As an FYI, my JetBlue flight #104 gets into Buffalo on Friday night at 11:06pm. Then on Sunday, my flight leaves at 5:30pm.

tiger7610 wrote:There is a location in Buffalo suburb (Amherst)

There's one a whole lot closer to us, in West Seneca, but the wings and the ambiance at the Anchor Bar are still better, IMO.

ddeuddeg wrote:There's one a whole lot closer to us, in West Seneca, but the wings and the ambiance at the Anchor Bar are still better, IMO.

Anchor bar wins on ambience, I do not like that if I order 20 wings I cant split them with 2 different flavors, and I also like the taste of duffs wings, but honestly we are splitting hairs. Both are good buffalo wings, and for visitors taking them to Anchor bar is good.

Just thought I'd pop this out there: There is a groupon for the Sterling Inn & Spa in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. It includes a two night stay, $50 dining credit, tasting vouchers for three wineries and casino credit. It is a beautiful place. We stayed there before. So have Cesare and kktest. Give a shout if interested.

bahwm wrote:Just thought I'd pop this out there: There is a groupon for the Sterling Inn & Spa in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. It includes a two night stay, $50 dining credit, tasting vouchers for three wineries and casino credit. It is a beautiful place. We stayed there before. So have Cesare and kktest. Give a shout if interested.

Casino ends up being a link on my computer through some coupon thing. Are others getting that?

EDIT: It was something called coupon companion. I just uninstalled it. And the error I got loading my inbox no longer appears. I think it was something that got installed when I tried to download a WMA to mp3 converter off the web. Hate that crap.

bahwm wrote:Just thought I'd pop this out there: There is a groupon for the Sterling Inn & Spa in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. It includes a two night stay, $50 dining credit, tasting vouchers for three wineries and casino credit. It is a beautiful place. We stayed there before. So have Cesare and kktest. Give a shout if interested.

We've stayed there too - really liked the place....

Just grabbed my mail from the mailbox from the past couple days....


....Yay Passport!!

HitAnyKey42 wrote:Just grabbed my mail from the mailbox from the past couple days....


....Yay Passport!!

Yay, HAK!

If you are planning on having me buy your passes and have not yet paid, please be sure to do so by the 20th so I have enough time to withdraw the funds to my bank account. Paying in cash at the wineries means no currency conversion fees

cheron98 wrote:If you are planning on having me buy your passes and have not yet paid, please be sure to do so by the 20th so I have enough time to withdraw the funds to my bank account. Paying in cash at the wineries means no currency conversion fees

I should be able to meet your deadline. If there is any issue, I will be responsible for conversion fees. Or if I am late, can we get a pass on Saturday? I can't recall the advantage to having you get them for us in advance. (And don't want to read back through the thread.)

Edit: Heck, I can pay you even if uncertain. You'll be able to have the cash, and I just have to let you know whether to buy or not. If not, you can pay me back later. Sound like a plan?

polarbear22 wrote:I should be able to meet your deadline. If there is any issue, I will be responsible for conversion fees. Or if I am late, can we get a pass on Saturday? I can't recall the advantage to having you get them for us in advance. (And don't want to read back through the thread.)

Edit: Heck, I can pay you even if uncertain. You'll be able to have the cash, and I just have to let you know whether to buy or not. If not, you can pay me back later. Sound like a plan?

The advantage of me buying makes it certain we'll each have a pass. Last year we tried to get them at the first winery but since it was the last weekend, they didn't have enough on hand for all of us. So we had to play a sharing shuffle game to accommodate everyone. If there's not enough at one winery on my way in, I can stop at others to get the rest without it taking away from our day on Saturday.

And yeah, I can always send it back to you if you end up not being able to make it.

ddeuddeg and & I have been thinking more and more about the Beef on Weck excursion for Friday night. We've decided that the local pub, The Blackthorn, that is about a mile from our house is going to be the place to be. We've been going there forever, but rarely get a Beef on Weck there. It's just not something we usually order, but we love it. They have some nice soups and excellent salads available, too. And, they also have a nice selection of local microbrews--for a change of pace!

Then, we can head back to our place for dessert.

What time do we want for reservations? 6 or 7? Somewhere in-between?

bahwm wrote:ddeuddeg and & I have been thinking more and more about the Beef on Weck excursion for Friday night. We've decided that the local pub, The Blackthorn, that is about a mile from our house is going to be the place to be. We've been going there forever, but rarely get a Beef on Weck there. It's just not something we usually order, but we love it. They have some nice soups and excellent salads available, too. And, they also have a nice selection of local microbrews--for a change of pace!

