Ships Log Buffalo - September 3-4, 2005

We found a copy of Art Voice, Buffalo's version of the Chicago Reader. This week's issue featured "The Best ... in Buffalo." Using this, we walked to a great breakfast spot, The Towne, in Allentown and then went next door to Rust Belt Books. We spent many happy hours pouring over the old used volumes and finally narrowed our selections to Hobbes' Leviathan, Balzac's Complete Novelettes, and Ghosh's In an Antique Land, among many others. This inexpensive purchase was important since we (especially Rana) are burning though the ship's library at a great rate.

Later, we went to The Best Romantic dinner spot, The Left Bank. We had terrific food and great service. The restaurant was very far from the marina and our waiter, Sean, was so helpful he gave us a ride to a romantic wine bar named Bacchus.

The next day we set out on an ambitious walking tour of Buffalo. We started by admiring the architecture of the downtown area and had breakfast at The Spot, a local coffeeshop where we poured over the Sunday New York Times and all of the latest news of the Hurricane. Everywhere we went people were talking about the horror and the poor response.

After breakfast, we walked along Delaware Street's Millionaire Row. We saw the barracks building where in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated. Further down the street, was a mansion housing a political club which counted three presidents as members. It was even the temporary White House immediately after McKinley's assassination.

In North Buffalo, we visited the campus of Buffalo State University and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. The featured exhibit was Extreme Abstraction, including older works by Pollock, Rothko, Noguchi, and Moore. Newer pieces were mobile, projected and video art. One fascinating room contained what looked like retro 60's, black and white work that challenged our visual perceptions.

We picked up a map showing the location of a number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes within walking distance. In order to get to them, we walked through Olmstead's Delaware Park. Fredrick Law Olmstead was the landscape architect for many famous parks in such cities as New York, Chicago and Milwaukee.

The William Heath House is situated on Bidwell Parkway, is an active residence and is in beautiful condition. A few miles north is located the Darwin Martin Group, a multi-structure residential complex constructed in 1903. Some claim that it is the most important house design of his career, second only to Fallingwater. It is currently under extensive renovation, scheduled for completion in 2006-7. The cost is estimated to be $16 million in state, local and foundation funds.

 

 

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