Family and Food

At Ithaca Falls

Monday/Tuesday, Sept. 3-4, 2018

We had a really nice visit with Ed, and the more "extended" family. On Monday morning, we drove into Ithaca to visit with Ed's daughter Elisha, her husband Theo, and their two boys, one of whom we met for the first time. He is only about 3 months old, and definitely cute! We also got to catch up with Elisha's mother, Lisa, and her husband, who were also visiting. We were good friends with Lisa in high school, but we've only seen her at family simchas (bat mitzvahs and weddings) for the past few decades, so it was nice to see her with a chance to just chat. It's hard to really "catch up" at a simcha (especially with the mother of the bride!) so we enjoyed seeing her-- usually I have to ask Elisha, "How's your mom?"

After a couple of hours, we left so the kids could maybe take naps, and went to have lunch. Ithaca has a ton of great looking restaurants, but some were not open on Monday. We ended up at Mexithacan for some very tasty Mexican food. It was REALLY hot, and by the time we got into the restaurant, I was melting. So I had a frozen margarita to cool off .

Ed in his garden

From there, we headed back to Ed's, but we stopped of to be tourists for just a few minutes at Ithaca Falls, one of the several wonderful waterfalls in the town. Joe and I had seen Buttermilk Falls when we were here in 2013, but I think we missed this one.

And then we went "home." Joe took a nap, I read my book, and eventually we made some pesto with the basil from Ed's wonderful garden and had dinner on his deck (which had finally cooled down once the sun was going in.)  And that was it for our evening.

This morning (Tuesday) we woke up early. Ed had to leave soon after 7a.m. to go to the Syracuse airport to meet a friend. So Joe and I got going early as well. We had a bit of a time maneuvering ourselves out of Ed's yard-- the driveway wraps around the house. We came in from one side and Ed thought we could drive right out on the other side. But we discovered when we tried it that to get out on that side, we'd have to take a corner of the house with us-- it was just too tight. So we did a "k-turn", in spades! The space was so tight, we went back and forth about a dozen times, one foot at a time, to reverse the RV and go back out the same way we came in.

"Sam" (the RV) between the garden and house-- tight quarters to turn around!

We decided we had one more day for vacation, and by gosh, we'd use it! So we headed for Chenango Valley State Park about 60 miles away. It turned out to be only a short drive further to Binghamton, NY, and a friend had most highly recommended that if we were anywhere nearby, we should go to his family's absolutely favorite restaurant, Little Venice. So we decided to try that for lunch. We drove to the restaurant, and they had thoughtfully left us a big curbside space right in front (otherwise I was concerned about the parking--so it worked perfectly.) Little Venice turned out to be a family owned "institution" in Binghamton since the 1940s, and it was DELICIOUS. Home made pasta cranked out to order, and a secret house sauce. We completely enjoyed our lunch. Ironically, the two restaurant lunches we had, yesterday and today, almost doubled our previous restaurant meals. In 35 days, we've eaten "out" exactly 5 times-- Mexican in Cody, WY, Thai in Lava Hot Springs, ID, Quaker Steak and Lube in Erie, PA, Mexican in Ithaca, and now Italian in Binghamton.

Other than that, the only stop we made today was at a roadside vegetable stand this morning, where we bought some sweet corn, tomatoes, and some fruit. Joe ate an apple right away for a snack, and said it was delicious. We had the corn at dinner, and it was great too! So that was definitely a good stop.

Once we had lunch, we drove back north a few miles to the park, got a nice spot (it is virtually empty here), and both of us took naps! And since then we've been hanging out, reading, blogging, and otherwise relaxing. This is a good way to spend our last day of vacation. Tomorrow, we will have to head back to Highland Park. I hear it is stinking hot. In our RV tonight, thank goodness we have electricity so the AC is going again. If the house is too hot, we may just hook ourselves up at home and stay in the RV. After all, HERE we have CENTRAL air!

We Love Lucy

Sunday, Sept. 2, 2018

Our trip is slowly winding down now. We slept very well in our casino parking lot, where it was quiet all night. A torrential thunderstorm came along at about 9:30 a.m., but other than that, and the thousand or so seagulls who also spent the morning in the parking lot with us (poop!), it was really a nice pause in the action.

We continued on our way just after 10:00, timing ourselves to arrive in Jamestown, NY just before 11:00, the opening time for the Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz museum in the quaint little downtown there. We were lucky to find curbside parking just a couple of doors down from the museum. We enjoyed it very much, although we didn't love it as much as we loved the Wizard of Oz museum in Kansas. It was similar in idea-- a background of both Lucy and Desi's life, and the of The Lucy Show, and of their lives after they moved on from that point.

