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!
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