My first trip to Buffalo!
Jan. 27th, 2019 06:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unicorndukeI spent the weekend in Buffalo, visiting dragonlady7 and it was lovely!
I left Friday morning and drove to Ithaca.
I stopped into the Mann Library, which is the agricultural library at Cornell. I get library access at Cornell through my job and boy did I take advantage of that. I checked out around ten books on plants and plant breeding for funsies and returned the books I had taken out previously.
I really loved being in the stacks again. They're really lovely in ag libraries because no one goes in there because no one is that interested in plant and vegetable shit and I was basically alone on the entire floor. It was awesome. I plopped down and started digging through and got some picked out. I did return a few that I had pulled because I realized I didn't care that much about the crop I'd picked out but if I am interested in cowpea breeding, I know there are resources.
They also had very cute signs with different puppies.
I also found the original!!! Luther Burbank writings on plant breeding, which I'd been reading online. I couldn't believe they were just on a bottom shelf instead of in an archive or something. They were really beautiful done books, with glossy photos and everything. Really incredible for 1912.
I returned all the books to my truck and then wandered around the ag quad for a few minutes and then the Botanic Garden which was lovely in the winter.
I found this old millstone which still appeared to be in decent condition despite being used as a decoration.
They also hollowed out a huge tree stump and put this bell in it, which was ringing in the wind.
I then scooted out of town because it looked like there would be some lake effect in Buffalo. I drove up along the Cayuga Lake (one of the Finger Lakes) and it was absolutely beautiful. Ithaca itself was also beautiful.
I stopped at a little park along the lake and took this video and some pictures. The wind was incredibly strong right at the lake but tapered off dramatically when I got back to the parking lot, 200 feet away from the shore. It was really something. The video is probably jerky because I was shivering from the wind.
I knew the area was a winery area, but I hadn't realized the extent. I turned away from the lakeshore road, maybe halfway or 2/3 up the lake and I probably saw twenty or thirty wineries or distilleries up to that point. Frankly, it was absurd. But a really beautiful area with some incredible farms.
It started snowing and the wind was blowing snow onto the roads right about when I turned off Lake Cayuga and it snowed all the way to Buffalo. It wasn't bad until I got within twenty miles or so and it started really coming down and sticking on the road. At one point, I only had about a tractor trailer length of vision in front of me. It cleared up fast.
Going into the suburb, I ended up in a bit of a traffic jam but it was the slowest and most polite traffic jam I'd ever been in, so I didn't really mind. No one was being stupid and cutting other people off or changing lanes really quick, which was a refreshing change.
I arrived at B's house eventually and I was fed delicious delicious butter chicken and we hung out and chatted until bedtime. Her kitty is adorbs and very chatty.
We got up in the morning and had some nice breakfast and then we went downtown for lunch at Casa Azul, which was fucking incredible food. I had a potato hash with pork and there was a cilantro sauce and I didn't hate the eggs on top too much, which is impressive.
Then we went to the Buffalo Beauts game!!! It was versus the Boston Pride and it was a really fun game. I got a Shannon Szabados tshirt because I love her and she's amazing. (tshirts are cheaper in person than ordered online for Buffalo at least). It was super fun to watch the game with other people!
Donut spotted
Puck drop!
Then we wandered around Buffalo for a little bit, we toured B's dude's office building which was old and super rad and had an incredible view. After, we went and ate more food at the Pizza Place, which had some incredible gluten free options and the pasta was amazing and full of ricotta cheese. Curry nachos: omg amazing. We all felt like exploding so we slowly wandered over to the Shark Girl and then over the the comedy club where Cameron Esposito was playing that night. It was a huge coincidence that she was in Buffalo this weekend but I figured she wouldn't be coming to Albany any time soon, so I'd better see her when I could and it was so amazing. I laughed so much my voice wasn't working well after.
Sidenote: there is a thing called ice bikes?????? bikes on ice???? I'm still baffled.
We pretty much crashed right when we got back to the house.
This morning, the plan was to go to Niagara Falls but I had forgotten my passport, so we couldn't go to the Canadian side, which is the half circle pretty falls and it was pretty dang windy and I was feeling lazy. So we just hung out for a few hours until I had to get on the road.
Somehow my ice scraper disappeared, so I might have left it on top of my truck at some point and then driven off. So RIP ice scraper that was partially broken anyway and too short. Then I went and got gas and B texted me saying I'd forgotten my phone charger like a moron so I drove back.
The drive back wasn't too bad, just a little windy and snowy towards the end.
I picked up my pupper only a few minutes late and she missed me a lot. Now she's alternating barking at the neighbor noises and sleepy snoring.
All in all, a super fun weekend that was really cool to see a lot of New York State and Buffalo and it was a really lovely time! It was great to spend time with friends!
dragonlady7 and it was lovely! I left Friday morning and drove to Ithaca.
I stopped into the Mann Library, which is the agricultural library at Cornell. I get library access at Cornell through my job and boy did I take advantage of that. I checked out around ten books on plants and plant breeding for funsies and returned the books I had taken out previously.
I really loved being in the stacks again. They're really lovely in ag libraries because no one goes in there because no one is that interested in plant and vegetable shit and I was basically alone on the entire floor. It was awesome. I plopped down and started digging through and got some picked out. I did return a few that I had pulled because I realized I didn't care that much about the crop I'd picked out but if I am interested in cowpea breeding, I know there are resources.
They also had very cute signs with different puppies.
