By: Kaitlin O’Meara, Contributor
After a long winter (that went on far longer than we deserved), spring is finally here in Buffalo! With nice weather on the horizon and a million things to do in Buffalo, I wanted to put together some recommendations of fun things to do outside to celebrate spring:
Buffalo Cherry Blossom Festival, April 27-28: Located in the Japanese Garden in Delaware Park, the Cherry Blossom Festival is an annual festival to welcome spring into Buffalo. Described on the official website as a “springtime blizzard,” there are a variety of trees to see and activities to do. Aside from the cherry blossoms themselves, there is also live music, food trucks, boat rides, “activity tables” and more! This event is free to attend.
Hot girl walks, timeless: With the weather being nice again (Sorry but I can’t stop talking about it. I love it when it’s not cold, snowy and miserable all the time), it’s finally time for the event of the spring: hot girl walks! Though the name may lead you to think that this pass time is only for a select group, I am here to let you know that being a hot girl is a mentality, and anyone can participate. There are plenty of lovely places to go on hot girl walks in the city of Buffalo, many of which are very close to campus. These include, but are not limited to Delaware Park, Hoyt Lake, Forest Lawn, downtown and even just around campus! Hot girl walks let you get outside and get away from your work to enjoy spring.
Elmwood Avenue: Elmwood is about a 30-minute walk from campus (based solely on personal experience) and is home to a variety of cute shops and cafés. As an English major and nerd in general, one of my favorite places on Elmwood is the bookstore Talking Leaves, because who doesn’t love a good bookstore? Plus, Talking Leaves has a variety of books of all different genres. Going up to Elmwood is an excellent weekend mission if you’re ever looking for something to do. With it being nice out, it is lovely to walk around and pop in and out of the different stores.
Moral of the story, if you are able and you have the time, get outside! With Buffalo, it can be nice one day and then snowy the next, so make sure you take advantage of the nice weather when we have it. Hopefully as we move into April, we’ll have more consistent spring weather, but no guarantees, if we’re all being honest with ourselves. There are many ways to get outside and enjoy spring, so take a break as we approach finals week.