Then, we can head back to our place for dessert.

What time do we want for reservations? 6 or 7? Somewhere in-between?

I would vote for 7pm - time to get in, get settled and then meet up for dinner.

wkdpanda wrote:I would vote for 7pm - time to get in, get settled and then meet up for dinner.

Thanks! Have you decided where you're staying? And, are you going to have a +1?

bahwm wrote:Thanks! Have you decided where you're staying? And, are you going to have a +1?

No +1 - she can't get Friday and Saturday off. I will be staying at the Best Western Lackawana.

bahwm wrote:ddeuddeg and & I have been thinking more and more about the Beef on Weck excursion for Friday night. We've decided that the local pub, The Blackthorn, that is about a mile from our house is going to be the place to be. We've been going there forever, but rarely get a Beef on Weck there. It's just not something we usually order, but we love it. They have some nice soups and excellent salads available, too. And, they also have a nice selection of local microbrews--for a change of pace!

Don't forget to mention the *homemade* tater tots! Big, huge, flavor-licious tater tots! Get some extra tots!!!

And the Beef on Weck is yummy, too!

Now I'm insanely jealous of you all!

bahwm wrote:ddeuddeg and & I have been thinking more and more about the Beef on Weck excursion for Friday night. We've decided that the local pub, The Blackthorn, that is about a mile from our house is going to be the place to be. We've been going there forever, but rarely get a Beef on Weck there. It's just not something we usually order, but we love it. They have some nice soups and excellent salads available, too. And, they also have a nice selection of local microbrews--for a change of pace!

Then, we can head back to our place for dessert.

What time do we want for reservations? 6 or 7? Somewhere in-between?

7 would be better I think. Just got sucked into a noon appointment out here on Friday, so I should be hitting the road by 1, getting to Niagara by 4 hopefully, to Buffalo by 6.

Seabar on Saturday night. Will we be able to bring some extra bubbles for dinner? I've got this magnum that has been begging to be opened.

Sent an email to Mike at Seabar to get a cost for dinner on Sat. I also asked if we could bring some bubbly as we did before. I'm sure that will be fine. He charged us $10 per bottle corkage last time. I don't see us needing large numbers of bottles since we'll be tasting all day! So, wkdpanda, bring that lovely bottle!

Let's start thinking about where we want to go next week. There, I said it: next week!

bahwm wrote:Let's start thinking about where we want to go next week. There, I said it: next week!

And what time, because I will be driving up on saturday morning and hopefully I can leave my car by bahwm house and carpool with people.

bahwm wrote:Let's start thinking about where we want to go next week. There, I said it: next week!

I would like to visit Between the Lines again. After that? Some new ones we didn't hit last year? Maybe the Niagara College one again?

wkdpanda wrote:I would like to visit Between the Lines again. After that? Some new ones we didn't hit last year? Maybe the Niagara College one again?

Definitely a fan of Between the Lines. I didn't get to the Niagara College one, would be up for that. Do we want to pick a different region this year? I think we focused on Jordan and St. Catharine's last year.

So jealous! Molarchae and I are going to make it up there sometime, though, and we're going to drag you wine tasting with us!

Don't forget: we need to make a stop at Niagara Falls sometime for justplainjulie & her +1. We could probably do that on Sunday?

Sunday could work, even if I would not be able to join the group probably.

Yes, we definitely need to make a stop by the falls. I've actually been, but my husband has not seen them.

The Blackthorn is booked for 7 PM next week Friday!

I really enjoyed Between the Lines (I have one more of their Cab Franc bottles left).

Palatine Hills is also pretty nice to stop since it's cheap! Good place to bring back gifts for other people. If I recall correctly, their Vidal ice wine was $20 for 200ml, and a "late harvest" Vidal for $15 375ml.

I'm definitely in for dinner, but wine tour is up in the air based on work....will be a last minute decision.

What's the plan for Sunday? I know we enjoyed some 1000 IBU on draft last year after brunch.

bahwm wrote:Don't forget: we need to make a stop at Niagara Falls sometime for justplainjulie & her +1. We could probably do that on Sunday?

HAK too.

cheron98 wrote:HAK too.

