Library #7 Collins Public Library

On Saturday morning, we stopped by the Collins Branch on the way to Griffis Sculpture Park in Ashford Hollow near Ellicottville. What a beautiful library. We spent a longer time here than we were supposed to, but we found tons of great books, friendly librarians, and a nice setting to browse through, and sit and read. The children's section was excellent, with lots to choose from. MaryGrace found some American Girls books on Josephina, her new American Girl Doll, and Anna checked out some Dear Diary books. We had lots to read for the twenty mile car ride over to Ellicottville.
Speaking of car rides, our GPS had us get to Griffis via Zoar Valley Road--this was like a roller coaster ride! This crazy, bumpy, windy road was the most fun of the whole day. Griffis Sculpture Park is a gem in our area--if you like the outdoors, hiking and art, especially on a large scale, check this place out. Here is the web address: http://www.griffispark.org/

Libraries #4, #5 & #6--East Clinton, East Delavan and Riverside

Today was the hat trick of libraries! We visited three of the City Branches in one day. On the way into Buffalo to listen to the music at M & T Plaza, we stopped at the East Clinton Branch.
After the music, we stopped at the East Delevan Branch, and then took a ride through Black Rock to the Riverside Branch. What a day! Here are some notes about each branch:

We knew we were in the East Clinton neighborhood when we saw all the cool Polish street names, like Gorski Street and even, Polish Street. This library was small, homey and busy on this Thursday morning. We signed out a few books and learned about the library's summer reading program, which we want to sign up for.

At the East Delevan branch we met the librarian, Ms. Jamie Smith. She gave us a few prizes and was very welcoming. We discussed our goal of visiting all 37 branches of our library system, and she mentioned that there used to be 53 branches before 16 of them were closed a few years back. That would make our library visit very challenging! She told us about a few of the other area branches and we could tell she takes great pride in her library.

The East Delavan community library was also very busy and had a real nice children's section. One of the highlights was a special shelf dedicated to the books on the Mayor Brown Reading Challenge list. This is a program sponsored by the Mayor of Buffalo where kids read books throughout the summer, write reports and become eligible for prizes in the fall.

This library has an ongoing book sale and there's a nice beach display for summer outside in the window.

Our last library stop was at the Riverside Branch. The first thing we noticed is that this about twenty year old branch looks brand new, due mostly to the extraordinary landscaping created by the maintenance person for the library, very nice! Inside the library, we met Ms. Linda Rizzo, who used to work at our home branch at Clarence--she was also very nice and welcoming. The center post of the library is pained like a beach with a lighthouse on it along with 3 dimensional stones and birds! Great place.

MaryGrace read about three Mo Willems books from the East Delevan Branch to Riverside, so we returned them.

We were in our grandparents' old neighborhoods, so Dad showed us Grandma and Grandpa's homes that they grew up in--this was neat!

Library #3 Crane Branch, Elmwood Avenue

We just returned from a visit to the Crane Branch Library, in the City at 633 Elmwood Avenue. We were coming from the wedding of MaryGrace's teacher, Ms. Blersch, at the Chapel at Canisius College, and then a nice filling meal at Elmwood Taco and Subs. When we entered this library, we had the feeling of a small community library. It was very busy with all kinds of poeple this Satruday afternoon. Many had bike helmets and their bicycles were parked outside. The libary has a few pets, including a tank of fish and a dwarf hamster (like Anna's Skilltes) named Ruby Crane, who has her own facebook page! The girls checked out a bunch of books and we used the self check out for the first time. Great community library!

Library #2 Clearfield Branch in Williamsville

We just returned from the Clearfield Library, one of the Amherst Branches. This Library is part of the Clearfield Community Complex that includes a park, tennis courts and a very fun looking public swimming pool. Inside, this medium sized Library was very busy! It is well organized and we found the children's section very well supplied. There is a raffle for bicycles this summer--children that check out five books get a ticket to have a chance to win one of four different bicycles. We thought this was cool. We had fun at this library.

Orchard Park Library-#1

We went to the Orchard Park Branch after going to work with Dad. It is a pretty big library inside. MaryGrace checked out a few A to Z Mysteries. We asked the librarian to be the first person to sign our log book, so she stamped it!
Anna and MaryGrace