NYE 2010 totally kicked NYE 2009's butt

Remember that time it changed from 2009 to 2010? It turned out to be a pretty good time for me.

The holiday has always been big for K and me. We spent our first New Year's together in Times Square for the start of 2006. We rang in 2007 in Boston. Both trips were planned in the days after Christmas. Both trips were awesome. (Remember, K was in Iraq for both 2008 & 2009 New Year's celebrations.)

We had friends who tried to get us to join them for a cruise to Mexico, but we wanted something simpler for our trip. I suggested to K that we go to Buffalo. I've never been to Niagara Falls, and Buffalo wouldn't be too far from K's dad's house, where we'd be for Christmas. So that became the plan.

Niagara Falls was awesome. We made plans to go again sometime in warmer weather (that will give K time to get his passport so we can head over to the Canadian side, which evidently offers the best view of the Horseshoe Falls).

We actually wound up taking the Cave of the Mist tour, which is an elevator ride that takes you down to the bottom of the falls. We had originally been unsure whether we'd want to mess with the tour since it was cold and a little foggy that day, but the tour wound up being absolutely worth every penny. Seeing the bottom of the falls was one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my entire life! It was actually frozen!

We got to see a little of the bottom of the Horseshoe Falls too, and after we rode the elevator back to the top of the falls, we saw a black squirrel! (Until then, we'd only seen brown or gray.)

After the Falls, we headed back to Buffalo for lunch and to watch my Sooners beat Stanford in the Sun Bowl. We had to check out Anchor Bar, which is where Buffalo wings were invented. They were delicious!

The city seems to be pretty proud of its culinary creation. This statue was a few blocks from Anchor Bar, just on the side of the road in front of some random building.

For New Year's, we just headed out to downtown Buffalo. I had wondered if I would look like an idiot for wearing a sleeveless tank top with a camisole over it. Granted, I was wearing insulated boots and a ski coat, but still, we were in Buffalo. It's not exactly known for comfortable weather.

I was surprised at the number of oblivious girls roaming the icy streets in stilettos and nonexistent dresses. Many of them weren't even wearing coats! I made a game of capturing their intelligence on camera.

We actually didn't realize it until after we started planning our trip to Buffalo, but it turns out that the city has the 3rd-largest ball drop in the country, behind NYC & Atlanta. We found ourselves a pretty decent spot to watch the show, and there was a 10-minute fireworks display after the ball dropped! (The first picture below is pre-ball drop. The second is after [hence the fireworks].) :) It had started snowing in the hour before midnight, so it was the perfect Buffalo experience.

After the fireworks were over, we headed back to the bar for a while longer. I guess if you like to party, Buffalo is the place to be: Many of the bars actually get 24-hour liquor licenses for New Year's.

Considering we had started our beer consumption with our buffalo wing and football lunch (You're supposed to drink beer with wings, and you're supposed to drink beer while watching college football. We don't make the rules; we just follow 'em.), even pacing yourself can catch up to you over the course of 12 hours.

So at about 2 or 2:30 a.m., the beer and sleepiness were beginning to hit me. "Sweet Home Alabama" came on, which made me very excited. I sang every single word. I was the only person in the bar who seemed to care about the song (weirdos). I was appalled when the entire bar erupted and sang along enthusiastically to "Mr. Jones" and then "Santeria" (both of which I hate). It was at that moment that the beer and sleepiness really hit me, and I stepped outside the bar. K was soon behind me, and before I realized what was happening, I was the drunk girl crying outside. Because ohmygosh, I totally just realized we're practically in Canada, and these are obviously not my people. I miss the South.

I thought for a split second that maybe I should be ashamed for being the drunk crying girl outside the bar ... until I realized that everyone in the bar had more reason to be ashamed than I did for the spectacle that had upset me in the first place.

The bar was still going strong, but we'd gotten a pretty good headstart on all the college kids (they seriously didn't come out until 10!). Considering it was nearing 3 a.m., we decided to call it a night.

We had a blast on our little trip. We're already planning on going back to Niagara Falls some spring or summer to get the full experience. I'll just remember to not quite go for the full experience in the Buffalo bar scene. Pretty sure I've already got that one covered!