Buffalo-Niagara Falls-Pittsburgh: Part 3

On our final full day of vacation we departed the hotel on the mission for donuts!  Near the donut shop we found a free charging station and tried it out with our hybrid Pacifica.  It was a pretty simple set-up.

Peace, Love, and Little Donuts offers customizable, made to order mini donuts.

Parker chose the chocolate frosted and Esme grabbed Oreo.

We also happened upon a car show and saw some pretty sweet rides.

They even had a DeLorean!

Our next point of interest was Duquense Incline. The cable car, funicular open in 1877 and takes guests and commuters up 400 feet.

The view from the top takes your breath away and the perfect cartoon like clouds capped it perfectly.

We drove about 30 minutes southwest to Washington, PA, home to the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum.

We checked out the some displays before getting on the trolley for a ride.

Parker loved showing Daniel Tiger the sights.

They had an adorable trolley playground that was everything for Parker.  So many things to spin!

There was a large building across the tracks with lots of trollies.  They were also having a model train show.  Parker did great just watching and not touching.

Washington is also home to Jimmy's favorite, Krispy Kreme!

After that quick donut break we made our way to Parker, PA.  That's right, a town called Parker!

Holy Sundae is an adorable restaurant and ice cream shop housed in an old Catholic church.

Twist cone for me and hot fudge sundae for Esme.

Even Parker found a treat he liked, a sort of dole whip fruity thing.

Before leaving town, we stopped at a local park. You can find that post here.  We ended up have to take a bit of a backroad detour because of a car accident, but we made it though.

We grabbed another Little Caesar's on the road for the kids and Mexican for us before checking in to our Buffalo hotel about 9:00.  Esme was wiped from our adventurous day and slept hard!

One more swim then off to the airport for home.

Our first solo family vacation went great considering we had 650 miles on the road.  A few minor annoyances, but that's every day already.  Can't wait for our next one!

Buffalo-Niagara Falls-Pittsburgh: Part 2

We hit the road pretty early Friday to head towards Pittsburgh.  We drove south from Niagara Falls and crossed back in to the US on the Peace Bridge.  We were headed to Punxsutawney to see where Phil lives!  The drive was pretty peaceful and reminded me of the wooded roads in northern Wisconsin.  We stopped for lunch at Joe's Drive-In.  Jimmy and I shared a chili dog and onion rings.

This giant groundhog sign was there as well.  I tried to get a good picture of the kids, but this is all I could get.

The entire town is based around Phil and Groundhog Day which makes sense.  We visited Barclay Square downtown where Phil lives.  There were 4 groundhogs total in the burrow.  Two looked like juveniles, but what do I know about groundhogs?

They have adorable statues all around town.

There was a food truck set up in the park serving pizza and baked goods, Leila Jo's.  The kids shared a chocolate whoopie pie and Jimmy got a peanut butter frosted brownie.

We headed out to Gobbler's Knob to see where the festivities occur each February 2nd.  Parker inspected their AC and it seemed operational.

After talking for months about visiting, Esme was being a bit of a stinker about pictures here, so I just let her pout.

It was a little drizzly, but it didn't damper the visit.  We headed to out hotel in Pittsburgh next.  It was right across the street from PNC Park, which was very convenient for attending a game that night.

This was the trickiest of our accommodations.  We had one king bed and a pull out queen.  I was hoping the kids wouldn't bother each other on the sofa bed, but I ended up having to share with Parker.

There was laundry on our floor that Parker had to check out.

We didn't head out too early in hopes we could make it through the whole game (we also brought iPads and headphones).  The iconic yellow bridge and silly kids when trying to take pictures.

Parker's new thing this trip was closing his eyes for pictures.

First things first, ice cream!

We could not have asked for a more beautiful day for a game.  It wasn't too hot and there were clear skies.

Jimmy and I split the famous Primanti Bros pastrami sandwich.  They had some really great recreation options for kids.  There was a baseball themed playground with a "base path" climber and huge baseballs.

There was also a replica yellow bridge and climbing tower that looked like a pirate ship sail.

We grabbed a lower level seat in the 8th inning to watch the rest of the game.  The Twins lost 0-3, but it was a fun night exploring a new stadium.

It was great being able to take a quick walk back to the hotel instead of having to drive.

Up next: Trollies, Holy Sundae, and a town called Parker