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Sept. 15-16 The Captain’s Birthday Part II

“Earth and Sky, Woods and Fields, Lakes and Rivers, the Mountain and the Sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.”  –John Lubbock
We had a great time in Canandaigua, but after a few days we decided to drive down to Corning to visit the Corning Museum of Glass. In the seven seasons we’ve been here we have visited Corning several times, but never seemed to have the time to get to the museum. I’m glad we finally made the time. It’s a beautiful place.

CONTINUE READING HERE…»

Sept. 15-16 The Captain’s Birthday Part II

“Earth and Sky, Woods and Fields, Lakes and Rivers, the Mountain and the Sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.”  –John Lubbock
We had a great time in Canandaigua, but after a few days we decided to drive down to Corning to visit the Corning Museum of Glass. In the seven seasons we’ve been here we have visited Corning several times, but never seemed to have the time to get to the museum. I’m glad we finally made the time. It’s a beautiful place.

Our dock neighbor worked for Corning most of his life and has filled us in on how involved they’ve been in scientific discoveries and things that have made our lives better. They don’t just make dinnerware. The fiber optics we use, the glass on our phones and TVs, huge telescope lenses and items for space travel are just a few of the things they have developed. There was so much to see and learn, like most museums it was too much for just one day. We had some great leftover pizza, cheese and wine so we had another picnic today. I wish I had taken a picture, because instead of our usual beautiful setting it was in the parking lot of the museum…in our car! It was just too breezy and chilly outside today.

This photo shows the museum and the beautiful area around Corning, NY.

The Contemporary Arts and Design section of the museum.

The Netflix series Blown Away is filmed at the Corning Museum of Glass. I’ve watched some of it, but I may need to check it out again. This little guy was created by John Sharvin in episode 6: Under the Big Top. It’s called Walter’s Audition.

While you are at the museum you can see many hands-on demonstrations, take a class or even make something of your own. During this demo they made a pretty blue water pitcher. It took him 15 minutes to complete and it sells for $162 in the gift shop.

Some of the fun things we saw at the museum. The orange bowl depicts the skyline of San Francisco.

Dale Chihuly’s style is unmistakable. We visited one of his museums in St. Petersburg, Florida years ago and I fell in love with his work. This piece is called Fern Green Tower. It stands over 15′ high and has 712 handmade elements.

It’s pumpkin season in New York and Corning.

The store at the museum was amazing…glass from here and everywhere else in the world.

Corning is a beautiful little town along the Cohocton River. Market Street is full of shops and nice restaurants.

We actually chose to come down to Corning at this time so we could enjoy their Harvest Festival. There were tons of vendors and musicians along Market Street.

We had dinner at an Italian Restaurant called Sorge’s. We both had the Milano dish served with artichoke hearts, tomatoes and capers in a creamy garlic butter sauce. Stan of course had salmon and I had chicken. 

While we were in Corning we heard about another event going on this weekend in Hammondsport, NY. We love visiting this little village on Keuka, so on Saturday morning we drove up to check out the Wings & Wheels: Seaplane and Car Show. It was a wonderful fall day and it was a highlight of our trip. The event was put on by Glenn H. Curtiss Museum and featured seaplane demonstrations and more than 60 vehicles in the car show. 
Just a few of the neat cars on display throughout downtown. 
Glenn H. Curtiss was an American aviation and motorcycling pioneer, and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He designed and built the first successful pontoon aircraft in America and his aircrafts were the first to take off and land on the deck of a ship. Curtiss built the first U.S. Navy aircraft and trained the first two naval pilots.
We sat on the wall next to the boat ramp. We had a front roll seat to all the action.
Some of the boats had pontoons and wheels, some had just wheels and others had just pontoons. I’ve only seen seaplanes with pontoons before now.
This little plane only had wheels.
And took off quickly.
This little piper cub is just like the one that Stan’s Daddy had, except it had pontoons instead of wheels. It brought back a lot of great memories for him.
These little guys came in like a boat…
and drove right up on shore.
The seaplanes showed how they take off and then did a bombing demo. Each plane was given grapefruits which they had to drop between the two yellow buoys. It was harder than it sounds…can you see the splash in the water? This plane was the closest to the target. The next thing they demonstrated was landing precession. They came around and had to touch down between the same buoys. That seemed to be difficult too. It was a lot of fun to watch.
 

