Buffalo, NY

Two weeks ago, Laura and I went to the Creating Keepsakes Convention in Buffalo. For those of you who can't fathom why anyone would spend a weekend at a scrapbooking convention, I can assure you it was at least as exciting as some of the numerical linear algebra conferences I've attended. Scrapbookers will be interested to know that I attended classes by Basic Grey and SEI. I also attended a class given by Stacey Julian, founding editor of Simple Scrapbooks magazine, and she took us for a walking tour of downtown Buffalo. I sent her a digital layout of our walk and she posted it in her blog, in the June 7 entry.

While I had a great time at the convention, I was thrilled to find out that Buffalo has a number of architectural sites of interest. The first photo is the Buffalo Savings Bank, built in 1901, and is an example of the many turn-of-the-century buildings in downtown Buffalo.

Visiting the Darwin Martin House, part of a complex built by Frank Lloyd Wright, was definitely the highlight of the trip. The complex had been neglected for decades, falling into ruin, but it is now undergoing a renovation of enormous proportions. Laura and I were very fortunate to catch a special behind-the-scenes tour given by Mary Roberts, the COO of the restoration project. A month or two ago, Todd and I had seen the superb documentary, "Frank Lloyd Wright's Buffalo" .

The third photo is of a restaurant called "The Chocolate Bar". While the building is of limited architectural significance, how could I not include a place that specializes in "martinis, chocolate and desserts"?