flat stanley is a book about a boy who gets flattened, but then gets to be sent all over the world on different adventures. then the elementary kids reading the book usually get to make their own flat stanley and send it off on an adventures. so we got flat stanley from the barnes family in twin falls idaho. cori has been my friend since 7th grade, and now she is sending me her youngest childs flat stanley. where did the time go? anyway- here's the letter and pics we sent back to idaho with flat stanley. we were sad to see him go!
(begin letter)
We had so much fun with Flat Stanley while he was visiting us in Buffalo, New York! Thanks for letting him come for a vacation. Unfortunately, it’s been pretty cold the past few weeks, so we couldn’t play outside at our favorite places. But Stanley did get to hang out with us and see what we do during a normal week. He got to see Ella at gymnastics, Afton & Ella at golf lessons (luckily they don’t play outside where it’s cold; they play inside a big dome!) and all the homework the girls have to do after school. He even watched Ella jump rope while she was practicing her spelling words!
Here are some of the places we did take Flat Stanley…
One of our favorite restaurants: La Tolteca
We don’t have very many Mexican food restaurants in Buffalo,
so we are really happy when we get to eat at La Tolteca. Ella even made sure Flat Stanley got a drink!
We went to Wegmans.
Wegmans is a wonderful grocery store!
We do almost all of our grocery shopping at Wegmans, but we also meet
our dad for dinner here sometimes. They
have all kinds of delicious things to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We like to sit upstairs in the kids area
while we eat. Flat Stanley came to
Wegmans with me to pick up a few souvenirs.
We hope you like the Buffalo Bills Beanie Ballz, Traxler! We love watching the Buffalo Bills play
football. Especially when they win!
We went to Niagara Falls!
It was a beautiful day and we took lots of pictures to send home with
Flat Stanley. Sometimes the mist is so
thick that you can’t really see the Horseshoe Falls very well. (We included
some postcards that show them) That’s
how it was when we visited. But we could
see the American Falls really well!
We stood right above them! They
are soooo loud! The best view of the
Falls is from Canada. But we didn’t have
a passport for Stanley to go into Canada, so we just looked at them from
America. Stanley got to see the Rainbow
Bridge that you can drive on to cross into Canada. It’s just across the river, and has lots of
tall hotels and restaurants.
Ella helped Stanley
look into the view finder so he could see the Falls a little closer. We looked down by the bottom of the Falls and
could see a big snow cave that the mist had made, and we also saw the path
that you walk on during the summer to go to the Maid of The Mist boat. It
was all covered with snow and frozen mist!
Here are a few more pictures of Flat Stanley by the American Falls. In the picture you can see a
lot of white mist at the top right corner.
Behind that mist is the Horseshoe Falls.
On the postcards you can see how why they are called the Horseshoe
Falls. It’s because of their semi-circle
shape!
At the Niagara Falls park, there is a big statue of Nikola
Tesla.
Nikola Tesla was a famous scientist who found a way to create electricity from
the power contained in the Niagara Falls.
We had to get
some lunch after all that walking and picturing taking! So we headed to The
Hard Rock Café. It was delicious and fun
to look around at all of the cool stuff used by famous musicians.
There are 3 bridges in the Buffalo area that can take you to
Canada. Flat Stanley got to see 2 of
them. The first one was the Rainbow
Bridge, right by Niagara Falls. The
second bridge we showed him is the Peace Bridge. We
take the Peace Bridge to Canada during the summer on our way to a beautiful
beach on Lake Erie called Crystal Beach.
Buffalo is famous in history for lots of reasons, but one
that we’ve been learning more about lately is the role Buffalo played in the
Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad
helped to get southern slaves to freedom.
Freedom was found in Canada. Many
slaves crossed the river into Canada before the Peace Bridge was built. One stop on the Underground Railroad was at
the Michigan Avenue Baptist Church. The slaves were hidden away in
a secret place in the basement of this church.
Once they reached this church they were within a few miles of
Canada. We had a hard time imagining how
it must have felt to be a slave and have to hide all the time to be safe.
Buffalo has beautiful architecture. Many buildings are very old and
beautiful. We took some pictures to show
you some of the buildings and houses.
Buffalo is also famous for The Erie Canal and its
locks. We weren’t able to take Flat
Stanley to the Erie Canal Locks, but we wanted to show you, so we bought a
postcard! Maybe the next trip we can
take him!
We are including some Buffalo Wing sauce to make your own,
since you can’t taste them in Buffalo.
There are two restaurants that claim to have invented Wings. The Anchor Bar and Duffs. Most people seem to like The Anchor Bar a little
bit more, but President Obama had wings at Duffs a year or two ago!
We are also including a package of Sponge Candy. This is a very traditional Buffalo
treat. We don’t really like it at our
house, but lots of people LOVE it! You’ll
have to try it and let us know what you think.
We watched it being made at the candy factory one time. They boil all of the ingredients together and
then pour it into a big block. Once it’s
cooled they use a saw to cut it into little squares! We were really surprised to see them using a
saw!
One other thing we are sending home with Stanley is a
drawing of the Blizzard of ’77. This was
a terrible snow storm that lots of people still talk about! One lady told me that she was a teenager
during the storm. All of the schools
were closed down, but her chemistry teacher walked to all of his students homes
and gave them their homework for the week!
She wasn’t very happy to see him knocking on her door!
We are so glad Flat Stanley was able to visit us! We hope he can bring you and your family on
his next trip to Buffalo! There are so
many fun things to do and see. Give your
mom a squeeze for me!
Love,
Amy, Ryan, Afton and Ella Hulse
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