Our Trip to Buffalo

Erie County Courthouse, downtown Buffalo

A couple weeks ago we had the chance to go to Buffalo, NY with some friends. They were going because Giselle (otherwise known as Miriam, otherwise known as sis) was in a ballet performance, and had to be there for rehearsals--so we got to spend a whole week in the city, splitting our time between rehearsals and seeing the sights. We visited Niagara, which was utterly amazing and cannot be described in words; we toured some decommissioned ships at the naval park (very cool); we drove and walked through downtown Buffalo with its wonderful churches and old skyscrapers; and we spent one long and interesting evening walking up and down the street with a tired toddler and a sick toddler, poking into bookstores and candy shops and cafes, trying to find a place to eat that wasn't a bar or a budget-breaking restaurant.

You don't realize until you're on the road, away from everyday comforts like refrigerators and microwaves, how important food really is. But when you have eight people who spend all day running back and forth from state park to ballet studio to hotel room, it's very important to have adequate meals. And when your only refrigerator is a small styrofoam cooler and you have no oven or microwave to speak of, dinner becomes a matter for careful strategy. You can't come home half an hour before dinnertime and throw together something from what you have in the fridge. So it turned out well that we had a Walgreen's next door and a grocery store down the block. We brought a crock-pot and an electric griddle to our hotel room from home, and Giselle's mother cooked some great meals in our improvised kitchen by the bathroom sink while the Four of Us sat on the bed and watched Dick Van Dyke episodes.

(By the way, if you ever happen to be out late walking on Elmwood Avenue, getting tired and looking for someplace to eat, you might try SPoT Coffee. I don't know of any other place that gives you a rubber chicken to identify your order and lets you sit on a blue velvet armchair while you eat quesadillas and bruschetta. Also, the best way to follow up said dinner is to go down the block to Starbucks and get a Java Chip Frappuccino with whipped cream and mocha drizzle. I'm just saying.)

Anyway...on with the pictures.

On the way up: at the New River Gorge in West Virginia.

Driving through Pennsylvania.

Our first sight of Buffalo.

Looking down Delaware Avenue from our hotel room, with the Walgreen's next door.


Walking to the Tri-Main building, where Buffalo City Ballet is located. The building was once a factory which at different times produced Model T Ford's, Bell aircraft parts, and engines for the Navy. Now it's been converted into space for offices and shops.


Buffalo Naval Park. Behind us are the USS Little Rock (larger, on the right), the USS The Sullivans, and the USS Croaker (the submarine).


We found this almost by accident, driving around the theater during a rehearsal, but it turned out to be one of the best stops of the trip. It's the old New York State Insane Asylum, built in the 1870's. The building, empty now, has halls sprawling over several acres, all connected to one another with copper-roofed passages. It's an amazing place and very creepy. Henry Hobson Richardson, the famous architect, designed it, and another famous designer, Frederick Law Olmsted, did the grounds. But it hasn't been used in years: they stopped using it for patients in the 1970's and it's lain empty since the administrative offices moved out in 1994. It was made a National Historical Landmark in the '80s, and Wikipedia says that New York has set aside some money to restore it. I hope so; it's such a beautiful building that they shouldn't let it go to waste.


We were looking for a grocery store the first night we arrived and saw the silhouette of this building not far from our hotel. (If you have ever been driving around a strange city at night and suddenly seen the outline of a castle looming black against the night sky, then you know what it's like.) It was too late to explore that night, but of course we went back when daylight came. This is the Connecticut Street Armory, built in the 1890's for the 74th Regiment of the New York State National Guard. These days it's a meeting place for several military and veterans' groups.

Niagara Falls!

At Niagara Falls State Park.

Shops on Elmwood Avenue.

The fair and ghostly Giselle, who was, after all, the reason for the whole trip.

(Pictures by Tim, Giselle, and The Moms)

Forth unto Buffalo!