Today we covered a good bit of ground, booking it up to Buffalo, NY for the day... Let's just call this our "Alamo" for this year's trip... It wasn't in the original plan, but when we realized how close (to clarify, "close" on a road trip is more like..."Oh, the Grand Canyon is only 4 hours away, we HAVE to swing by!") we'd be, we decided to check it out.
The Buffalo area is home to several presidential sites related to both President Millard Fillmore, and sadly, President William McKinley, as well.
Our first stop was a bit of a bust, and I was pretty disappointed. I might have even shed a couple tears... If it is a site that can be toured and we don't tour it (or at least step foot inside), we don't count it. This is serious stuff... Having cut out an earlier morning stop in order to make it to East Aurora, NY in time to tour the Millard Fillmore House, but getting delayed yet again with road work on the interstate, we arrived at 3:40, and no one was there... Like it was locked up with no sign of life... Mind you, the posted hours were 1:00-4:00pm...
Sooo, someone should've been there, even if we were too late for a full on tour, right? I called the number listed on the website (I had emailed earlier in the day) and no one could come give us a tour... Darn it... Like when are we going to be back in East Aurora, NY again? Ummm, I'm going to guess, never?
Oh well... We peeked inside...
sat on the porch and watched Mo Rocca's account of Millard Fillmore and his house...
and toured the gardens...
{B captured this shot!}
With that, we said see ya to East Aurora, and headed on over to Buffalo...
In Buffalo, we visited the sites of two of President Fillmore's homes. The Franklin Street site is now home to a school...
and the Delaware Street site in Niagara Square now looks to be either a hotel or an apartment building, and is currently undergoing some construction...
Lastly, we visited President Fillmore's grave in Forest Lawn Cemetery...
President William McKinley, one of the "Ohio Presidents", was assassinated and died in Buffalo, NY.
In 1901, while attending the Pan-American Exposition, President McKinley was shot at the Temple of Music. A plaque marks the spot where it once stood...
President McKinley was taken to the nearby Milburn House where he died about a week later. A marker is all that remains of the Milburn House today...
Ending on a happy note, we swung by the Buffalo Bills stadium on the way out of town. We do love our local Clemson boys, Sammy Watkins and the newly drafted, Shaq Lawson...
Maybe we will be back someday after all...
More presidents (and vice presidents, too) on tap for tomorrow...
More {Road Trip} 2016 Fun
No comments:
Post a Comment