Buffalo Bliss

I've been impressed by the array of neat attractions in Buffalo, and decided to take a road trip there with Jasper so we could check it out. Buffalo is grand! We definitely recommend a shuffle off to Buffalo.

Of course the first thing to do is to head over to Niagara Falls. There's nothing to compare to seeing Horseshoe Falls from the Maid of the Mist  (on the USA side, on the Canadian side you take the Hornblower). Boats leave every 15 minutes and there are no reservations, but we moved along in the line pretty quickly. Once you are directly in front of Horseshoe Falls, it's all a heavy mist, hard to see and impossible to photograph. We overheard a tourist later complaining the falls ruined his expensive camera. I took the precaution of using a rain cover I got from a camera store, which saved mine. Tweaking a heavy duty clear plastic bag would have done the trick as well. Wow! What a sight! No matter how many times you've seen it, it never gets old.

Horseshoe Falls.

American Falls.

Architecture is one of Buffalo's main attractions. I discovered that their Art Deco masterpiece, the Buffalo Central Terminal, was going to be open for a car show. It has been abandoned, vandalized and looted, but now the building is slowly being restored to its former glory.  It is not in regular use, but often is used as a venue for various fundraising events. It's a glorious building, and I dearly hope one day it will shine again.

There are a bunch of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in Buffalo, mainly due to one man, Darwin Martin. He was an executive of the Larkin Soap Co., and he convinced Mr. Larkin to hire Wright as the architect for their Larkin Administration Building, in order to make their building an enduring landmark.  Martin also wanted to have Wright as the architect for his Buffalo home. First, he had Wright design a smaller project on the property, the Barton House. Then Wright tackled the main house, now known as the Martin House. After Martin retired, Wright designed Martin's summer home on Lake Erie, Graycliff. He also designed the Blue Sky Mausoleum for Martin. The Larkin Administration Building has been demolished, but in 2007 the Fontana Boathouse was built in Buffalo using Wright's plans, and is in use today as a boathouse. Also in  Buffalo is a Wright gas station originally designed for Buffalo in 1927, which was recently built using Wright's plans inside the Pierce-Arrow Museum as a display. 

Jasper loves Frank Lloyd Wright. Before moving to Pittsburgh, I thought we ought to finally go see a Wright house we had been meaning to tour but had never gotten around to. Jasper was endlessly amused by the guide's descriptions of Wright's oversized personality, as much as the intriguing details of the architecture itself. Wright is said to have been very annoyed when called the "greatest living American architect", because he didn't think his genius deserved to be diminished with so many qualifiers. Now we make a point of seeing Wright buildings whenever we can. We didn't have enough time in Buffalo to stay for one of the inside tours of the Fontana Boathouse, but we did stop by to see it.

Fontana Boathouse.

We wouldn't miss a tour of the Martin House. Much like at Fallingwater, photographs are not permitted in most of the interior, but I did get a few of the outside. Soon it will look very different, as restoration of the exterior gardens is happening now. The Martin House and Graycliff recently received some huge state grants in order to complete restoration work. The justification for investing taxpayer money in these projects is to increase tourism to Buffalo. However, as our guide pointed out, the Martin House has always been part of a residential community, without any space for the kind of huge parking lots that Fallingwater has. In fact, the Martin House has no parking lots at all. So I hope a balance can be found so that Buffalo gets the bump in tourism it deserves from the restoration, but the local residents don't feel too much strain.

The front of the Martin House.

Graycliff is in a lovely spot beside Lake Erie, built to take full advantage of the spectacular view and natural sunlight. The whole building is in the midst of a full interior renovation, from floor to ceiling. So it wasn't the best time for a visit. But soon it will be amazing. The exterior incorporates local limestone with some interesting fossils. There once was a bridge from the house to metal stairs, so that it was easy to get from the top of the cliff down to the beach. Now the  stairs still stand, but the bridge is gone. Replacing the bridge will be the final step in the complete restoration of Graycliff.

The front of Graycliff.

A cool fossil near the front door.

The metal stairs to the beach.

Graycliff from the back.

