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A few days in Upstate New York
Aug. 21st, 2022 12:10 amAll of us were leaving Niagara Falls on Friday. I’d arranged with Ed and Doug to get a ride to Buffalo. I’d originally thought of just flying back from there, but then I had a moment of inspiration and checked minor league baseball calendars. And, not only was there a Bisons game that night, they were playing the WooSox! (That’s the Worcester Red Sox, the AAA affiliate of the BoSox.) A little further research revealed that I could easily take a short trip in Western New York state that would get me to three AAA ballparks and allow me to see a few other places I was interested in.
First, we had to get back to the U.S., which was made slightly complicated by Ed overexplaining why we’d been in Canada. All he really needed to say was that we’d been touring Niagara Falls. Instead, he tried to explain Loserdom. I successfully persuaded the border crossing agent that I was not being abducted by Texans and they dropped me off at my hotel in downtown Buffalo.
I had plenty of time to settle in, have lunch at a reasonably good Jewish deli several blocks from the hotel, and walk around the area. Buffalo City Hall is a rather grand Art Deco building.
There is a statue of Grover Cleveland (who had been mayor of Buffalo) in front of it. But the statue I was more interested in is decidedly not of a former mayor.
Shark Girl was created by Casey Riordan Millard in 2013 and is supposed to symbolize a fish out of water and the longing for normality. I think this photo makes a fine addition to my collection of pictures of weird public art.
As for the ball game, Sahlen Field was pretty nice and the Bisons fans were definitely enthusiastic. (I was, of course, rooting for the WooSox, who, alas, lost.) I was, however, annoyed that their mascot sometimes blocked the action while the game was in progress.
There were fireworks after the game, which I only watched a little of, before walking back to my hotel.
In the morning, I took a Lyft to the airport and picked up a rental car for the next couple of days. My first stop was a little under an hour away, in the town of Le Roy. I had picked up a brochure for the Jell-o Gallery Museum ages ago and I finally got to go there.
They have lots of info about the history of Jell-o, along with displays about the Jello Girl, a place to vote for your favorite flavor (lime!),and displays of Jello molds.
They also have recipes. This one, for “Savory Vegetable Salad Mold” is especially for spikesgirl58.
I should note that I did not buy any of the cookbooks for sale in their gift shop. All in all, the museum was reasonably amusing and worth a little under an hour. There is also an historic house in front of it that you can tour, but I had other plans that I thought were a better use of my time.
Specifically,, I had learned that the National Toy Hall of Fame is housed at the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, just about a half hour further east. This is an absolutely amazing museum and I could probably spend days there. In addition to the Hall of Fame, there are displays about pretty much every aspect of play - including story books, sports, games (including board games), dolls, building toys, transportation toys, etc. It would be hard to go through it without stopping to ooh and aah over things you grew up with. There’s a theatre where a small music group played songs that were composed to match some of the hall of fame toys. There’s an area where (at extra cost) children can climb structures and ride a zip line and so on. There’s even a carousel.
Here are some of the hall of fame toys:
Barbie is just about the same age as I am, but she seems to have aged better. I suspect plastic surgery.
One fun thing I did was have their etch-a-sketch draw a portrait of me. Since I was wearing a mask, I think I came out looking a bit ape-like.
After a few hours at the museum, I went to my hotel and checked in. A friend who lives in the area picked me up and took me on a driving tour around Rochester, including passing the Eastman Mansion (as in Eastman Kodak), Lake Ontario, and crossing the Erie Canal several times. We also went over to her house, which includes acres of land and a little vegetable farm. It’s a very attractive part of the country, but I doubt I would want to spend a winter there.
In the evening, I went to my second baseball game of the trip. The Rochester Red Wings are the AAA affiliate of the Washington Nationals. They were playing the Scranton / Wilkes Barre RailRiders, who are the AAA affiliate of the Source of All Evil in the Universe. Alas, Rochester lost. Frontier Field was a pretty average ballpark in my opinion.
The really unique thing there was Milo the Bat Dog, who was definitely cute. (And popular.)
In the morning, I was off to my final destination for this trip. Syracuse is a little under an hour and a half east of Rochester. I didn’t really have time to do anything touristy there because I had to call into a meeting relating to some volunteer work I’m involved in.
Anyway, the Syracuse Mets (who are the AAA affiliate of the New York Mets, duh) were playing the Omaha Storm Chasers (AAA affiliate of the Kansas City Royals) at NBT Bank Stadium. The ballpark was pleasant enough, though it is located in what appeared to be a semi-industrial neighborhood. I was pleased to recognize Nick Plummer, who I’d seen play in his major league debut at Citified when I was there in late May.
