July 26, 2014. Rest day at Buffalo, NY.

Today was a rest day and it was my intention to rest; that did not quite happen. We walked out this morning to a bike shop almost a mile away and Dianne bought waterproof booties. Her feet are always cold--yesterday she had on socks, shoes and booties and her feet were cold while I was barefoot in my bike sandals and my feet were toasty. Must be a Florida thing.

After the bike shop we walked up Pearl and Main Streets and looked at the city. It is worth looking at! Some of the road signs have little buffalo on them, and there are various buffalo statues about.

We walked past St. Louis Catholic Church. Wow!

While in the Theatre District on Main we gawked at the old Buffalo Theatre. There were at least 20 venues for drama and music in that area.

We went to the Main Place Mall where almost every store was closed, this being a Saturday and being right downtown. I liked the sign at the entrance to the mall! No saggy pants allowed here!

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument below was dedicated to Civil War Veterans from the Buffalo area on July 4, 1884 by NY Governor Grover Cleveland.

We finally got tired of walking around, had a wonderfully tasty lunch at Soho Bar (where we ate lunch yesterday) and returned to the hotel to play Scrabble, a proper off-day pursuit. 

For dinner we were invited to go to a fancy French restaurant, Ann's favorite, but Dianne, Lorna and I opted instead to take the free train to Buffalo Harbor.

It was only a 2-block walk to the station, where a local man waiting for the train told us about the harbor and what it had to offer. There is a big concert there this weekend, and it was deafening as we walked past that area. It was teeming with young people and police.  We walked to the Naval and Military Park where there were planes and tanks on display outdoors.  (The museum had already closed for the day).

There was the Destroyer USS The Sullivans which choked me up. I remember watching the movie about the Sullivan brothers who all served in the US Navy in World War 2, all on the same ship, all killed in the Battle of the Solomon Islands. I had a hard time explaining my emotional reaction to Dianne and Lorna.

 

There was a WW2 submarine, the USS Croaker and a guided missile cruiser, the USS Little Rock.

 

Instead of going to the fancier sit-down restaurant at the harbor we went to the Hatch, where we had sandwiches and soup purchased at a walk up counter and eaten at a picnic table on the patio. We watched a catamaran come into the harbor past the Buffalo lighthouse, the oldest structure in Buffalo.



There was a line of wood carvings: Thomas Edison, Governor Clinton (who was largely responsible for the Erie Canal being completed), Martin Luther King, Jr. and others. I liked the buffalo!

After dinner we watched boats coming in and out of the harbor, ate an ice cream cone, and walked  back to the train station. Our intention was to get back to the hotel by the time it was fully dark.

The Theatre District was lit up and there were a lot of people out on the street, this being Saturday night. We made it back by dark, all three of us smiling broadly. What a great day!