One of Buffalo's most unique attractions is a tour of their iconic grain elevators, as seen by kayak! When the Erie Canal was opened, linking the Great Lakes with the east coast via Buffalo, one of the principal goods to be shipped along this route was grain from the midwest. Unloading the grain from boats to await transport by canal barge was a time consuming and labor intensive process. Thus, the invention of the grain elevator happened in Buffalo. Soon, grain elevators and huge grain silos were everywhere. Now, while some of these buildings are still in use for their original purpose, many are being repurposed. They stand tall as monuments to the past much as the Carrie Furnaces do in Pittsburgh. And a kayak tour down the Buffalo River is the ideal way to see them. Elevator Alley Kayak will set you up with all the gear you need, and guides from the nonprofit Explore Buffalo lead the tours. Or you can simply rent a kayak at your convenience and explore on your own, but trust me, you'd be missing out. We were lucky to see the American Mariner, a 730-foot ship, docked in the process of unloading grain for General Mills. We also got to see the Edward M. Cotter, built in 1900 and now the world's oldest continuously operating fire boat. Grain elevators were originally built from wood (yikes!) so you can imagine it's seen plenty of use. The Buffalo Fire Department also uses the boat as an icebreaker on the Buffalo River. Our Elevator Alley Kayak Tour was one of the coolest guided tours we've ever been on. We learned a whole lot in a short amount of time, and saw the city from an unusual perspective.

The epically huge American Mariner.

Edward M. Cotter fireboat sailing by.

When Darwin Martin passed away, he had already lost much of his fortune in the stock market crash of 1929. His Blue Sky Mausoleum was never built for him, and he and his wife were buried in their Forest Lawn Cemetery plot, where the mausoleum was designed to go, without a marker. Recently, the mausoleum was built elsewhere in the cemetery and a fancy marker with Wright-esque embellishments was erected over the grave. On down side, Wright most likely would have absolutely hated the monument that now stands over the Martins' grave. On the plus side, the Blue Sky Mausoleum, once intended only for the Martin family, now has crypts for sale to the general public. So that's an obvious must for the truly devoted Wright fans out there! And at least the Martins did eventually get a marker. 

The Forest Lawn Cemetery is a scenic place just oozing with Buffalo history.  It's also a for-profit establishment that isn't shy about capitalizing on that history, which is lucky for visitors who learn of their fabulous tours. Their tours focus on many different topics. Since we wanted to learn more about Buffalo history, we chose one of their most popular tours, a historical tour by trolley.  Also it was super hot that day, and an air conditioned trolley was just the thing! As we rolled along, living history reenactors from Buffalo's colorful past strode aboard and told us their stories. One was former president and Buffalo native son Millard Fillmore. We passed many unique monuments, including the grave of the revered Willis Carrier, the man credited with the invention of the modern air conditioner!

The Blue Sky Mausoleum.

Grave of Sagoyewatha, a Seneca chief.

They did make us get out of the trolley and into the oven-like summer heat once, in order to fully appreciate the remarkable Blocher Memorial. The memorial honors the grief of John and Elizabeth Blocher upon the death of their only child, Nelson. Their marble figures gaze down at the statue of their son, who lies peacefully beneath the watchful gaze of an angel. All the figures are carefully enclosed in thick glass. The story is that Nelson died of a broken heart when his parents sent him to Europe on business, then sent the lowly housemaid their son was in love with away forever. John Blocher designed the monument himself, and since he'd made his vast fortune selling shoes (starting with boots for soldiers in the Union Army), John made sure that the very first thing you see of the figures as you approach the monument is Nelson's shoe. The whole tragic story is told here.

The Blocher Memorial.

Buffalo is not yet a destination for foodies, and we are definitely foodies. We stopped at an Indian buffet, which I thought would be ideal because it would give us all numerous choices with zero wait for our food on a day when we were on a tight schedule. I was outraged to see beef on the buffet. This would be equivalent to going to an Israeli or Afghani restaurant and finding pork on the menu- it would be highly offensive to the majority of people from that country. I have been to Indian restaurants in the USA that were actually run by Pakistanis, and never observed them to risk alienating such a large portion of their potential customer base.  Not surprisingly, the entire lunchtime crowd was white. 

Sponge candy.

There were some delightful surprises. One was the West Side Bazaar. Inside there are a bunch of stands selling crafts and clothing, plus a whole bunch of small food vendors. All the food looked absolutely first rate, from a remarkably diverse group of chefs. We sampled Ethiopian and Pakistani food and we were blown away. Seating inside is limited, so don't do what we did and go at the height of lunch hour! We had another memorable meal at Schwabl's, a small restaurant with a crazy amount of atmosphere that opened in 1837. That's the place to go for Buffalo's justifiably famous "beef on weck", roast beef served on a  handmade "kümmelweck" roll with au jus and horseradish. You just have to try it if you are in Buffalo! And did I mention the weather was super hot? Lake Effect Ice Cream has the perfect solution, with mind-blowing ice cream confections. Another superb ice cream hot spot (cold spot?) is King Condrell's, which offers a crazy huge menu of sundaes with table service, as well as a huge candy counter. This is where we became acquainted with "sponge candy", another Buffalo delicacy.  The name suggested to me that it would be, well, spongey.  That's not the case. Sponge candies are chocolates with a center made from toffee to which baking soda has been added, to create a crunchy, honeycombed interior. Yum!