June Jaunt: Day 2
BUFFALO -- Breakfast was at a nice local place I had passed on foot yesterday called Lisciandro's. Chad couldn't complain; they had omelets.
While I mentioned that Lucille Ball was from Jamestown, I didn't realize how ingrained she was into the city. She has not one, but two museums -- one for her, one for the show. There's not just the one mural I spotted yesterday, but five. Meanwhile, the other hometown girl Natalie Merchant (lead singer for 10,000 Maniacs) has her gold and platinum records hanging in City Hall.
It was then off to the campus of St Bonaventure University, the long-time-ago conference-mate of WVU located in Olean. Being in New York's southern tier, the campus is sufficiently wooded with the hint of the town in the distance.
After lunch, we turned north toward the Thruway. We stopped off in Batavia, so Chad could pick up his requisite shirt -- Go Muckdogs! -- even if we couldn't attend the game itself. Instead of actually taking the Thruway to Buffalo, we took NY 33, the free parallel route. It wasn't much difference time-wise; there weren't any large towns to slow us down on our drive into the city.
For dinner, we ate across the street from the Bisons' ballpark at Irish Times. Pubs near sports stadia being what they are, Chad and I squeezed into the back where the booths were. We then made our way across the street into the largest minor-league stadium in the system, the 18,000-seat Coca-Cola Field. While there was a decent enough crowd for tonight's game, tomorrow's game was announced as a sell-out: "Star Wars" night. Buffalo beat da Bulls, 3-2.
At game's end, Chad wanted to watch the fireworks. So I left him to decipher Buffalo's light-rail system as I rode ahead back to the hotel to catch the last little bit of a local PBS documentary on the Bisons' relationship with the nearby Toronto Blue Jays.
While I mentioned that Lucille Ball was from Jamestown, I didn't realize how ingrained she was into the city. She has not one, but two museums -- one for her, one for the show. There's not just the one mural I spotted yesterday, but five. Meanwhile, the other hometown girl Natalie Merchant (lead singer for 10,000 Maniacs) has her gold and platinum records hanging in City Hall.
It was then off to the campus of St Bonaventure University, the long-time-ago conference-mate of WVU located in Olean. Being in New York's southern tier, the campus is sufficiently wooded with the hint of the town in the distance.
After lunch, we turned north toward the Thruway. We stopped off in Batavia, so Chad could pick up his requisite shirt -- Go Muckdogs! -- even if we couldn't attend the game itself. Instead of actually taking the Thruway to Buffalo, we took NY 33, the free parallel route. It wasn't much difference time-wise; there weren't any large towns to slow us down on our drive into the city.
For dinner, we ate across the street from the Bisons' ballpark at Irish Times. Pubs near sports stadia being what they are, Chad and I squeezed into the back where the booths were. We then made our way across the street into the largest minor-league stadium in the system, the 18,000-seat Coca-Cola Field. While there was a decent enough crowd for tonight's game, tomorrow's game was announced as a sell-out: "Star Wars" night. Buffalo beat da Bulls, 3-2.
At game's end, Chad wanted to watch the fireworks. So I left him to decipher Buffalo's light-rail system as I rode ahead back to the hotel to catch the last little bit of a local PBS documentary on the Bisons' relationship with the nearby Toronto Blue Jays.