Land of warmth and sunshine...

We're in Buffalo for the weekend -- the gateway to Canada... or something like that. I've always found it interesting that the Canadian flag is often flown right alongside the American flag here in Buffalo. And I'm not sure if it's still like this, but when I was a kid, if you happened to have a few Canadian coins mixed in with your American money, merchants wouldn't give a second glance. Of course, I think it also resulted in some slight confusion in my child-mind, as I don't remember ever thinking of Canada as another COUNTRY -- in fact, I think, perhaps, I may have thought it was the 51st state... At the very least, I thought it was just that place we went to now and then with the really big waterfall and the yummy maple candy...

But this weekend, we'll be remaining here on American soil just outside of Buffalo, in the area where my mom grew up. My grandparents are celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary, and the whole family has gathered for a party in their honor. My grandparents are so cute -- even now, at 89 and 95 years old, they joke with each other and hold hands everywhere they go. They have the kind of marriage we should all hope to have... and it's lasted for 70 years, so they've obviously done something right. :)

As our plane landed at the Buffalo airport, I remarked to Rick how nice it was to be here in May... instead of, say, January. Buffalo can be a bit miserable in the middle of winter, but at the moment, it's quite warm and pleasant and everything is green. We spent much of the day sitting outside behind Grandma and Grandpa's log cabin (which, by the way, they built themselves...) underneath the cherry tree that used to provide many a pie and jar of jelly, and watched woodpeckers and cardinals and bluejays flitting from tree to tree. It's funny, because most of my childhood memories of Buffalo are of the WARM weather, not the cold weather... although Eric did reminisce about how the patch of land near the beginning of the long driveway back to the cabin used to be filled with evergreen trees -- Grandpa sold them every Christmas, and that was always where we cut down our own Christmas tree...

But this weekend, there's no snow... just warmth and sunshine. And even though I've heard it's supposed to rain tomorrow, at least I can be content in knowing that there WILL be cake. Sun = not guaranteed. Cake = guaranteed. Sounds good enough to me... :)