So much for getting up early. I did OK – maybe around 8 or so, but I let Ben sleep in, and he did.
Lounged with my mom, talked, and read the paper in the morning. She made Ben french toast for breakfast.
I decided it would be a good day to go to a baseball game. I didn’t decide this earlier because I wanted to see what the weather looked like: sunny, calm, and warm – perfect for baseball.
I wanted to take Ben to a real, professional game, in a big city stadium. We call the Wehrle Tufte’s, but no one wanted to go. Mom didn’t either. So, we went by ourselves.
We drove straight down Main Street, and I told Ben about the sites: The Red Mill Inn restaurant, where I used to live (Main II – no longer standing), the Buffalo Brew Pub, Heroes, the Unitarian Church where I went to daycare, and another place I used to live (Main I). The grounds of Williamsville South High School were really trashed by the October 2006 snow storm. Then through the village of Williamsville, by Kenyon’s (abandoned), the church I attended, over the creek, and past the library – the first place I worked that didn’t fire me.
I asked Ben where his sunglasses were, and he admitted that he’d forgotten to pack them. So we stopped at a drug store on the corner of Los Robles.
Then on the spur of the moment, I stopped at a game and toy shop - Clayton's - where I'd shopped as a kid. I’d been thinking that we would need something to keep us entertained in the motels on the road. I’d heard Settlers of Catan was a good game, so I bought a copy. Ben bought some figurines.
Then onto the I-190 going south, the Kensington Expressway going west, and then southwest. It was obligatory that I teach Ben how to pronounce Scajacweda on this trip, although it seems like they’ve taken that name off the signs.
I got off downtown, and followed my instincts right to (what I still call) Pilot Field. We were able to park in a lot right across the street.
We bought (very cheap) tickets from a scalper, and a little old lady taking tickets questioned why we would be sitting in different sections of the stadium? Why that mattered to her when the stadium was mostly empty, I’ll never know.
In we went. I don’t think I’d been in there since Mary Jo and I saw the Beach Boys after a game in 1988. The place has seen better days. It’s still functional, but not full of life like it used to be.
Three views from the third base line.
I don't remember any more what this Buffalo landmark is.
The view from the first base line.
Ben is a gift shop kid. The only gift shop on the entire trip where he didn’t buy something was at the game.
After about 5 innings, he was bored, so we left (the Bisons were winning).
We drove over past what was left of the Aud.
If you look closely, you can still see the gold, blue, red, and orange section colors.
Then we went down to what I still call the Naval Servicemen’s Park. I had no idea Ben would find this so interesting. Outside of the entrance, they've built a little bit of open water where the Erie Canal used to end.
Part of the barrel of a naval gun – about an 8 incher – and the shell it fired.
Ben really liked this old cannon. He was ticked later on. He wanted to go back to the little museum, and it closed before the ships did. When we got off of them, he couldn’t get back in to check this out. The gift shop was closed too, and we actually made a special trip back there on Wednesday to pick something up that he’d spied out, but didn’t want to carry through the tour.
I liked this, but I don’t think Ben really understood those were propellers.
This is a Nike missile. These were supposed to shoot down Soviet bombers if they ever made it to America. They had a base for these about 10 miles north of where I grew up.
This is an officer’s bunk on the Little Rock – a cruiser. The Little Rock is kind of weird - it was refit to carry missiles instead of guns, and I didn't realize that they launched huge missiles from small ships by keeping them in pieces, and then assembling them in a big room as needed.
This is the officer’s mess.
This was shocking. We walk into a room on the Little Rock, and there’s a display about the Langley II. This is the light carrier on which Ben’s grandpa Matt served in World War II – 18 straight months at sea, through the Battles of the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf, before being kamikazed off Okinawa.
Ben’s grandpa Matt was probably involved in raising money for this display.
These are the bunks where the crew slept.
Next we went on The Sullivans – a destroyer. I think we both liked this better.
This is the ship’s PX on The Sullivans. I thought the old-fashioned containers and products they’d put in here were pretty cool.
This is the crew’s mess.
On the way out we saw this: it's an actual Dukw (a boat that you can drive out of the water). I’d never seen one.
We also went through a submarine - Croaker. No pictures though – it was too cramped to make anything worthwhile. Freaky too – it’s not in good shape.
After this we went down by the Buffalo River, where Ben blurts out “Is this Lake Erie?”. I guess when you grow up in the desert, the small river that goes into the big river that drains the lake might seem like the real thing. I had him repeat it for posterity, but it’s not the same:
After that we went down to the breakwall and lighthouse at the Erie Basin Marina. Ben wanted to stay, but we were late for dinner with Mom.
Later that night we went to a party. I called Howard Block, and his mother answered the phone, and invited us over. Little did I know that it was his daughter Rachel’s bat mitzvah party. That was embarrassing. But … Ben proved popular with a few girls that were there, and he played a bit with Jeff Katzman’s son Harlan. I had a good long talk with Jeff – probably my longest in 27 years (since before he went off to Michigan). It was good.
Back to Mom’s fairly early, and again falling asleep to history questions.
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