Sept. 13-15 The Captain’s Birthday Part I

“Travel often; Getting lost will help you find yourself.” — Holstee Manifesto

We celebrated Stan’s birthday by taking a small trip to The Lake House in Canandaigua. It’s a very nice resort hotel on Canandaigua Lake. Kyle and Brytanie gave us a gift card for this hotel after we kept the kids in May.

Our first stop on the way to Canandaigua was a picnic at the Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard. It’s one of the top wineries on Seneca Lake.

CONTINUE READING HERE…»

Sept. 13-15 The Captain’s Birthday Part I

“Travel often; Getting lost will help you find yourself.” — Holstee Manifesto

We celebrated Stan’s birthday by taking a small trip to The Lake House in Canandaigua. It’s a very nice resort hotel on Canandaigua Lake. Kyle and Brytanie gave us a gift card for this hotel after we kept the kids in May.

Our first stop on the way to Canandaigua was a picnic at the Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard. It’s one of the top wineries on Seneca Lake.

CONTINUE READING HERE…»

August Updates

“I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.” -Albert Einstein

August has flown by and the fall weather has already arrived. We’ve had a pretty mild summer temperature wise. Unfortunately those temperatures were kept in check by all the scattered rain showers we’ve had. It seems like we get a little sun and a little rain everyday.

CONTINUE READING HERE…»

August Updates

“I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.” -Albert EinsteinAugust has flown by and the fall weather has already arrived. We’ve had a pretty mild summer temperature wise. Unfortunately those temperatures…

Aug. 31 – Exploring Six Mile Creek

“Why fit in when you were born to stand out” —Dr. Seuss
We took advantage of a beautiful day to explore an area of Ithaca we haven’t been to since 2017. We parked at Mulholland Wildflower Preserve and hiked up to what is called the second dam on Six Mile Creek. The water was very muddy and moving quickly from all the rain we’ve had. Once at the bottom of the dam we backtracked to a trail that took us to the top of the dam and the reservoir. At the top of the dam we found a great spot along the cliff to enjoy our picnic.

The bottom of the dam.

Part of the trail to the top of the dam.

The view of the top of the dam.

Our lunch spot.

Our lunch…homemade chicken salad, cheese, crackers, wine and cake.

The muddy reservoir above the second dam. This is where we saw kids swimming the first time we were here. One of our views during lunch.

Some of the interesting things we saw along the trail.
After lunch we made our way back to our car to leave our picnic basket and then explored the creek north of Giles St. We’ve been in the area for years and didn’t realize this beautiful waterfall existed just a mile from downtown. 

Wells Falls, also known as the Businessman’s Lunch Falls, is 65 feet tall and drops in a series of four drops. Of these, the largest is a 30-foot man-made dam. It’s located directly adjacent to an abandoned power plant. The Van Nattas Pumping Station was built in 1893 on the site of an old flour mill. It provided water for the city both for drinking and for fire stations. Over the years, the site grew as new pumps were added so it could create electricity. Since the 1940s, the station has sat abandoned next to Wells Falls creating one of the most unique waterfalls in New York.

The top of Wells Falls.

Hiking down the hill to the bottom of the falls.

Looking over the cliff to the road that leads to the falls. 

Looking back at the cliff where I took the photo above. We took this road back to Gile St. It was a bit easier than the route we took coming down.

The bottom of Wells Falls.

Aug. 31 – Exploring Six Mile Creek

“Why fit in when you were born to stand out” —Dr. Seuss
We took advantage of a beautiful day to explore an area of Ithaca we haven’t been to since 2017. We parked at Mulholland Wildflower Preserve and hiked up to what is called the second dam on Six Mile Creek. The water was very muddy and moving quickly from all the rain we’ve had. Once at the bottom of the dam we backtracked to a trail that took us to the top of the dam and the reservoir. At the top of the dam we found a great spot along the cliff to enjoy our picnic.

The bottom of the dam.

Part of the trail to the top of the dam.

The view of the top of the dam.

Our lunch spot.

