Start Driving in Buffalo, New York State
Buffalo, New York State, USA, a resilient Rust Belt beacon on Lake Erie’s eastern shore and the Niagara River’s mouth, anchors Erie County with 278,000 residents weathering lake-effect snowy winters averaging 95 inches and humid summers since its 1801 village birth exploding via Erie Canal grain milling and steel might. Must-sees magnetize at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Darwin D. Martin House complex with cascading lily pad roofs, thunderous Niagara Falls State Park boat tours into mist-shrouded Maid of the Mist, Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park’s WWII destroyer submarine and destroyer escorts, opulent Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site where the bullet-struck president took oath in 1901, leafy Delaware Park’s Hoyt Lake paddleboats and Shakespeare festivals, Canalside’s waterfront concerts summer markets and ice rink, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fontana Boathouse sleek 1905 design. Culture thunders through boisterous Wing Fest saucy chicken wing throwdowns birthing the 1964 original hot sauce, raucous St. Patrick’s Day parades with bagpipes kilts and green-dyed beer, Polish-American Dyngus Day polka parties with pussy willow blessings, resilient blue-collar spirit via Allentown Art Festival indie rock and harbor pierogi feasts blending Eastern European immigrant grit with Black community jazz brunches. Cuisine wings it with blistering Buffalo wings slathered in Frank’s cayenne butter celery sticks blue cheese, juicy beef on weck salty kummelweck roll au jus, Loganberry-filled sponge candy Loganberry pie, Polish pierogies potato farmer’s cheese pan-fried golden, charcoal-grill sponge candy from candy shops, Genesee Cream Ale drafts evoking snowy lake winds and tavern camaraderie.