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Durham, North Carolina
You want to be easy, you want to relax, you want to come closer, you want to go back
As with all of these “weekend trip” slideshows, there’s a certain randomness and lack of any chronological order that probably bothers me more than you. I can tell you that even with this page’s slides, pictures and trips have been rearranged into an almost unrecognizable order, at least in terms of where I went, what I saw and when I saw it. Of course, a very strong argument can be made that since I’m completely in charge of organizing and writing these, that such intentional randomness is completely my fault, and, you know what, I think I can live with that. So, with such unpleasant disclaimers out of the way, I say chronological order be damned and let’s get started.
There are probably better reasons to go to Raleigh, North Carolina than to see Sarah P. Duke Gardens (right off I’m thinking of you, Biscuitville), but it’s certainly worth your time if you’re there, even if it happens to coincide with an annual, (apparently) super popular plant sale event. The gardens are on the grounds of Duke University (meaning that they’re in Durham, a good half hour away from Raleigh if the traffic is good) and they slope down continuously from the entrance before sloping back up to the campus and chapel. The gardens are a mix of formal and natural areas and, in late winter (or early spring), the cherry blossoms were most certainly a welcome sight and hopeful sign of warmer weather ahead.
Standing outside the North Carolina State Capitol Building in Raleigh are two small cannons and a statue commemorating three United States Presidents who are from North Carolina. On the left is James Polk, generally considered a successful, intentional one term president, despite his imperialistic tendencies. Of the three depicted, Polk is ranked highest (#14) on the C-SPAN list of most successful presidents. Coming in just four spots behind Polk is the guy on the horse, Andrew Jackson, who may have started life in North Carolina but is usually considered to be from Tennessee. And bringing up the rear is the guy on the right, North Carolinian Andrew Johnson, who will likely be in an eternal fight with James Buchanan (and our current, unnamed orange one) as the worst United States President of all time.
The North Carolina State Capitol Building in Raleigh is located in a leafy, central square and dates back to 1833, which means (of course) that it stood through the US Civil War. Luckily just off that square is the North Carolina Museum of History, a place where you can start to interpret and understand some of that rather awful history, sometimes with little models where little Confederates sign up to defend their way of life and all of those awful (and correct) connotations that came with it.
For (almost) 20 years now, I have been systematically taking my father to hockey games at different arenas as a birthday gift and this (and not Biscuitville or Duke gardens or tiny Confederate soldiers) was the reasoning behind this Raleigh trip. The Carolina Hurricanes, named after an often deadly weather phenomenon that has been known to devastate parts of the North Carolina coast) play at PNC Arena, a fairly nice facility, although they could most definitely open earlier and add a few additional security stations. The game, against the Philadelphia Flyers, saw the Canes win 5-2 and included an intermission mascot exhibition game where, for some reason, that shark who learned to survive outside the water did not viciously attack and eat all of the other mascots. Maybe next time.
While that shark did not viciously attack and eat all of the other mascots, I’m pretty sure that this next mascot would, if there were no witnesses.
On a completely separate trip, this is another out of market birthday hockey trip, this time at the Core States Center, er, I mean the First Union Center, er, I mean the Wachovia Center, er, I mean the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Here the hometown Flyers lost 4-2 to the visiting New York Islanders as the Flyers literally crazy looking mascot looked on. Seriously, despite the good seats, solid game action and overall top notch presentation at whatever the Flyers arena is called now, when Gritty appeared, it was damn near impossible to keep your eyes off him. Forget the hockey game, I want to see what the mascot with those crazy murder eyes does next.
So after (or possibly before- remember chronological history be damned) Duke Gardens, Biscuitville and murder eyed mascots, we now find ourselves in Buffalo, New York, which is probably different than you think it is. First off it has a surprisingly interesting downtown, with some scattered nice, historic buildings on a Main Street spine that stretches from the (mostly) frozen lake deep into the city. Right in the middle of the street is a light rail line where you can take a scenic tour to see that surprisingly interesting downtown, all those scattered, nice historic buildings and, unfortunately, not much else. Downtown Buffalo includes a lot of closed storefronts (at least on that weekend) and only a few people there, all scattered about hoping to appreciate what’s been there all along.
When you think of Buffalo, New York, you probably think of US Navy Battleships like most people. Just kidding. Sure, Buffalo has water and a Great (mostly) frozen Lake, but most of the time when you think US Navy you tend to think of the open sea. Still, right there on the lakefront are a destroyer, a guided missile cruiser and a submarine, comprising the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park. Your ticket gets you in and inside these vessels as part of a very, very particular self guided tour. The route goes inside and down and down and down and up and down and up and up and down and, well, you get the picture. By the time you’re done it feels as if there is absolutely nothing you haven’t seen and there is no ladder or stairs you have not ascended and descended at least twice.
Maybe you don’t think of decommissioned submarines when you think of Buffalo, but you also might not think art and that’s a mistake. Buffalo is home to a terrific art museum, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, a building with a surprisingly nice collection that’s about to get even nicer. The museum hired OMA to design an addition and renovation that includes a brand new wing, a crazy serpentine glass bridge and covering a courtyard with a brand new Olafur Eliasson installation. Already looking forward to 2022 and a return trip to Buffalo.
So while its unlikely that you think of decommissioned submarines or art galleries when you think of Buffalo, New York, it is possible that you think of Frank Lloyd Wright. Buffalo had Wright’s innovative Larkin Office Building (I said “had” because they demolished it in 1950) and the terrific Martin House (not pictured or visited this slideshow). It also has an interesting Wright curiosity, a recently built 1927 Wright designed gas station, now a gas station without gas that was built inside another building just a few years ago. It’s always fascinating to see a new Frank Lloyd Wright building and it’s certainly valuable to see this one, although its sad to think that all that new copper will never get to be photographed underneath a sunny blue sky or ever get to (really) see the light of day.
By the way, that sign on the gas station by the way actually says something and its not some weird science fiction alien language or something. I’ll give you a little time to try and figure it out, the answer will be on the next slide.
If you want to see that caged in 1927 Frank Lloyd Wright gas station, you’re going to have to go to the fantastic Pierce Arrow Museum in Buffalo, where you can see buffaloes, Pierce Arrow cars and even more of that gas station, whose sign is supposed to read “Tydol,” a gas station brand that was all the rage way back in 1927.
What ties Raleigh, Philadelphia and Buffalo together is hockey. This year, instead of taking my father to one game, we went crazy and I took him to three games for his birthday. Of the three, the arena and experience at Buffalo was definitely the best. First off, the location was best- the other two arenas are located in fields of parking lots, this one was downtown by the (mostly) frozen lake. Second the food was better, I still don’t know exactly what “beef on weck” means but it was pretty damn tasty. And the hometown Sabres (whose name was chosen in a contest in a city sick of buffalo references and puns) defeated the Ottawa Senators 5-2 in a pretty solid game. If only the Buffalo mascot Sabretooth (a tiger, because I guess a talking sword was just logistically impossible to pull off) had crazy murder eyes then everything would have been absolutely perfect.
In Buffalo, we stayed at the very nice Marriott Hotel at Harborside, a complex with a few ice rinks, a Tim Hortons, direct access to the Key Bank Center (although honestly it was easier leaving and re-entering at street level), nice views of the (mostly) frozen lake, Canalside and this. Several years ago, Buffalo started lighting up some grain elevators with a light show, a great idea that gave us something new to see on a cold spring night on a (mostly) frozen lake in Buffalo.