I also found the original!!! Luther Burbank writings on plant breeding, which I'd been reading online. I couldn't believe they were just on a bottom shelf instead of in an archive or something. They were really beautiful done books, with glossy photos and everything. Really incredible for 1912.
I returned all the books to my truck and then wandered around the ag quad for a few minutes and then the Botanic Garden which was lovely in the winter.
I found this old millstone which still appeared to be in decent condition despite being used as a decoration.
They also hollowed out a huge tree stump and put this bell in it, which was ringing in the wind.
I then scooted out of town because it looked like there would be some lake effect in Buffalo. I drove up along the Cayuga Lake (one of the Finger Lakes) and it was absolutely beautiful. Ithaca itself was also beautiful.
I stopped at a little park along the lake and took this video and some pictures. The wind was incredibly strong right at the lake but tapered off dramatically when I got back to the parking lot, 200 feet away from the shore. It was really something. The video is probably jerky because I was shivering from the wind.
I knew the area was a winery area, but I hadn't realized the extent. I turned away from the lakeshore road, maybe halfway or 2/3 up the lake and I probably saw twenty or thirty wineries or distilleries up to that point. Frankly, it was absurd. But a really beautiful area with some incredible farms.
It started snowing and the wind was blowing snow onto the roads right about when I turned off Lake Cayuga and it snowed all the way to Buffalo. It wasn't bad until I got within twenty miles or so and it started really coming down and sticking on the road. At one point, I only had about a tractor trailer length of vision in front of me. It cleared up fast.
Going into the suburb, I ended up in a bit of a traffic jam but it was the slowest and most polite traffic jam I'd ever been in, so I didn't really mind. No one was being stupid and cutting other people off or changing lanes really quick, which was a refreshing change.
I arrived at B's house eventually and I was fed delicious delicious butter chicken and we hung out and chatted until bedtime. Her kitty is adorbs and very chatty.
We got up in the morning and had some nice breakfast and then we went downtown for lunch at Casa Azul, which was fucking incredible food. I had a potato hash with pork and there was a cilantro sauce and I didn't hate the eggs on top too much, which is impressive.
Then we went to the Buffalo Beauts game!!! It was versus the Boston Pride and it was a really fun game. I got a Shannon Szabados tshirt because I love her and she's amazing. (tshirts are cheaper in person than ordered online for Buffalo at least). It was super fun to watch the game with other people!
Donut spotted
Puck drop!
Then we wandered around Buffalo for a little bit, we toured B's dude's office building which was old and super rad and had an incredible view. After, we went and ate more food at the Pizza Place, which had some incredible gluten free options and the pasta was amazing and full of ricotta cheese. Curry nachos: omg amazing. We all felt like exploding so we slowly wandered over to the Shark Girl and then over the the comedy club where Cameron Esposito was playing that night. It was a huge coincidence that she was in Buffalo this weekend but I figured she wouldn't be coming to Albany any time soon, so I'd better see her when I could and it was so amazing. I laughed so much my voice wasn't working well after.
Sidenote: there is a thing called ice bikes?????? bikes on ice???? I'm still baffled.
We pretty much crashed right when we got back to the house.
This morning, the plan was to go to Niagara Falls but I had forgotten my passport, so we couldn't go to the Canadian side, which is the half circle pretty falls and it was pretty dang windy and I was feeling lazy. So we just hung out for a few hours until I had to get on the road.
Somehow my ice scraper disappeared, so I might have left it on top of my truck at some point and then driven off. So RIP ice scraper that was partially broken anyway and too short. Then I went and got gas and B texted me saying I'd forgotten my phone charger like a moron so I drove back.
The drive back wasn't too bad, just a little windy and snowy towards the end.
I picked up my pupper only a few minutes late and she missed me a lot. Now she's alternating barking at the neighbor noises and sleepy snoring.
All in all, a super fun weekend that was really cool to see a lot of New York State and Buffalo and it was a really lovely time! It was great to spend time with friends!
no subject
Date: 2019-01-28 12:33 am (UTC)Snow bikes (with huge 4 and 5 inch wide tyres) make far more sense to me than the ice bikes do, but yes, there are ice bikes.
The cilantro sauce would doom me, but those eggs look really good.
Sounds like you packed a lot into your weekend.
And it certainly looks like you came home covered in interesting smells! I hope Mara is not a slow-forgiveness-of-absence sort of dog.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-28 01:32 pm (UTC)Mara is just so happy to see me that she just loses her shit completely and didn't settle down for a couple of hours. She is a nervous dog and is much more so when I'm not around so it was a big relief for me to be back with her. The dog sitter was very good with her.
I hadn't intended to do so much! The original plan was just to go to the hockey game and then I realized Ithaca would be a good stop on Friday while B and her dude were at work and then I found out Cameron was going to be in Buffalo like a week ago. There was a decent amount of hanging out, which was lovely.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-28 07:33 pm (UTC)(I think ice bikes look like a means of hurting yourself really badly.)
Packing a lot into the weekend is good! Excellent use of time!
There's a bunch of stuff on the Canadian side of the falls; butterfly conservancy, botanical gardens, various parks. Nice cycling path, too.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-28 12:36 am (UTC)Doggo reunited!!
You'll just have to come back for the falls. They'll probably still be here! Probably.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-28 02:04 pm (UTC)Also if the playoffs end up in Buffalo (March), I could take a train out, and holy shit are they cheap. I think I paid that much in gas or maybe a little more. And it's basically the same amount of time.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-28 09:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-28 11:12 pm (UTC)