Wings, Waterfalls and Cousins

I'll start with the best, first. After nearly 11 years, I reconnected with 2 of my cousins. Janet and Susan are the daughters of Evelyn and Dick Bowling. Aunt Evie was like a mom to all 9 other cousins. Dick was the kindest and most soft spoken gentleman. One time I accidentally shut Janet's finger in the car door and the pain that flew across Uncle Dick's face was as if it had happened to him! So here we are many many years later. Renee says you can tell we are swimming around in the same gene pool? Ya think??

So we had a great time catching up and talked non-stop for hours. Frequently, I wonder if I have any family traits. Well there is the famous "Karnes girls'" sneeze that can be heard round the world. (Anyone who has been in the presence of my sisters and I know what I mean.)  Renee say with her mouth open listening to the 3 of us - metaphorically speaking- as we laughed and talked over one another. It will not be 11 more years before we connect again.

On to the wings or Wings. This is me high tailing it into Frank and Theresa's Anchor Bar. This used to be a dive with good Italian food in an edgy part of Buffalo. It is still all that but sometime after I stopped living in Buffalo they invented the now infamous "Buffalo Wings."  Every time I visit I have to stop in. They are not breaded, they are not boneless, they are not dripping in a gloppy sauce. They are simply deep fried in their own skin and then quickly dunked into a sauce of hot sauce mixed with butter. They are still crisp. The  side of blue cheese dressing  is to cool your tongue and the celery strips are so you can say you had something healthy for dinner. 
When I asked when he took over from Frank and Theresa, Tony pictured at left, said he'd been connected with them for years. I bet. In Buffalo if you are Italian, you are connected.






















The waterfalls are Niagara Falls. They don't change much. Once they built a levee across the Niagara River and stopped the flow of the "American Falls" (the other half is in Canada) so they could prevent it from tumbling down and becoming a great big rapids instead of a falls: they filled the cracks. I can just see this great big caulking gun on a crane. If you have a bit of curiosity about how Buffalo became the first electrified city in the USA, read City of Light. The cover is of the Falls so that gives you a hint. http://www.amazon.com/City-Light-Lauren-Belfer/dp/038533401X

Speaking of light: The quality of light the night we drove into Buffalo was astounding. As above.
I am hopelessly behind in my posts but vow to catch up. LC