Buffalo, NY and vicinity

We spent a full day sightseeing in and around Buffalo, NY, the state’s second-largest city and home of the Buffalo wing. The city has a rich Presidential history—Millard Filmore and Grover Cleveland are native Buffalonians, President William McKinley was assassinated at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo and his successor, Teddy Roosevelt, was inaugurated here. 

We still have our truck, so it was much easier to get around town. Our first stop was Glen Falls in nearby Williamsville. We are 22 miles from the much larger Niagara Falls, but we’ve been there several times and decided to skip it, especially on a holiday weekend. Glen Falls was much more our speed, with no crowds and a lovely walking path up to the falls, where we met this cute little snake.

Next we went to the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site. Roosevelt did not attend the 1901 Pan-Am Expo, but was summoned to Buffalo when President McKinley was shot twice while greeting the crowd, something he enjoyed doing, often with very little security. Roosevelt stayed with a friend, attorney Ansley Wilcox, while McKinley lingered for over a week, appearing to recover but eventually succumbing to gangrene. Roosevelt took the oath of office the same day in the Wilcox home, which is now a national park museum.

Today was a gorgeous day, with blue skies, temperatures in the 70s and a light west wind. Our next stop was the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, part of the Buffalo Parks System designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. It was too early in the season for many outdoor blooms, but the conservatory, modeled after glasshouses in London, held an outstanding assortment of tropical, desert, carnivorous and other plants and flowers.

We had lunch at the Wayside Family Restaurant, a family-run greasy spoon that does the basics well. Bonus Activity: Our lunchtime placemat is shown below. There are nine bumblebees hidden among the ads—can you find them?

Our last tourist stop was the Buffalo Transportation Pierce Arrow Museum, an eclectic display of bicycles, motorcycles, automobiles, gas pumps, clothing, toys, and much more. Fun fact: The auto industry in early 20th century Buffalo was larger than Detroit. Buffalo car makers, such as Thomas Flyer and Pierce Arrow, focused on high-end, luxury vehicles, while Detroit manufacturers concentrated on low-cost, mass production, and Detroit eventually surpassed its geographic rival. Pierce Arrow did not survive the Great Depression, closing in 1938. Here are some of our favorite photos from the museum:

1896 side-by-side tandem bicycle 

Classic Corvette collection

1904 Pierce-Arrow Tonneau; one of only two in existence

1947 Playboy Motor Car. Fewer than 100 were ever sold,
but Hugh Hefner liked the name and copied it for his magazine.

1932 Pierce Arrow Sedan, with power steering, power brakes,
 cruise control, tilt wheel and air conditioning 

This evening, we dropped off our trailer in Amherst, a suburb of Buffalo. I used Neighbor, an app that is an Airbnb platform for private storage, and our trailer will spend the summer in somebody’s backyard. The owners recommend Duff’s, a local chain, for dinner, where we enjoyed—what else?—Buffalo wings. We returned to a traffic jam at the marina, since Chappel Roan is performing a sold-out show on the waterfront just north of the harbor. Charlie’s Boathouse and the marina are packed with revelers getting started on the holiday weekend, making for a lively evening here in Buffalo.