After the game, I drove to the airport and returned my rental car. I then took a shuttle bus to my hotel. In the morning, I flew home, complicated by a 4+ hour flight delay due to a mechanical problem with the lane the night before. Fortunately, United had notified me of this before I went to bed, so I got a decent amount of sleep. It was good to get home after the back to back trips, fun as those had been.
First, we had to get back to the U.S., which was made slightly complicated by Ed overexplaining why we’d been in Canada. All he really needed to say was that we’d been touring Niagara Falls. Instead, he tried to explain Loserdom. I successfully persuaded the border crossing agent that I was not being abducted by Texans and they dropped me off at my hotel in downtown Buffalo.
I had plenty of time to settle in, have lunch at a reasonably good Jewish deli several blocks from the hotel, and walk around the area. Buffalo City Hall is a rather grand Art Deco building.
There is a statue of Grover Cleveland (who had been mayor of Buffalo) in front of it. But the statue I was more interested in is decidedly not of a former mayor.
Shark Girl was created by Casey Riordan Millard in 2013 and is supposed to symbolize a fish out of water and the longing for normality. I think this photo makes a fine addition to my collection of pictures of weird public art.
As for the ball game, Sahlen Field was pretty nice and the Bisons fans were definitely enthusiastic. (I was, of course, rooting for the WooSox, who, alas, lost.) I was, however, annoyed that their mascot sometimes blocked the action while the game was in progress.
There were fireworks after the game, which I only watched a little of, before walking back to my hotel.
In the morning, I took a Lyft to the airport and picked up a rental car for the next couple of days. My first stop was a little under an hour away, in the town of Le Roy. I had picked up a brochure for the Jell-o Gallery Museum ages ago and I finally got to go there.
They have lots of info about the history of Jell-o, along with displays about the Jello Girl, a place to vote for your favorite flavor (lime!),and displays of Jello molds.
They also have recipes. This one, for “Savory Vegetable Salad Mold” is especially for spikesgirl58.
I should note that I did not buy any of the cookbooks for sale in their gift shop. All in all, the museum was reasonably amusing and worth a little under an hour. There is also an historic house in front of it that you can tour, but I had other plans that I thought were a better use of my time.
Specifically,, I had learned that the National Toy Hall of Fame is housed at the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, just about a half hour further east. This is an absolutely amazing museum and I could probably spend days there. In addition to the Hall of Fame, there are displays about pretty much every aspect of play - including story books, sports, games (including board games), dolls, building toys, transportation toys, etc. It would be hard to go through it without stopping to ooh and aah over things you grew up with. There’s a theatre where a small music group played songs that were composed to match some of the hall of fame toys. There’s an area where (at extra cost) children can climb structures and ride a zip line and so on. There’s even a carousel.
Here are some of the hall of fame toys:
Barbie is just about the same age as I am, but she seems to have aged better. I suspect plastic surgery.
One fun thing I did was have their etch-a-sketch draw a portrait of me. Since I was wearing a mask, I think I came out looking a bit ape-like.
After a few hours at the museum, I went to my hotel and checked in. A friend who lives in the area picked me up and took me on a driving tour around Rochester, including passing the Eastman Mansion (as in Eastman Kodak), Lake Ontario, and crossing the Erie Canal several times. We also went over to her house, which includes acres of land and a little vegetable farm. It’s a very attractive part of the country, but I doubt I would want to spend a winter there.
In the evening, I went to my second baseball game of the trip. The Rochester Red Wings are the AAA affiliate of the Washington Nationals. They were playing the Scranton / Wilkes Barre RailRiders, who are the AAA affiliate of the Source of All Evil in the Universe. Alas, Rochester lost. Frontier Field was a pretty average ballpark in my opinion.
The really unique thing there was Milo the Bat Dog, who was definitely cute. (And popular.)
In the morning, I was off to my final destination for this trip. Syracuse is a little under an hour and a half east of Rochester. I didn’t really have time to do anything touristy there because I had to call into a meeting relating to some volunteer work I’m involved in.
Anyway, the Syracuse Mets (who are the AAA affiliate of the New York Mets, duh) were playing the Omaha Storm Chasers (AAA affiliate of the Kansas City Royals) at NBT Bank Stadium. The ballpark was pleasant enough, though it is located in what appeared to be a semi-industrial neighborhood. I was pleased to recognize Nick Plummer, who I’d seen play in his major league debut at Citified when I was there in late May.
After the game, I drove to the airport and returned my rental car. I then took a shuttle bus to my hotel. In the morning, I flew home, complicated by a 4+ hour flight delay due to a mechanical problem with the lane the night before. Fortunately, United had notified me of this before I went to bed, so I got a decent amount of sleep. It was good to get home after the back to back trips, fun as those had been.