Our lunch…homemade chicken salad, cheese, crackers, wine and cake.

The muddy reservoir above the second dam. This is where we saw kids swimming the first time we were here. One of our views during lunch.

Some of the interesting things we saw along the trail.
After lunch we made our way back to our car to leave our picnic basket and then explored the creek north of Giles St. We’ve been in the area for years and didn’t realize this beautiful waterfall existed just a mile from downtown. 

Wells Falls, also known as the Businessman’s Lunch Falls, is 65 feet tall and drops in a series of four drops. Of these, the largest is a 30-foot man-made dam. It’s located directly adjacent to an abandoned power plant. The Van Nattas Pumping Station was built in 1893 on the site of an old flour mill. It provided water for the city both for drinking and for fire stations. Over the years, the site grew as new pumps were added so it could create electricity. Since the 1940s, the station has sat abandoned next to Wells Falls creating one of the most unique waterfalls in New York.

The top of Wells Falls.

Hiking down the hill to the bottom of the falls.

Looking over the cliff to the road that leads to the falls. 

Looking back at the cliff where I took the photo above. We took this road back to Gile St. It was a bit easier than the route we took coming down.

The bottom of Wells Falls.

Aug. 17-20 Cayuga Lake Vacation

“The Lake….where families go to make memories.” -Author Unknown

We spent this year’s last family lake vacation at a nice house just south of Seneca Falls on Cayuga Lake. The weather was beautiful, but a bit too windy to spend time on the boat riding on the raft…no problem we found other things to do. We spent our first full day taking the boat through part of the Cayuga–Seneca Canal. This part of the New York canal system connects the Erie Canal to Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake. It was built in 1818. Since we were already in Cayuga Lake we took everyone through C2 and C3 that leads to the town of Seneca Falls. These locks are a set of locks called a staircase or flight. We were lifted up a total of 49′ from the Seneca River to Van Cleef Lake. Check out this old blog post to see how a lock works. We wandered around town a little and then had lunch before we headed back to the house.

CONTINUE READING HERE…»

Aug. 17-20 Cayuga Lake Vacation

“The Lake….where families go to make memories.” -Author Unknown

We spent this year’s last family lake vacation at a nice house just south of Seneca Falls on Cayuga Lake. The weather was beautiful, but a bit too windy to spend time on the boat riding on the raft…no problem we found other things to do. We spent our first full day taking the boat through part of the Cayuga–Seneca Canal. This part of the New York canal system connects the Erie Canal to Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake. It was built in 1818. Since we were already in Cayuga Lake we took everyone through C2 and C3 that leads to the town of Seneca Falls. These locks are a set of locks called a staircase or flight. We were lifted up a total of 49′ from the Seneca River to Van Cleef Lake. Check out this old blog post to see how a lock works. We wandered around town a little and then had lunch before we headed back to the house.
The house

This house had a great movie and game room above the garage. The perfect place for a family movie night.

The kids get to the marina around lunch each time we rent a house. So we have a little time to fill before we can check in. This time we had lunch on the boat then rode bikes along the trails by the marina and played in the park.

After playing we stopped at the Sheldrake Point Winery to enjoy a little wine and a beautiful day.

We spent a lot of time at the house just hanging out together, relaxing, playing games, eating and celebrating Hattie’s 4th birthday.

The view from the front porch was nice in the evening and in the morning.

On our way to Seneca Falls.

These boards are at each lock to inform boaters of their elevation and how far it is to the next lock.

Heading into lock C2. It lifted us up 24.5′.

Once inside we put a line around a cable so we could stay close to the side of the lock.

Once inside and ready the Lock Master closes the door and the water begins to fill the lock.

Going up!

Once we were through the two locks we were in Van Cleef Lake and right in the heart of Seneca Falls.

Everyone had a great time on the way home.

Graham was the captain most of the way back.

Our second full day was beautiful…but very windy. Kyle and Graham explored in the kayaks before we tried to have fun on the runabout. It was just too rough, so we played at home.

The waterfront was pretty and we had plenty of room to play, but it wasn’t very nice for swimming. Luckily the weather was cool and we really didn’t want to swim. 

Our traditional last night fire and s’mores. It’s our way of saying goodbye to summer.