LAKE CAYUGA, SENECA FALLS & LIGHTHOUSES, NY Aug 18-25, 2014

A fun few days to visit more of the Finger Lake area especially historic Seneca Falls.  The village attracts visitors in a new way now, receiving attention as perhaps the inspiration for the fictional village of Bedford Falls in "It's a Wonderful Life". We walked about town looking for street signs and the bridge where Clarence saves George Bailey. 

 We had a beautiful campsite in the large Lake Cayuga State Park, only a few of the 300 sites were occupied. Amazing what begins to happen the last week or two of August. The weather changed from sunny days to heavy rainfalls flooding our site at times.

 In nearby Auburn we visited the Harriet Tubman Home and had an amazing tour guide who talked through her timeline and her indomitable spirit before walking through her home. Later that afternoon we also toured the Seward House Museum, Secretary of State to Presidents Lincoln and Johnson.

 The rainy days started but perfect for a visit back to Seneca Falls to see The Women's Rights Historical park including the site of the first Women's Rights Convention 1848, the National Women's Hall of Fame and the Seneca Falls Historical Museum.

Walking around town we saw this beautiful sculpture of Elizabeth Caty Stanton, Lucretia Mott and Susan B. Anthony and when we entered the museum the sculptures continue to amaze.  We finished our visit with a stop and Ranger Guided tour of Elizabeth Caty Stanton's home

 The National Women's Hall of Fame is a smaller museum down the street filled with biographies of women in every field of interest. The exciting thing is that the museum will soon be moving into a much larger historic building across the river, where there will be enough room to display the artifacts  of individual women that have been in storage up until now.

 After 4 nights at the park it was time to move further north for a couple day stay at Fair Haven State Park up on Lake Ontario. This part of the state has shoreline bluffs and beaches. Nearby is the Chimney Bluffs State Park, not for camping but for a hike along the ridge to view these striking formations, massive spires, constantly eroding and creating a unique landscape for the lake

 Another day's outing was to see the Big Sodus Lighthouse at Sodus Bay. With my Lighthouse Passport book in had I had a fascinating visit with the curator and a walk to the top of the light.

 From there it was only a short drive out to the bay to see the second lighthouse on the bay, one that has been moved 4 times due to the constantly changing shoreline.

 This is apple country and along the way we stopped to pick up a bag of the local fruit. These little stand are everywhere with only a cash box there to leave your $.  Very fun

 That evening we found a beautiful sunset spot back at Little Sodus Bay, along with several of the pirates that were singing and laughing after all the Pirate Days events earlier.

 Sunday the sun returned and gave us a perfect day for putting the kayak in the little bay.

 Sunday evening we also got a chance to see the local ice cream truck that comes through the campground on the weekends.  It's a 1952 truck that's been doing this for over 56 years! The 91 year old owner's son now drives the truck, while he runs the concession stand down at the beach.

We extended our stay, moved to a new campsite and enjoyed 2 more days at the park.  The campground with electric sites is on the hillside and much more crowded than other state parks, especially annoying when our neighbor had 3 barking dogs she left for hours. But the rangers were good about following up on that. Our second site was really beautiful and much larger! Once the weekenders move out on Sunday the whole park takes on a new feel. Before we left on Tuesday morning we had a wonderful visit with John Schirano, a friend of a friend who is doing the same travel style as we are. We finally got to meet over breakfast!  Then off we were again for more new adventures!

FINGER LAKES AUGUST 14-18, 2014

Finally getting internet service strong enough to post up our travels from mid August. Right now I'm sitting in the car outside the beautiful library in Old Forge, NY.  The library closed an hour ago but they offer their wifi 24/7 and even post a sign on the door saying you're welcome to use it outside any time you wish, so here we are.  It's a very rainy and cold day for us, no hikes, no biking; blog time works out great.

These photos take us back a month to our stay at Sned Acres Family Campground near Senaca Lake in the Finger Lakes region of NY. We used another Passport America park within driving range of several beautiful parks and towns we wanted to visit. We stopped in Watkins Glen with plans to visit the gorge and state park but the traffic was pretty heavy so instead parked at the WalMart and took off on our bikes along the Catherine Trail for the afternoon. The trail took us to the darling little village of Montour Falls and this beautiful waterfall right at the west end of town.

 The house sits right in front of the falls but we walked to the left side and were able to get closer to the falls themselves.

 A beautiful warm day for a ride with coffee in town when finished.

 From there we continued north about an hour to the campground for a 4 night stay.

FRIDAY  morning we left early to see the famed and stunningly beautiful Watkins Glen.

 Stone steps and paths led under water falls and along the gorge for an hour or more.

 Since we were there just as it opened there weren't a lot of crowds until we started our return.

 Even then, it was just a beautiful sight to see!

One of my favorite photos was of this Amish family out for the day.  The two little boys were barefoot but wearing identical clothing and hat as their dads. 

From the beauty of the glen to the popular NASCAR race track nearby where Paul tried sitting in a car after we watched a few rounds of Porsches on the track

 We had avoided visiting this town the week before when the NASCAR fans were in town.

On the drive home we stopped to see Taughannock Falls from a lookout, waterfalls and rivers everywhere we looked!