I knew that!

justinrsanderson wrote:I really enjoyed Between the Lines (I have one more of their Cab Franc bottles left).

Palatine Hills is also pretty nice to stop since it's cheap! Good place to bring back gifts for other people. If I recall correctly, their Vidal ice wine was $20 for 200ml, and a "late harvest" Vidal for $15 375ml.

I'm definitely in for dinner, but wine tour is up in the air based on work....will be a last minute decision.

What's the plan for Sunday? I know we enjoyed some 1000 IBU on draft last year after brunch.

I liked brunch last year, and that place with the '1000 IBU' brew. Forgot the name of that place, but wouldn't mind hanging there again.

In order to help decide when to get the show on the road on Sat. AM, are we interested in getting breakfast at Dick & Jenny's? We stopped there last year en route and that set us up for full tummies and for the rest of the day so that we were able to taste and snack all day & not get too messed up.

EDIT: URL won't work: can't seem to bypass the filter in the URL!

bahwm wrote:In order to help decide when to get the show on the road on Sat. AM, are we interested in getting breakfast at Dick & Jenny's? We stopped there last year en route and that set us up for full tummies and for the rest of the day so that we were able to taste and snack all day & not get too messed up.

EDIT: URL won't work: can't seem to bypass the filter in the URL!

I would be up for that since my plan on saturday is to get up at stupid early and drive to Buffalo, and less time I need to do other things in enroute the better. Although I would still prefer to carpool, so I guess I would need to get to bahwm house even earlier. I will go with the popular opinion.

wkdpanda wrote:I liked brunch last year, and that place with the '1000 IBU' brew. Forgot the name of that place, but wouldn't mind hanging there again.

We went to Shango for brunch on Sunday and then to Blue Monk for beers. I suppose we could head out to The Anchor Bar for dinner? HAK, if that's the case, we'll get you some real Buffalo wings next time!

justplainjulie: do you and your husband have appropriate cold weather gear? Don't mean to scare you but we are going into the deep freeze for the next week or so. The long range forecasts are showing temperatures around 20 degrees during the day next weekend and in the single digits at night! ddeuddeg does have a couple of extra, warm jackets with hoods that hubby could choose from, if needed. I have an extra jacket that you could probably wear.

Dressing in layers is going to be key. If you have turtlenecks & sweaters, bring them. Got gloves? Hats? Scarves? Boots? Sometimes some of the tastings are outdoors! None of the eating places that we are going to require dressing up. Seabar could, but we'll be in the back room. I've already warned Mike that we'll be coming directly from the Icewine Festival and will be dressed accordingly.

bahwm wrote:justplainjulie: do you and your husband have appropriate cold weather gear? Don't mean to scare you but we are going into the deep freeze for the next week or so. The long range forecasts are showing temperatures around 20 degrees during the day next weekend and in the single digits at night! ddeuddeg does have a couple of extra, warm jackets with hoods that hubby could choose from, if needed. I have an extra jacket that you could probably wear.

Dressing in layers is going to be key. If you have turtlenecks & sweaters, bring them. Got gloves? Hats? Scarves? Boots? Sometimes some of the tastings are outdoors! None of the eating places that we are going to require dressing up. Seabar could, but we'll be in the back room. I've already warned Mike that we'll be coming directly from the Icewine Festival and will be dressed accordingly.

I think we will be ok. We just got back from a little snowshoeing trip, so we have boots, warm jackets, hats, gloves, etc. Thanks for the information though, that will make packing a lot easier.

As far as the wineries we visit, we will defer to those of you more familiar with the area. We are fine visiting any of them.

Looking forward to it!

justplainjulie wrote:I think we will be ok. We just got back from a little snowshoeing trip, so we have boots, warm jackets, hats, gloves, etc. Thanks for the information though, that will make packing a lot easier.

As far as the wineries we visit, we will defer to those of you more familiar with the area. We are fine visiting any of them.

Looking forward to it!

Great! Where did you go snowshoeing? Oh, yeah: PM for you!

bahwm wrote:Great! Where did you go snowshoeing? Oh, yeah: PM for you!

We went shoeing in New Mexico - near Santa Fe. It was really fun, and we lucked out with fresh snow and good weather. I tore my ACL last year, so I had to find something a little tamer than skiing to do. I definitely want to go again.

LAST CALL: Get your decision in if you'd like me to pick up your pass. Need the money in my PayPal by Sunday please.