Sunday, May 27, 2007

Kids...

Memorial weekend... a NY adventure for kids (our godson Dillon & his brother Peyton).
Question - What's not too far from our house that is kid friendly AND that John & I had yet to explore? Answer - Oneida Lake. Packing a picnic, we headed off to the Verona Beach State Park on Oneida Lake. It comes complete with playground (I had forgotten when a kid is told to take off his shoes before going to play in the sandy playground, it doesn't necessarily mean take off your socks too...) It is a lovely park with lots of picnic tables and shady trees but of course the highlight was the beach area. Sand castles are always in. The water temp was 71 - a bit too cool even to temp the kids. The crazies in the water at the top of the photo were all teens.

When the adults had reached their "sand limit", we headed a couple miles down the road to Sylvan Beach that has a fun little amusement park for kids... & us. It celebrated its 50th anniversary last year and many of the original arcade machines and old timey rides are still there. Bumper cars, Tilt-A-Whirl (photo shows mom Kathleen with sons Peyton & Dillon), Haunted House (the track designed by a pretzel maker) and now more funny than haunted (I speak from experience) etc. etc.

The arcade (now a quarter, not a penny) has all sorts of games where you win tickets and exchange them for prizes (VERY cheap prizes I might add). John hit the jackpot and (did he share with the kids? - NO WAY) he turned his tickets in for a VERY cheap wrist watch to wear in his workshop.

In return he "got" to take Peyton on his first (and probably John's last) roller coaster ride. Notice that even though John looks a bit pale he is wearing a wrist watch on both wrists just to show he was a winner.

Truth be told, I think Peyton (& certainly John) had much more fun when we got home going for a ride on the tractor.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Going north for spring...

Our adventure this week started off with a stop at the end of our road to give you a snapshot of the trillium in full bloom in the woods. The logging trail was put in last year (this used to the ALL trillium) but it is still one of the prettiest sights around.

For years we've heard about Rochester's Lilac Festival - after all, gathering to see their lilacs has been an annual event since 1898. Once in Rochester you really don't need directions... just follow your nose. They have over 500 varieties (all in bloom) on 22 acres - a pretty heady experience (probably NOT the event for you if your subject to allergies). The variety in the photo is called Avalanche. The Park Dept. was very kindly selling plants so of course our garden now has one too. And if you want to wear the scent of lilacs all year long, the festival sells lilac perfume made from buds and blossoms harvested by volunteers and sent to a perfume company for processing (I refrained... enough is enough).

Highland Park where the lilacs are is worth a trip in itself. It was designed by Fred. Law Olmstead who also designed Central Park. Some of the trees look like they might have been original to the park when it was given to the city in 1888. (Fortunately for our yard the Park Dept. was only selling lilacs...)

Since it was a pretty day we decided to head home via the Seaway Trail that skirts the shore of Lake Ontario and goes through some of NY's apple orchards - in full bloom right now. (It takes a LOT of trees for NY to produce 25 million bushels of apples each year!) Our tourism map had a little dot for Chimney Bluffs State Park (we'd never heard of it but it sounded interesting). Turns out it encompasses a section of shoreline being eroded away by Lake Ontario. A fairly exciting trail with warning signs not to get too close to the edge. Parts of the trail have obviously slipped over the edge since last year (probably NOT the best hike to take after a rain). But it was beautiful with lots of photo opts. I particularly liked the bit of sod still clinging to the top of the bluff in the right of the photo.

While the trail is definitely "hike at your own risk", I guess the state did feel the need to reinforce the fact that the road is also dropping off (perhaps they were getting too many nominations for the Darwin Awards...).

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

In search of Millard Fillmore...

