Day 2: Ellicottville, NY

The day started at my favorite place:

Yes, Dunkin Donuts is one of my favorite places. I mean, my car's middle name isn't Dunkin for no reason. It's conveniently located right across the street from the main entrance to campus :)

Sunday is the day of rest in the church and we are staying at a catholic university, so today was our day. I guess I've never visited or noticed just how catholic a catholic university is (silly me). There's a cross on each building (named after a saint or brother or something religious), religious statues all over the place (one of which was hugged by a drunk returning from the Mardi Gras party), and one of the many churches appears to be attached to my dorm. I'm figuring out the campus I think I'll have it down by Tuesday.

After finishing our late breakfast and coffee at Dunkin we hopped in the van. Conversation was great, yet again. We talked about history and Kelly made a really interesting (and funny point).
Kelly: I feel bad for all the kids that have to come after us.
Us: Why?
Kelly: Because they have to learn more because we keep adding to it!
We also talked about soccer, which inspired us to make a purchase later.

So anyways, we drove through Allegany and a bit of Salamanca, and ended up at Ellicottville. Ellicottville is small town USA, home to a small ski resort, a slew of small shops, completed with a bar/pub or two. We entertained ourselves shopping and walking in town all day.

I really enjoyed my time in Ellicottville. I found myself walking into stores and saying "My mom would love this!" There was a store called Kazoo II that had some really cute things in it that reminded me of people I care about. Most of them said things like "How Merlot can you go?" and "When in doubt, drink wine."Woops. In Ellicottville I also realized how much I miss my G-Ma, I'm going to call her later this week. If you haven't had the pleasure of meeting Joyce Ann, then you're clearly missing out and should ask me when the next opportunity to meet her is.

We went to the bar! The oxygen bar, that is. (Gotcha there, didn't I?) Lianna, Niki, Olivia, and I went into the bottom floor of one of the stores which doubled as a spa for ten minutes of oxygen. Yes, oxygen. While we were sitting there breathing in all that O2 we were on our phones, reading about it. None of us had ever been to an oxygen bar, so it was a great bonding experience (or thing we did to say we've done it).

After our invigorating and aerating (does that pun make sense?) experience we met back up with Kelly, Devon, and Kathy to grab lunch. We went to a cafe that had a big fireplace outside that we could sit around. The weather was absolutely gorgeous all day long. Good for us, not so much for the place that makes their money off the snow. And I was happy to have a day where I didn't experience 4 different seasons...cough cough Ithaca.

 

Before getting back to Francis Hall we stopped at the always wonderful Walmart, where a late 50's early 60's Greeter winked at me ;) Gosh, I love it. We purchased snacks and a small soccer ball to kick around. I got back to the dorm, unpacked from the day and decided to go for a run.

Behind Francis Hall is a trail that leads to a trail that runs along the Allegany River. I haven't been running much lately, too little time or some other excuse like that, but that's about to change. There was a really nice view my entire run, I'll be sure to take a picture tomorrow. 

Well, there's not much else to talk about, after that we went for dinner, I showered and then skyped with my lovely parents!

Tomorrow we start to volunteer! I'm off to bed, you all should be too.

-Bree :)