The World’s Largest Rubber Duck has left the harbor.

Dubbed "Mama Duck," this yellow, vinyl, six story-high duck floated on a steel pontoon for three days in our communal bathtub, aka the Buffalo Harbor. This Mighty Duck was part of the Buffalo Maritime Festival. Throngs of people showed up at Canalside over the weekend to see what Jim Henson’s muppet, Ernie, once rhapsodized over as “...the joy of joys.”

A friend suggested that we take the Queen City Bike Ferry from the Outer Harbor to Canalside because of the parking. When we arrived on Saturday morning, the line was already three ferry loads long. Too long for us.

On Sunday morning, I found a parking spot near the Cobblestone District. I ended up with a parking ticket. Five years ago, I could have parked in the middle of the street on a Sunday and no one would have noticed.

In fact, last year for my son’s summer homework project (which he completed the weekend after school started), we attended the Buffalo Maritime Festival to take pictures of shapes, i.e. the triangle shaped sails on the tall ship, the circle shaped life preserver, the intersecting lines where the mast meets the yard. We were the only people on the dock except for the people displaying the boats. We could ask questions and take as many detailed pictures as we wanted. What a difference a duck makes.

And the quacker was not the only game in town this weekend - festivals abound in Buffalo. It begs the question, is Buffalo ready to be a tourist destination?

If you go by the pictures I collected on Instagram, then yes, we are spot on. We made the most of this #WorldsLargestRubberDuck. Photo credits are on the pictures. Quack on!