Week of Sunday, August 16 through Saturday August 22nd, 2026

 SUNDAY:  I picked Jan up for church this morning since she cannot drive, as she is healing from shoulder surgery.  Church was very good this morning.  After church, Jan and I went to my house and I changed my clothing and picked up the macaroni salad I made yesterday, along with the leftover four bean salad.  Most everyone was already at church.  David was doing hot dogs and sausage patties on the grill.  Some of us sat in the sanctuary at a table that was set up.  There was plenty of food and deserts to choose from.  After eating, Peggy gathered everybody in the sanctuary for a kind of meeting.  I took Jan home and then went to Niagara Produce for a loaf of bread.  I spent the rest of the day at home but I was busy packing stuff for the trip tomorrow.  Andrea, Marlene and I will meet here at my house at eight thirty a.m..  I got the information from the host of the Airbnb about the codes we will need to get into our room.  I texted them to Marlene and Andrea. 

MONDAY:  Marlene and Andrea arrived on time, but after we had driven a few minutes, Andrea realized that she had not brought her hearing aides.  I told her it was fine if she went home to get them, so she did, and then we continued on our way.  We stopped at the Angola rest stop, along the thruway to use the bathrooms and then continued on to Westfield where we quickly found the YWCA,

where we arrived a few minutes after eleven a.m. Our room was ready, so we dropped off our luggage and spent a few minutes checking the place out.  There is a large kitchen downstairs and we are allowed to use it.  I suggested to Marlene and Andrea that if they would rather not have the expense of dinner out, we could go to a supermarket later on and pick up frozen meals like HEALTHY CHOICE meals (which I really like).  They immediately shot down this idea, which was fine with me.  I was only offering it to save them money.  We stopped at Lakeside Park in Mayville, right along the lake, and had lunch.  Once we got to the Institute, we parked and walked over.  I purchased three afternoon passes ($20.00 each) and paid for parking and picked up the tickets for tomorrow's historical bus tour.  Then we caught the bus to the Athenaeum Hotel.  We were a couple of hours early so we rode around the place one full time before getting off.  We hung around the hotel until it was time to go into the parlor for the Benjamin Franklin re-enactment.  We looked at the menu for the restaurant there, and decided to have supper there, so I made a five p.m. reservation.  We took the elevator up to the second and third floors just to look around.  We went into the parlor around 2:30 and several people had already come in and taken the best seats, but we got pretty good seats in the third row, near the middle.  The performance of Bryan Austin portraying Ben Franklin was excellent! 

 We had some time to use up before five pm when the restaurant opened.  Andrea and I had the chicken with asparagus and mashed potatoes and Marlene had the salmon.  Our meals were very good.  Then we caught the two buses back to the parking area. We stopped at TOPS in Mayville and Andrea ran in and got some half and half for her coffee.  We got back to the Y a little after seven p.m.  We relaxed in our room for the rest of the evening.  Andrea tried to find something to watch on TV, but was not successful.  I started reading a new book.  We went to bed a few minutes after ten p.m. 

TUESDAY:  I did not get a good nights sleep, even though I took two Tylenol PM before bed.  Andrea was up and talking to Marlene around seven fifteen, so I got up and took a shower.  We decided to walk to the MAIN DINER.  We enjoyed our breakfast there, I think we all had the EARLY BIRD SPECIAL.  I ordered a Dr. Pepper, and explained to Marlene and Andrea that I don't normally drink Dr. Pepper with breakfast but I needed the caffiene in order to make it through the day.  Then we walked down both sides of Main Street, mostly looking in store windows (most stores had not opened up yet).  We went to the Lincoln Bedell statue. While there, I had a phone call from Elaine VIncent, she thought she was calling Dee McDonnel.  We would have gone to Portage Pie,, but it is closed on Tuesdays.  We went to the McClurg Museum, but Marlene did not seem to want to pay the five dollars entrance fee, but this was after she saw all of the stairs.  I gave a donation and the docents let us walk around the first floor rooms for a few minutes.  Then we went to the Paterson Library, since I had read about how beautiful it i. s inside.  Indeed, it really is a nice library.  Marlene and Andrea especially enjoyed looking at the taxidermied birds.  We went downstairs to use the Ladies room and checked out the children's section, which is extremely kid friendly. Then we headed to the Chautauqua Institution.  I paid for today's parking and we did not have to purchase admission today since we had the tickets for the historical bus tour.  We waited for our bus tour and talked to some of the other people who were waiting.  We had a very enthusiastic tour guide (Mike) and we enjoyed the tour.  When it was over, we decided to go to the OLIVER ARCHIVES CENTER 

which the tour guide had told us about it.  I was particularly interested in seeing the replica of one of the original tents.that provided lodging when the Institution first became active. We took the SOUTH bus there, and saw the tent, and Andrea and I went into the archive building.  Here is a picture of the tent. 