Our goal for this trip was to find the birthplace of Millard Fillmore, our 13th President and the only one born in New York State.
It had been years since we were in the village of Homer so we decided to stop there on our way. The center of town, 170 stores and homes, is listed on the Federal Registry of Historical Places, and is a VERY pretty place to walk around, especially in the spring. As far as claims to fame, they do boast this is where the "real" David Harum lived. (Do you recognize the name? It was a VERY popular novel in 1898 and was later made into a movie with Will Rodgers.) Homer is also home to 3 rare lenticular (a new word for me - something to do with metal cabling) truss bridges built in 1881 (the "kit" was made in Connecticut). Two are now "pedestrian only" bridges including the one in the picture. The Wall Street bridge is a fully functional one lane bridge (no weight limit but a large truck would not fit).
Although I have about 50 pounds of NYS tourism info, nothing tells you exactly where Millard Fillmore was born - just a dot on the tourism map outside of Homer. We finally happened upon "Millard Fillmore Road" and, putting two and two together... The picture shows the site. Pretty exciting, right??!!! Let's see - they have that pathetic little sign on the right which says "Millard Fillmore Birthplace" in small letters and "Open Dawn to Dusk" in big letters; a bigger sign down on the left by the flag... however, that just shows a map of the Millard Fillmore trail; to the right of the flag there's a very nice bronze plaque mounted on granite... however, that's in memory of MF's biographer, Robert Scarry; down by the main road there is a NYS historical marker (from 1932) that says he was born in a cabin here but that's all; and (I almost forgot) 4 picnic tables in various stages of disrepair. (Some say he's our most forgotten president - perhaps they are right.)
Although this site was a bit of a disappointment, remember the next time you flush the toilet that it was Millard Fillmore who put indoor plumbing in the White House. And of course you can Google him and learn more including the details of his last run for President in 1856 as a member of the Know Nothing Party...
Since that little adventure didn't take up a much time, we decided to stop at the 1890 House in Cortland (another thing we've been intending to do for years). It was VERY interesting. Five floors of "things" to look at (have you ever seen a Tiddlytennis game?), not to mention the lovely architecture. It was built (you guessed it) in 1890 for Chester Wickwire and is the mirror image of a house in NYC (another trip). What you may not know is you probably have one of his inventions in your home - screen wire. He ran a hardware store. One of his customers who couldn't pay his bill gave him a carpet loom instead of cash. It must have been black fly season because Wickwire got the idea of weaving metal instead of carpets. It worked. Wickwire built a factory (closed in 1972 - who knows where it comes from now) and made a fortune.
Speaking of black flies - it's that season in upstate NY so camping is OUT for me until they're gone in June as I'm allergic. But don't dismay, more exciting day trips are planned (this one was just late getting posted because our computers have been in the shop for the last ten days).









Sunday, May 06, 2007

It starts with a C...


Every year for at LEAST eight years, we and our friends Leigh & Bruce have been making New Year's resolutions (perhaps that's a bit of a stretch but close...) that we HAVE to go to the Corning Museum of Glass. So, with you all as inspiration (after all I did promise you a new place each week and promises are more binding than resolutions), we finally did it. Printed on the glass entrance doors is "Corning Museum of Glass" as proof that we actually gave up a BEAUTIFUL day to venture indoors. (Just so you know how beautiful it was, our car and about a dozen others - probably staff cars, were the only ones in the parking lot. There were, however, about 2 dozen tour buses with mostly Asian visitors. In fact the glass blowing demonstration received a live interpretation in Mandarian so that gives you some clue.)

So what was it like? It was as beautiful as the day and well worth the trip. We started out diligently reading every sign board, then just the title or the artist, then just sort of strolling past all these glass objects. Our eyes were about as glassy as the display of glass eyeballs by the time we came to them.

However, I LOVED this little "perfume diffuser". The sign said they didn't actually know for sure what it was used for. (I also saw it during my "strolling" phase so forgot to note where it was from - maybe Italy????- or when it was made. Sorry. You'll have to go yourself and find out.) Anyway, did you ever see an object like this with such an attitude? And in something so small? It was only about 8 inches tall.

You probably guessed the window is Tiffany. It's the first one that was commissioned for a private house. (They didn't say how they happened to acquire it. Somewhere on the Hudson is probably "what used to be" a grand house with a plain old Anderson window.) Tiffany said something to the effect that he didn't understand why Americans had such a problem adding color to their clothing and their architecture. Perhaps I'll try to add a colorful shirt to my wardrobe - am not sure I'm ready for a purple house yet.

Just so we didn't get too bored with "the collection" there was a large exhibit of innovations including an exhibit on lenses and mirrors. Since you seldom see a photo of me... (By this point we had moved from our "glassy eyed" to "loopy" phase.)

In case you missed it, Saturday was Derby Day. We stopped on the way home at a bar in Ithaca to cheer for "our horse". LUCK is our middle name!!!! (We didn't have a dime bet on "our horse"...)

Until next week...