Buffalo and Niagara Falls....

kz1000ps

Senior Member
Joined
May 28, 2006
Messages
8,717
Reaction score
9,466
Best vacation spot EVER. So I went to SUNY Buffalo (aka UB) for two years in the 2000s and one of my best friends from that school still lives out there. Last time I visited him and spent any meaningful time out there was 2009, so when he buys a house last year and I'm now living a car-centric lifestyle AND he's gonna be one of my groomsmen in my wedding next year, we realized we have to make something happen this summer.

So my fiancé has never seen the midwest, in which case Buffalo and its Great Lakes industrial nature was something quite different from her suburban Boston upbringing. For instance, she had NEVER seen so many semi trucks on a highway, and she had NEVER seen a proper landfill before. LOL!

Either way, between her shock to some things she was witnessing and then my lack of recent history with the place, even I was a bit thrown by the overall vibe there, which is one of.... lowered expectations? Compared to when I was there 20 years ago I would say there's less abject examples of unsecured buildings crumbling apart in broad daylight, but the flipside is that I got this vibe that people have now accepted the reality that financial wealth probably isn't coming back to the region any time soon whereas 20 years ago there was still raw feelings, maybe even hope? I'm trying to make sense of what I felt and I could be waaaayyy off on this assessment... who knows.

Ok time to shut up and post some photos...

52333072952_c6dc86502b_3k.jpg


52334324274_27d447b4b5_3k.jpg


52334027301_def06cf1cc_3k.jpg


52334027231_858188c7ca_3k.jpg


52334324174_cca57f3bbf_3k.jpg


52334323979_c77d568627_3k.jpg


52333072502_d6f63719dc_3k.jpg


52333072452_a32de66ed6_3k.jpg


52333072387_a6644e1f3b_3k.jpg


52333072297_017a8d80e2_3k.jpg


52334452660_ca8caffb16_3k.jpg


52334261643_6bcffc4db8_3k.jpg


^^ Allentown is an actual neighborhood that precedes Josh Allen ;)

vv Bill Burr sighting?????

52334026661_b98347ed5f_3k.jpg


52334026631_ca3f48371c_3k.jpg


52334455565_7e48ade965_3k.jpg


The new Canalside development. In the wintertime this is filled with ice for skating, and in the summer it's for roller skating

52333072007_b12cad9c3b_3k.jpg


52334026411_5bed03812a_3k.jpg


52333071772_dfbaab101f_3k.jpg


52334026376_232b118dc9_3k.jpg
 
52334455215_fa99e8fae1_3k.jpg


52333071647_4358338b36_3k.jpg


52334026036_fe0cbf4ef9_3k.jpg


52334454915_33855dcb04_3k.jpg


Buffalo City Hall is easily one of the coolest buildings in existence

52333071432_c7d7e10e20_3k.jpg


52334454765_1b32158171_3k.jpg


52333071282_5b989aa46f_3k.jpg


52334322654_70859c99c0_3k.jpg


Oops.

52333071187_a0e47283c6_3k.jpg


Buffalo Central Terminal aka their grand deco train station that's been abandoned for 40++ years

52334320699_1c7367833c_3k.jpg


52334454515_b30eeb0118_3k.jpg


52334322544_75b44c0481_3k.jpg


Took the drone up after dinner in the Larkinville neighborhood

52333071087_e1e394fd2d_3k.jpg


52334025476_b99cd92133_3k.jpg


52334025411_85dc25891b_3k.jpg


52333070957_a277a578aa_3k.jpg


52334260228_9a4b947322_3k.jpg
 
Day two, sunny. Heading for Niagara Falls with a quick detour to see UB North Campus aka the newer campus planned in the 1960s and built in the '70s. Bad planning and brown brick huzzah!!

52334454110_16b2f45d61_3k.jpg


^ That's my old dorm, nicknamed Legoland, while below is the main academic "spine"

52334322019_2490c6f4ef_3k.jpg


52334259928_5708b3eb47_3k.jpg


52334453835_734573d6ba_3k.jpg


And on to the Falls

52334453700_cc2a309553_3k.jpg


52334453660_4b2edc9483_3k.jpg


52334321674_eb4bbe6f34_3k.jpg


52334453590_e728cd53c5_3k.jpg


I did Maid of the Mist for the first time in at least 25 years and it's still as amazing as I remember it being. It's such a full sensory experience and there's nothing else like it out there

52334024641_1e7e60bad1_3k.jpg


52334024611_adfc9bebd4_3k.jpg


52334321444_563c7c9578_3k.jpg


52333069902_47857bed82_3k.jpg


52333069827_eac3249e80_3k.jpg


52334453280_83bb2d6cdf_3k.jpg


52333069727_21301070fd_3k.jpg


And then for all that natural beauty, there's the reality that Niagara Falls the American city is an extremely depressed and rough place. I had no intentions of visiting Love Canal but our route took us past it both on the way up and back, and I just had to show my fiancé what the fallout from an environmental disaster looks like. These were once pleasant residential streets now left to decay.

52334259238_b1f24000cd_3k.jpg


52334453100_9492cc8184_3k.jpg


And finally Day 3, travel back to Boston day. Here's my buddy's neighborhood

52334321104_cd34bd33db_3k.jpg


I-90 through upstate NY

52334452800_d00b588eb9_3k.jpg


Lastly a quick dinner stop in Albany at my parents and catching the sunset

52334023766_cd4955b6a2_3k.jpg
 
The former Buffalo State Hospital is so incredibly beautiful (lets go HH Richardson!), and you captured it very well. Is the hotel that was there still closed?
 
I'm pretty sure it's opened back up. There were people going in and out of the building that certainly looked like they could be hotel guests.
 
I just went in July, I wish this was posted earlier I would have looked around Buffalo a little bit more! We stopped overnight in downtown Buffalo for Dinosaur BBQ but it was closed so we went down to Chippewa Street to have some drinks to watch the people cruising around in their cars. Definitely a car centric city but very cool cars, I wish I took photos. But a short and sweet visit and then went up to the falls. Next time I'll know to spend more time downtown.

.
IMG_3493.JPG
 

Attachments

  • IMG_3493.JPG
    IMG_3493.JPG
    1.3 MB · Views: 25
Last edited:
I lived in NW Pennsylvania in the late 1980s, and my wife, our kids and I would drive up to Buffalo and Niagara Falls every so often. I loved that part of the country, the people, the small towns, the countryside, and Buffalo. Thanks for the great photos!
 

Back
Top