We missed the bus back to the entrance so we walked. As we were walking back, we ran into our tour guide and he wanted to know how we liked the Oliver Archives.  We talked for a couple of minutes.

  It was three thirty by the time we got back to the entrance,  and we   walked to Andrea's car and headed out.  Andrea and Marlene disagreed about the directions because Andrea's map program was taking us a different way than it did on the way there.  So, we lost a bit of time but eventually made it to the thruway.  We stopped in Angola to go to Chik Fil-A.  However, Marlene decided to get other stuff from the pretzel place.  Andrea recommended the chicken nuggets so I decided to try them, and she was right, they are VERY good!  We arrived back at my house at around seven fifteen, I think.  

WEDNESDAY:  I slept good last night, even though I did not take anything to help me sleep.  In the morning, I  concentrated on three important phone calls that HAD to be made.  I cancelled tomorrows appointment with Dr. Kurb. I returned a puzzling phone call from Rachel at an medical equipment place. She did not have up to date contact information for where Carrie lives, and who the medical liaison is.  I updated her and then emailed both Greg and the new liaison.  Thirdly, I called Scott Ode in order to tell him what I wanted to do with my maturing CD.  I continued working on putting trip stuff away. I had a nice nap in the afternoon.  When I got up, there was a phone call from Andrea asking if I would like to go to the Family Life Network Theatre in Bath on November 20th for A CHRISTMAS CAROL dinner theatre.  I texted back that sure, I am interested and should we ask Marlene to accompany us. 

THURSDAY:   I met up with Andrea and Peggy at Freedom, and we had a prayer time together, sitting outside in the pavilion.  Then I went to Panera for a drink and then to Subway and picked up a small sub for my lunch.  After that, I spent the rest of the day at home.  I filed a lot of papers and also took the small items off of the large shadow box in the living room, and cleaned it off.  I had a nice nap after that.  I was communicating with Luis about a surprise lunch, etc. to celebrate Peggy's 65th birthday (she is his Grandma Peggy), and then Peggy and David invited me to accompany them, so I accepted since I don't drive in Buffalo, and the place they chose for this lunch seems to be in Buffalo.  I still do not know the name of the place.  Anyways, Luis asked me to get balloons, but I told him that if I show up at Peggys house with balloons tomorrow, it will spoil the surprise (if indeed it is still a surprise, David said she knows something is up).  So I offered to pay for the balloons if Luis picks them up and he said he will.

FRIDAY:  First thing today, I wrote out a postcard for Tyler and then got a card and check ready to send to Cassandra, since her birthday is coming up on the 29th.  I got both of them addressed and stamped and into my mailbox so the mailman can take them. I stripped my bed, did a load of laundry and remade my bed.  I showered.  I talked to Peg on the phone.  I got a call from Davison Road Optical saying my new lenses are in, so I agreed to go over there at one fifteen.  I made an appointment with Dr. Conley (my dentist) to have my teeth checked, as a follow up to my fall on August 1st.  

I went to Davison Road Optical and had my new lenses put into my old frames.  It is much nicer looking through them now.  Then I went to the library to pick up a book, and then to Panera to get a drink.  I got MOUNTAIN DEW instead of my usual tea, because I felt I needed the boost of caffeine.  Then I went to Peggy and David's house.  I read my book while they were finishing up getting ready.  Catherine arrived and we all left for FRENCH PUB in Depew.  We met up with Luis.  His mother was not able to come, since she does not feel well.  Luis presented Peggy with a carrot cake and several balloons. 

We had a nice lunch.  It was five os us, Luis, Catherine, David, Peggy and me. 

I had the broiled fish, which came with mac salad and coleslaw and I upgraded the fries to sweet potato waffle fries.  My meal was very good, I did not eat all of it, I left a bit of Mac salad and a bit of fish and most of the small slice of Rye bread.  Catherine cut the cake and served it.  It was not very good.  After we got back to Peggy's house, I went to Niagara Produce and got some groceries.  I had taken a twenty dollar bill in, but had to go out to the car to get a dollar and change in order to complete paying for what I had.  UGH.  When I got home, I put groceries away before laying down on the couch.  I did not even doze off (the power of caffeine).  I had two ears of sweet corn for my supper.  They were not as flavorful as the corn I had last week.  I found a movie on YouTube to watch.

SATURDAY the 22nd:  I did a few things around the house before I got ready for Andrea, said and Peggy to arrive at 12:30.  Andrea drove the the four of us went to Niagara Falls for a meal at the MANDARIN.  We did not have a reservation and had to wait about fifteen minutes.  We had a great meal, and a couple of the servers took our picture and we sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Peggy. 

On the way back we had to wait for maybe a half an hour at the border in Canada since traffic was so backed up.  I suggested to Peggy and David that we avoid going to the Mandarin on Saturdays in the future.