Saturday, June 17: Buffalo

Greg left the house at 7:00 this morning with Lydia to take her to the Buffalo Airport. She had a nonstop flight to Charlotte. Greg stayed with her until she got on the plane, and her mom was there when she got off the plane. A big adventure for Lydia! And now you are stuck with just me writing this blog....

We are left with the six of us now. When Greg returned from the airport we drove to the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens. This spectacular building houses various growing environments for different kinds of plants. It also has a children's room where Tobias was free of the stroller to play for a while. 


We were intrigued by this idea. Kaylyn and Chris have lots of deer on their property. This is simple to build, you just need to obtain a water source:



Of course, we saw beautiful flowers and plants, and even a bonsai exhibit. 



Buffalo is a city known for its architecture. Buildings designed by outstanding architects flourish here. There are buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright, whom you know. Wright's early partner was Louis Sullivan, who is credited for early skyscraper design in Chicago. Other architects who contributed to Buffalo's skyline include Eero Saarinen and H. H. Richardson. Saarinen designed the St. Louis Arch and a number of buildings in the smallish town of Columbus, Indiana. Kaylyn and I stopped in Columbus one time and toured his buildings. H. H. Richardson you met in Boston - the Trinity Church. 

However, touring buildings or taking a architectural bus tour with a 2-year-old is not compatible. I decided we could spend a bit of time at Roycroft. At the end of the 19th century a consortium of artists were attracted to one location to work in many different forms of art: ceramic, wood, printing, metal working, fabric, and so on. It became part of the Arts and Crafts Movement that started in England around that time, as something of a backlash against the machine age, and a celebration of individual talent. The Arts and Crafts Movement did result in an architectural style that goes by the same name, but overall there are few houses built in that style. However, the style also influenced mission-style furniture, the Art Deco Movement, bungalow architecture and Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie style. 

Today Roycroft has a few shops and a luxurious hotel that I wouldn't even bother to check for pricing. Tobias was kind enough to fall asleep, and Chris was kind enough to sit in the car and read, so Kaylyn, Greg and I could visit the shops. I love the style of this movement, and it does coincide with our 1925 house. I'm glad I got to visit the campus. 



Our last stop of the day was what seems to be our daily mandatory ice cream stop. Chris has been keeping a running count of how many vanilla milkshakes Greg has consumed on this trip. We all laugh at him because he only wants vanilla, whether it is a milkshake or dish of ice cream. While we are all munching on exotic flavors, Greg is the plain vanilla guy. He maintains there is more vanilla sold than any other flavor, so he is in good company. 

A couple years ago he had responsibility for a small group of boys at Bible camp. One of his charges was truly the most challenging boy at the camp, and was known to every staff member. Greg handled him very well. Toward the end of the week, as he was sipping yet another vanilla milkshake, he concluded that vanilla milkshakes are his comfort food. (His only compromise is a chocolate Frosty at Wendy's.) We will have to let you know at the end of our trip, once Chris has tallied the totals, how many ice creams and milkshakes our crew consumed. 

This ice cream stand was located in an old caboose. 





Children's Activity

Kaylyn suggested you either find some flowers to pick, or buy some inexpensive carnations at the grocery store and try to preserve them. There are various methods to be found online. One is to fill your vase with Sprite, water and a bit of bleach. Another suggestion is to use apple cider, bleach and sugar. Some flower arrangements come with a powder packet. Which method keeps the flowers nice the longest? If you don't cut the stems or cut them regularly, does that make a difference? How about if you cut the stem at an angle or straight across? 

What a wonderful excuse for mom to have some fresh flowers in the house!

 




Comments

Post a Comment

Please sign your name to your comment so we know who you are!

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Monday, June 19: Buffalo We arrived home from Toronto at 11:15 last night, and didn't have specific plans for today, which was lovely. Kaylyn and Chris decided that a low-key day to take a walk, launder, organize, and let Tobias have a real nap in his porta-crib rather than cat-naps in the stroller sounded appealing.  Buffalo is a city of great architecture. It is also the terminus of the Erie Canal, which has captured our attention. When Greg and I were in the British Isles in 1997 we found ourselves attracted to rental canal boats in Wales, and thought renting one would be a wonderful experience. Since then we have had an eye on canal boats, and this year Greg did a lot of research on the Erie Canal. In late September we hope to spend a week along the Erie Canal with our camper and bicycles.  I found a boat tour on the water that highlights the Erie Canal and the grain silos on shore. We signed up for the hour-and-one-half tour, and it was excellent. Tobias has minimal patie...
Read more
Image
  Sunday, June 11 - Boston Day #3 Yep, our feet are tired, except Tobias and Etta Grace. Tobias spent much of the day constrained on the tour trolley or in the stroller, and Etta Grace spent all day in the carrier strapped to either Kaylyn or me. I don't know that either option is better than walking! Just for fun I started to record our times this morning. We got to the train's parking lot in a record 15 minutes! Greg finally is getting the very complicated route down. Then we were on the train into the city for 40 minutes. When we got off the train, we walked to the wharf and boarded a hop-on, hop-off "trolley." I use the word loosely because trolleys should be on a track, and these are buses which are pretending to be trollies.  There is no pretending for their talented drivers. We watched in awe as the drivers negotiate crowded streets, cars parked where they shouldn't be, lines of both regular buses and duck-tour ducks also dropping off and picking up passeng...
Read more
Image
  Sunday, June 4 We awakened to breakfast casserole and bagels in the gracious home of Chris's Uncle Bob and Aunt Martha. Cleveland, 450 miles east of home, seemed an attainable goal for the first day of driving. Bob and Martha were the most accommodating of hosts. We enjoyed great food, comfortable beds, and an excellent evening of conversation.  We left home Saturday morning, fully loaded in both the truck and our egg: The babes have been good travelers. Other than an hour-long meltdown by Tobias near the end of the drive today, both of our little travelers have been excellent voyagers.  When Chris considered the fact that we were going past Scranton, Pennsylvania, he proposed we stop to visit his childhood home. He guided us to a train and trolley museum. We didn't have time for a complete tour of the excellent facility, but Tobias got to climb on a train and Chris recalled some favorite memories. Then on to his old home.  Chris's dad assumed the pastorate of...
Read more