SATURDAY, was sunny and beautiful and a short drive south took us to Ithaca, NY. First stop was at the H. F. Johnson Museum of Art on the Cornell University campus. Pk took a break on the comfy bench to view the ceiling art out on the outdoor terrace.

A drive through the campus

and then a stop at the Cornell Plantations, actually beautiful gardens and walks

Next on the list was a stop at the Itahaca Farmer's Market for lunch and some veggies.

Then heading a little south of town there was still time to hike at Buttermilk Falls State Park which takes its name from the foaming cascade of the Buttermilk creek flowing into Cayuga Lake.

A roadside stop on our ride back at Lodi, NY.  Being born in Lodi, CA, this was a fun find!

SUNDAY was time to check out the wine trail which the region is famous for. Our last stop was at a winery/brewery.  You could choose to taste at both venues, I chose the brewery and we sat outside with this beautiful view overlooking Seneca Lake in the late afternoon.  Clouds had covered the sky off and on, but the temps were warm.

TUMBLE HILL CAMPGROUND COHOCTON, NY AUGUST 6-13, 2014

Using our Passport America discount we stayed for a week at Tumble Hill Campground in the tiny town of Cohocton, in the southern part of the state.  It was a pretty and wooded campground, with a very steep gravel road into the park.  We were surprised to learn once we were set up that there was a problem with their well and we wouldn't have much water for the time we were there.  Thank goodness Paul had filled or tanks before we came in, and using bottled water we did fine. 

Our first day out was to Elmira, NY the summer residence of Mark Twain and locale where he wrote many of his novels. We were originally planning to visit an Art Museum there but after learning about Mark Twain's connection to the town we spent the afternoon at the cemetery and the Center for Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College. At the end of the afternoon we still had time to visit the local history museum with more Mark Twain displays.

At the cemetery we found his gravesite and family plot, such beautiful inscriptions on the headstones. 

Then back to the college campus to see the original study where he had often worked

 and even the typewriter he used.

 A statue of Mark Twain stands in the center of the campus of town.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 8
Friday we planned a trip north to Canandigua to see the Sonnenburg Gardens.

 The property has 9 different garden areas and the retired mansion.

 SATURDAY, AUGUST 9
A shorter day's outing was to Stony Brook State Park to climb through the gorge.  Waterfalls everywhere and steep climbs to the top. We took the ridge route back to the park, a nice warm day and perfect couple of hours hiking.

 SUNDAY, AUGUST 10
It was a beautiful and warm day, perfect for a ride to see some countryside with no real destination in mind.  After winding around we came to the town of Hammondsport.  The signs that caught our attention were for the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum of aviation. Glenn Curtiss began his career as a builder of bicycles and then motorcycles, and eventually went into designing aircraft.

 The museum was filled with historic bikes, motorcycles, airplanes and even this old trailer from the 1930s.

 We ended the afternoon in the sweet town square of Hammondsport; ice cream for PK and a refreshing beer for me!

 MONDAY, AUGUST 11
A little different focus for the day on Monday. Foster had woken us up during the night several times with a sad crying sound and unable to walk. We couldn't figure out what was wrong so by 10 we called a vet and made an appointment for the afternoon.  After checking him out, the Dr. said she couldn't find anything wrong with him and suggested that he'd pulled a muscle or injured a shoulder but that with time it would probably heal. Thank goodness she was correct! We paid the  $40 vet bill (that was amazing price for the whole visit) and took him home. He favored the leg and limped a bit, but in a few days he was back to himself.  Im sure going up and down 5 steps into and out of the motorhome doesn't help.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 12
We were up really early Tuesday morning to move out of the park and take the Motorhome in for a repair of the continuing problem with the exhaust manifold. The repair we'd tried weeks before had not fixed the problem, the horrible sound had returned. Paul found a small truck repair shop right near our campground and the man had agreed to take a look at the problem. That morning it was pouring rain, I took Foster in the car and went to the little town of Dansville about 25 miles north, Paul stayed with the RV. I spent the morning at the local coffee house and then at the library checking in with PK every couple of hours. By 3:00 the motorhome was fixed!!!!  Paul was soooooo excited that the mechanic was willing to keep working and figured out a solution for it.  I drove down and we met up  and we moved to a new campground a little further south, at the Lake Demmon Recreation Area.  A mucky day to move and the park wasn't much to look at but, we had full hook ups and a well running RV. We were happy!!!

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13
Corning Museum of Glass and the Rockwell Museum of Western Art, Corning, NY
A beautiful day and a pretty ride back road drive an hour and a half south to Corning, NY to tour the Musuem of Glass, amazing!!!  Even stopped in the town of Bath for their Farmer's Market.

 My favorite glass sculpture

 The museum has a beautiful history of glass display and art work by glass artists including this one by Dale Chihuly.

 After a couple of hours we had our picnic lunch and went to visit the other wonderful museum in Corning; The Museum of Western Art.  I wasn't too excited about the subject UNTIL we walked into the museum and toured the 3 floors of amazing art and sculptures.  I'm so glad we didn't miss this one, it was fantastic!

 Now with the Motorhome fully repaired and Foster running and happy once again we made a move to the Finger Lakes region of New York. Our plan was to spend the next two weeks seeing as much as we could.