Buffalo, N.Y. By Tom Stanley
In assembling this section of our website, which is taking forever and a day but is absolutely essential to our planning, I gave some thought to including Buffalo into the previous section, under New York's Finger Lakes. But upon looking deeper I found the error of my ways. For one thing, the Finger Lakes have nearly dried up once we're getting into Buffalo's neighborhood, giving way to larger, more distinguishable bodies of water such as Lakes Ontario and Erie. And moreover, I felt a lazy temptation to bundle all these northern New York cities together, just to make this preparatory stage go a little faster. But with a deeper look, Buffalo offers a whole host of entertaining, intriguing, even mystifying activities, lending it more than enough credibility to stand on its own in our list of places to go.
Take, for example, the photo to the right. This is Niagara Falls, one of America's (and Canada's) most glorious natural attractions and a fine tourist attraction, just 17 miles from Buffalo proper. This is a site that Joey and Sarah were able to visit during their cross-country race against time during winter break some two years ago, as they zipped from the northeast all the way out to San Francisco and back in under two weeks. This time around, we won't be in such a hurry, as we'll be allotting ourselves at least a full day to travel around Buffalo and Niagara Falls - perhaps even taking a gander from the Canadian side. Such a move might go against America in 100 Days's principles... but we'll cross that bridge (pun intended) when we get to it.
For now, here are some ideas about how to spend our time when we're in town. Have a look.
-Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens (at left)
-Original wings at the Anchor Bar
-Allentown Art Festival
-Albright-Knox Art Gallery
-Olmsted Parks Conservancy
-Shea's Performing Arts Center (at right)
-Buffalo Museum of Science
-Cave of the Winds and Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls
-Colored Musicians Club
-Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin D. Martin House Complex
(From top) Photo courtesy Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau and Angel Art Ltd.; photo by Joe Jansen; photo courtesy Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau and Jim Bush; photo courtesy Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau and Erie County Botanical Gardens
