Our blog is going to fast forward to our current life in western New York state, putting the last few months on hold till I can get back to setting those memories into place here. It's been hard dealing with our lack of wifi but that seems to be solved for us now, thank goodness. So I thought, maybe it would be best to start fresh with the month of August and stay current, as much as I can with this life style.
August first we left the coast of Lake Ontario to go a little further east and then south so we could see the city of Rochester, NY. Our drive along the lake was beautiful, slow and very little traffic. It took us a little over an hour to get to our homesite for the next 3 nights at the Brockport Elks Lodge putting us about 30 min west of Rochester. I checked us in and learned that this lodge gives 3 nights of FREE camping to traveling Elks, so we moved out to the edge of the field and set up. That was a nice surprise!
We spent the afternoon at the George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography. And it did take the whole afternoon to tour the house and gardens and learn of this amazing man and his contributions to the city of Rochester, including the renown Eastman College of Music. We joined the 2:00 daily tour of the house and then joined the garden tour to enjoy the beautiful grounds as well.
In the photo above there is a pipe organ hidden behind all the greenery so he could have music playing as he enjoyed this beautiful room.
He was well known for his philantropic endeavors often giving parties yet not always attending. He lived in the home from 1905-1032, during which time his Eastman Kodak Company took off!
He created a really unique and quite beautiful estate complete with 10 acres of working farm land, formal gardens, green houses, stables, barns, pastures and the mansion. Many of the buildings are still standing and the gardens have been redone to reflect what they looked like during his life there.
This was the view from his Mother's bedroom window looking out at the back gardens.
We walked the exterior of the house to see all the gardens he had designed
and came to this 100 year old copper beech tree in one side garden. It was enormous and so beautiful!
After the 2 hours touring the house and gardens we spent the next two hours viewing the 3 different exhibits in the photography museum, now attached to the house. The most exciting to me was the photography of Lewis Hine, an American sociologist and photographer. In 1908 he began using his camera to photograph and help bring about reform in child labor laws.
His other iconic photos are those he took in 1930 when he was commissioned to document the construction of The Empire State Building. He photographed workers in such precarious positions many times taking the same risks as they did in order to get the photo he wanted. To actually see the original photographs was wonderful!
We didn't head back to the car until almost 6:30 and realized while we had been absorbed in the museum, a thunderstorm had rolled through and dropped a huge amount of rain. We had parked the car at the far end of the lot and when we got there it was in the middle of a small lake! Too funny, but at least we had the sense to put the top up on the car. We are trying to remember…this is not California weather.
Saturday morning we set off to see more of the lighthouses back up along Lake Ontario. I had no idea there were so many lights along the southern coast of the lake, but I've decided it will be a fun adventure to try to visit as many as we can. We'd already seen Fort Niagara and we'd walked to the top of Thirty Mile Point the week before. Using this little map, I'm now planning our trip along the route. I have several "passport" booklets I'm keeping and
US Lighthouses is one of them. It only had one stamp, our Point San Luis Light, but now I'm filling the pages with stamps from every visit we make.
There are two near Rochester, Braddock Point which is now a BandB so we drove by and took a couple of photos from the street.
The other is at the opening of the Rochester Harbor, Charlotte-Genesee. I not only got my stamp but also a sticker "I climbed to the top"! When I walked in to the yard there was a huge tree branch on the ground with debris all over as well as along the yards we'd passed on our drive. Turns out that heavy rain from the night before hit this part of the city with hail and caused power outages and trees downed all over. Crazy to experience such different weather here!
Then it was time to take advantage of the wonderful bike path all along the Genesee River, We did only half of it, but it took us along beautiful scenery and under bridges like these. We stopped for our lunch and found these two signs of the history that once was here.
Our ride ended at the lower falls right across the street. So much water!!!!!
Another large tree branch down in the park.
We still had the afternoon to visit the Susan B. Anthony Historic Home, what a thrill! I must have spent at least an hour and a half touring the home and learning of this most amazing woman. There are actually two houses, one was her home she shared with her sister, Mary, and her Mother. The other was the home of another sister, Eliza and her family, it is now the gift shop and houses many exhibits of her life. Our guide was fantastic in telling her story, her struggles and her accomplishments! One little note that took me totally be surprise was "the alligator purse", a jumprope jingle I had taught my 2nd graders years ago and that I learned really referred to the alligator leather bag Ms. Anthony carried much like a brief case.
Right down the street from her home is a sculpture of Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, two friends living in Rochester and fighting for human rights.
Our third day in Rochester was cloudy and wet during the morning but by noon it was drying up so we decided it was a good afternoon to visit the Memorial Art Museum, another one of our free NARM museums. Beautiful architecture and incredible art.
We were wondering through the halls when we heard organ music being played. We followed our ears and ended up hearing a concert played by a graduate student from the Eastman School of Music. The instrument was an Italian Broque Pipe Organ dating from the 1670s with over 600 pipes. Amazing.
After the concert the musician showed us the bellows that create the wind for the sound.
Lots of sculptures all around the outside of the museum, including this one,
Unicorn Family
It was getting late in the afternoon but I didn't want to miss the chance to visit the grave sites of both Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass in the Mount Hope Cemetery.
The Anthony family plot
and Frederick Douglass
Such a wonderful weekend! Now it was time to pack up and head further south to the Finger lakes region of New York.
From the city life of Rochester to the beauty of the Finger Lakes, New York doesn't disappoint at all! We were camping for 2 nights at Letchworth State Park to hike and enjoy what is called The Grand Canyon of the East.
