunion was held Sunday. Denise's son had us on a flight for Monday morning that would fly us back to Buffalo via Chicago. It originally had 17 empty seats, but by the time we got there, it was filled up and we couldn't get on. We decided to drive our car back home and get a flight Tuesday night back to Buffalo. The only problem was, our luggage was in Buffalo. We finally got back to the boat a little before 1 AM on Wednesday morning. We had a short nights rest and got up to prepare the boat for taking the mast down on Thursday. It was a very hot and long day, but we have just about everything ready to go. This will be a new experience, since we have not had the mast down on Manana, and we have certainly never carried a mast on the deck. A view of the racers going under Blue Water Bridge

The Party Port

A few Manniquins

Buffalo has been a good stop and all the people have been great. We would highly recommend this as a stop and one of the best ways to see Buffalo and the Niagra area.