Under a Red Roof

This is Buffalo! Capacious and threaded with one zigging highway after another, it’s the home of hot wings, friendly strangers, and a near perfect summer. We were not fooled about the rest. We saw the tell-tale signs of WINTER, the reflectors attached and bobbing some six feet above fire hydrants and other life-saving necessities. That is deep snow, with the city receiving an average of 85 inches a year! So let’s bask in summer while we can, take in the Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts, listen to great music, and watch sweet souls on parade.

Next stop, the Albright-Knox Gallery. The massive sculpture is made from more than 50 canoes (artist: Nancy Rubins). I love it!

Barking Irons

Dan Colen

Save the canvas, it is made entirely from chewing gum.

Child’s Blue Wall

Jim Dine

Screen Play: Life in an Animated World

Nearly fifty animated works from the past thirty years. What a lucky break to see it!

You can, too, at least until September 13th.

I don’t remember who made this.

Watching Marco Brambilla’s Evolution(Megaplex) with 3-D glasses.

Out of Nothing

Miao Xiaochun

One film as seen from five angles. It was really quite stunning.

Dying Living Woman

Camille Henrot

Here we are, the reason for the whole weekend, Niagara Falls. This is the American side, the top photo the Niagara River charging forth at an astonishing 32 million gallons a minute. We were surprised at how incredibly close we could get, our bodies positively thrumming with the thrill of the sublime.

We walked over the Rainbow Bridge to Canada (and back) to get the best views, which sounds stranger than it is and, judging by the solemn looks of the occupants we passed, far better than being stuck in a car whiling away the time at a border crossing. If you decide to follow suit, be sure to have your passport and two quarters to get through the turnstiles back into the U.S. I’ve got my finger on the border and my hand resting oddly at my side. I’m no supermodel…

The hubster: the most handsome and best traveling companion, ever.

We laugh. We eat. We wander and wonder. We get lost and found.

Loyal She Began, Thus She Remains

Ontario Coat of Arms

Up early Friday morning for a drive north. Cool and quiet, the sun only just rising to burn through a layer of fog. I squealed at the sight of it. The world is full of marvels.

Lake Erie, our first stop in an incredibly action packed weekend, and a jaunt on the wonderfully picturesque Presque Isle peninsula. Still fairly early in the day, we nearly had the beach to ourselves, and I wished that we could have stayed forever; it was so perfect. Our first time at a Great Lake, the pair of us stood in wonder at the size of it, the Canadian shore well beyond the Earth’s curve and the sight of our eyes. So much water!

More water at the shore in Jamestown and Chautauqua Lake in New York. Growing up just over twenty miles from Boulder, Colorado and it’s own Chautauqua, I was keen on seeing another. How beautiful they both are! Jamestown is also the childhood home of Lucille Ball, which splains (a la Ricky Ricardo) the fabulous mural.

The hubster and I, at once thrifty and adventurous, have yet to pay a road toll, preferring the slower pace, tricky directions, and marvelous rewards of of the less travelled route. Which brings us to the last photo and our final stop of the day, our wonderfully out of the way airbnb in Amherst, New York. Up next, it’s Buffalo and Niagara Falls!