You Haven't Had Buffalo Wings 'Till You've Had Them in Buffalo
Canada Trip: Day 1
Yesterday marked the first day of the great Father/Son Baker Boy Road Trip to Canada 2007. As many of you know, every year I travel to Pittsburgh, PA for a big, Godfather style family reunion. Well this year my father starts a new job July 9th, and while we were already up in the area, he thought it'd be a great idea to take the new company car up to Niagara Falls, work our way up through Toronto, Montreal, and over to Halifax, Nova Scotia before taking a ferry west to Maine and driving down to Boston on our way back to Charlotte.
We left Pittsburgh around 1 PM and drove up to Buffalo, NY. There we asked around and found the ORIGINAL site of the very first "Buffalo" wings. They ain't named after big, furry cow cousins, all you Jessica Simpsons out there. The Anchorbar had some amazing wings. Fat, juicy, and tender, they hit the spot after a few hours of being on the road.
After another few hours on the road, we found our way to Niagara Falls where we walked around the park, which was a lot like Central Park in NYC only with roaring rapids that roar themselves over a cliff. And with a lot more Indians. Yeah. Lots of Indians up in Niagara Falls for some reason.
Then it was on to Toronto, which is a *very* cool city. Despite my seething hatred for Paris Hilton, we stayed at the Hilton Toronto in an executive suite (which means we had access to an open bar until 11PM). There we met a retired NFL lineman, whose name escapes me at the moment, and enjoyed fabulous views of the city from the 32nd floor.
There was a lot going on in Toronto that night. FIFA soccer had championship games being played, there was a Jazz festival going on, and because July 1 is Canada Day (their 4th of July), celebrating 140 years of the Great White North, there were fireworks in the air. Very cool indeed.
Day 2
Today we made our way to Montreal. Once you leave the province of Ontario and enter Quebec, EVERY sign is strictly in French, which worried us into thinking that maybe everyone spoke excellent French and only so-so English. We speak excellent English and god-awful, wretched, gibberish-like French.
We stopped into a Best Buy anyway to look for a DVD of an MTV cartoon from a few years back called "Clone High" in which a high school is populated by clones of famous world leaders like Abe Lincoln, JFK, and Cleopatra. It was cancelled in America because the country of India did not like the portrayal of Gandhi as a party animal. The DVD set was never released in the US- only in Canada.
Much to my good fortune, I found one copy of the DVD set. Much to my misfortune, it was only in French.
First impressions of Montreal are not as favorable as those for Toronto. Toronto was large, clean, and full of polite, friendly people. The city claims it is the most ethnically diverse in the world. Montreal, on the other hand, feels older, dirtier, and populated by unfriendly, French speaking snobs. I say that because some of the first people we spoke to were either in bad moods or are just plain snotty. I blame their language.
But we're having fun hearing people say "aboot" and "oot". Haven't heard one "eh" yet at the end of a sentence. What's up with that, Canadia? Tomorrow we drive 12 hrs to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and we hope to see some beautiful landscapes on the way.
--Cbake
Yesterday marked the first day of the great Father/Son Baker Boy Road Trip to Canada 2007. As many of you know, every year I travel to Pittsburgh, PA for a big, Godfather style family reunion. Well this year my father starts a new job July 9th, and while we were already up in the area, he thought it'd be a great idea to take the new company car up to Niagara Falls, work our way up through Toronto, Montreal, and over to Halifax, Nova Scotia before taking a ferry west to Maine and driving down to Boston on our way back to Charlotte.
We left Pittsburgh around 1 PM and drove up to Buffalo, NY. There we asked around and found the ORIGINAL site of the very first "Buffalo" wings. They ain't named after big, furry cow cousins, all you Jessica Simpsons out there. The Anchorbar had some amazing wings. Fat, juicy, and tender, they hit the spot after a few hours of being on the road.
After another few hours on the road, we found our way to Niagara Falls where we walked around the park, which was a lot like Central Park in NYC only with roaring rapids that roar themselves over a cliff. And with a lot more Indians. Yeah. Lots of Indians up in Niagara Falls for some reason.
Then it was on to Toronto, which is a *very* cool city. Despite my seething hatred for Paris Hilton, we stayed at the Hilton Toronto in an executive suite (which means we had access to an open bar until 11PM). There we met a retired NFL lineman, whose name escapes me at the moment, and enjoyed fabulous views of the city from the 32nd floor.
There was a lot going on in Toronto that night. FIFA soccer had championship games being played, there was a Jazz festival going on, and because July 1 is Canada Day (their 4th of July), celebrating 140 years of the Great White North, there were fireworks in the air. Very cool indeed.
Day 2
Today we made our way to Montreal. Once you leave the province of Ontario and enter Quebec, EVERY sign is strictly in French, which worried us into thinking that maybe everyone spoke excellent French and only so-so English. We speak excellent English and god-awful, wretched, gibberish-like French.
We stopped into a Best Buy anyway to look for a DVD of an MTV cartoon from a few years back called "Clone High" in which a high school is populated by clones of famous world leaders like Abe Lincoln, JFK, and Cleopatra. It was cancelled in America because the country of India did not like the portrayal of Gandhi as a party animal. The DVD set was never released in the US- only in Canada.
Much to my good fortune, I found one copy of the DVD set. Much to my misfortune, it was only in French.
First impressions of Montreal are not as favorable as those for Toronto. Toronto was large, clean, and full of polite, friendly people. The city claims it is the most ethnically diverse in the world. Montreal, on the other hand, feels older, dirtier, and populated by unfriendly, French speaking snobs. I say that because some of the first people we spoke to were either in bad moods or are just plain snotty. I blame their language.
But we're having fun hearing people say "aboot" and "oot". Haven't heard one "eh" yet at the end of a sentence. What's up with that, Canadia? Tomorrow we drive 12 hrs to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and we hope to see some beautiful landscapes on the way.
--Cbake
posted by Cbake at 11:30 PM
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