8-13/14-2021: Buffalo, oh Buffalo what an amazing and historic town you are! This is the charming east coast that I was hoping to find, the place just oozes history and it seems to have reached a point where the old industrial buildings are being repurposed and revitalized, stirring my long held “Omega man” loft fantasy. Bring on the gentrification!
I had a couple of places that I wanted to be sure and visit, the Pierce-Arrow museum and the Frank Lloyd Wright “Martin House”.
First up was an early morning visit to the Pierce-Arrow museum. Located near the Niagara river in an industrial section of town filled with historic brick buildings they had tons of vintage memorabilia of the storied car companies history was on display, I was unaware that they like many other early manufacturers had started with bicycles. Very interesting and definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in town.
Click on the image for the full album.
Next up was an afternoon tour of the Martin house. If you have not visited one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpieces this would be an excellent first visit. The house tours are led by very knowledgeable docents who are great in answering your questions. And believe me you will have questions! FLW was fanatical in the details, I love how he paid attention to the smallest details whether it be the gilding in the mortar holding the bricks together or the use of 12 seperate pieces of trim to make up the crown mouldings.
Taking it all in is quite difficult and you could literally spend days marvelling at it all. Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside the house on the tour, there are some professional shots on the website I linked above and I did take a bunch of the exterior. If you’re a fan have a look at the album by clicking on the photo below.
The next day I had booked a tour of Niagara Falls through Viator that included the Maiden of the Mist boat ride and the Cave of the Winds tour as well as bus transportation. The guide was quite the showman and really added to the value with all of the information about the falls and the area. Normally I’m not a fan of group tours but this one was great.
The Boat ride was fun and the areas above the falls were great for photos.
After the Maiden of the Mist we moved to Goat Island and had about an hour to stroll the area above the falls before heading to the Cave of the Wind. I had been checking out all the people coming and going from the Cave of the Wind and was thinking, eh doesn’t look all that fun, not sure I want to get that wet etc. But in the end I decided to go for it.
You start of the Cave of the Wind with a short film in the theater explaining some of the history of the falls and its industrial past and eventual move to the current tourist attraction status. Then you are given your rain poncho and sandals in preparation for your eventual soaking :-). You then queue up in the long line to ride the elevator down 175ft to the lower level where a tunnel was bored to allow access to the face of the falls. There are a series of walkways and you can get close to the falls, really close!
As I started getting closer to the falls my initial reservations melted away and I couldn’t get enough of the experience!
I can say for sure that the iPhone is indeed waterproof, at this point the screen was so wet you couldn’t even see it! Many thanks to the kind stranger who took the photos for me. Such an exhilarating experience! I didn’t want to leave…
I wanted to spend more time in the Finger Lakes region of New York and moved to Sampson State Park which is right on the shore of Seneca Lake. I wasn’t aware when I booked the stat that the land was formerly a military base, first Navy and then Air Force. They had a pretty cool museum showing the history as well as a neat cell phone bicycle tour that explained the history. I really needed the indoor entertainment, thanks to the remnants of hurricane Fred, it POURED for 2 days straight. š³
Click the photo to check out the museum photos.
After the rains, I headed down to the southern edge of the lake to check out Watkins Glen and Montour falls, after all the rain the falls were spectacluar!
I stopped in and hit the souvenir store at Watkins Glen raceway of course!
And on my last day in the area I rode the Cayuga-Seneca canal trail, another example of repurposing rail or tow trails for multi-use. It was a fun ride and I enjoyed the ride and got to check out one of the locks on the river.
You can see all the photos from my stay in the area by clicking on the photo below.
Next stop will be Hershey PA, where I’m doing a Harvest Host stay at the Antique Auto museum after that overnight it will be on southward to Virginia.
Hey Its Gregg! 