The Lucy Show started as a radio show called My Favorite Husband, which Lucille Balll starred in (Joey said he's heard most of the episodes on the Olde Time Radio station he listens to on Sirius Radio.) When they decided to make it into a TV show, she suggested her husband Desi Arnaz for the part. The sponsors were not wild about the idea, but eventually they gave in (no Desi, no Lucy!) and the show became the most popular show on television. Interestingly, Jamestown was Lucille Ball's home town. Desi actually came from a very prominent Cuban family--his mother was one of the heirs for Bacardi Rum (her father was one of the three founders) and his father was prominent in Cuban government before Batista took it over. The family owned a lot of property, including in southern California ("Ventura" is a family name.) Desi and Lucy divorced right after the show ended, and she went on to continue her career on television while he concentrated on production behind the scenes. They remained close ,and their company, DesiLu, produced many other hit shows.

We liked the museum, but thought they skimped on information about the actors who played Ethel and Fred Mertz-- they gave at least as much background on the writers and even on some of the people behind the scenes. They also didn't do enough to share the music from Desi's Cuban orchestra, which was quite successful in its own right before he became so involved in DesiLu. We would have liked more interview videos and things like that, and they really needed a small room where they played reruns of the various Lucy TV shows for people to watch (the Wizard of Oz museum continually runs the movie in the museum.) So we think the museum could have been "done" better in some ways, but we did enjoy the stop anyway.

We ran through another torrential downpour to get back to our RV when we left the museum--very glad to have found a parking space so close! We moved a few blocks to a park, to eat some lunch, and then hit the road in earnest to drive to Ed's house for the night. It was nice driving through New York for a change instead of Pennsylvania, although the scenery is similar. We did stop at one rest area and both of us took naps, before proceeding.

We arrived at Ed's, just outside Ithaca, NY, at about 6:30, and spent the rest of the evening just shmoozing. Ed made us a fabulous pizza with his own sauce and veggies from his expansive garden, super yummy! And that was pretty much our evening.

My impression of the Vitameatavegamin Commercial

It's a Wonderful Life, Especially Now that Women Can Vote

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

We started today by setting the GPS toward the Seneca Falls Visitor Center. There we picked up some  brochures to help us find the important landmarks in the town, and perused the very interesting Museum of Waterways and Industry. This gave us an understanding of the way the town developed along the rivers and then the Erie Canal, which is directly north of the city, and some of the major industries which made the town flourish.  

There is another canal, the Seneca-Cayuga Canal, which runs through Seneca Falls along what was originally the riverbed of the Seneca River, and connects the northern tips of those two big finger lakes to the Erie Canal.  The Seneca canal is right behind the visitor center, and after browsing through the exhibit and through the store next door (called “WomanMade Products”, full of great gifts), we moved Samantha down to a visitors parking lot right beside the canal. There we got to see a number of boats which are really counterparts of our RV—they were “camped” at the tie-ups in Seneca Falls, and their owners were clearly enjoying a few relaxing hours beside the water.

 After moving the RV to this new spot, we walked back up to Fall Street, which is the main street in town. There we went to Women’s Rights National Historical Park. Seneca Falls was a center of the women’s rights movement, and the location of the convention 165 years ago which produced the Declaration of Sentiments, a document which used the wording of the Declaration of Independence to articulate the inequities toward women during the 19^th century. Declaration Park is right between the Wesleyan Church where the convention was held in 1848, and the National Park Visitor Center. Its striking feature is a “waterwall” which has the words of the Declaration, and the names of the signers, engraved under a curtain of flowing water.

Inside the Visitor Center are a number of excellent exhibits (a whole small museum, really) focusing on the issues of women’s rights and equality in general in America. There were displays discussing every aspect of life and the different ways the sexes interacted with those things, from exercise to education to fashion. There were interactive displays dealing with significant court cases—such as whether a woman could properly be tried for murder of her husband (the alleged cause was “temporary insanity” due to her suspicion of his infidelity) by an all-male jury; or whether it was a violation of men’s rights that women were not subject to the draft equally with men. There were videos with clips of the depiction of women in film and tv, fashion, beauty ads, etc. All in all, we spent about an hour there and really found it interesting.

From there we walked down the street and since it was already 12:30 or so, decided to eat “in town” rather than go back to the RV. So we stopped at a Chinese restaurant for some lunch. Then we went to the Seneca Falls It’s  A Wonderful Life Museum. We hadn’t realized that Seneca Falls was probably the inspiration for Frank Capra’s Bedford Falls. 

The incident where George leaps into the river to “save” Clarence the angel from drowning was based on a real incident in Seneca Falls. In 1917, a young Italian-American man jumped into the canal to save a woman who had jumped in trying to commit suicide. He was able to save her, but just as she was pulled from his arms, he was swept away and he himself drowned.  The town, which was not fond of Italians nor of immigrants, nevertheless was so moved by this act that the church was filled to overflowing at his funeral, and the citizens subsequently collected money to put a plaque on the bridge with his name, and the phrase “He honored our community; our community honors him.” Frank Capra, who came to the town before the finalization of the script of the movie, saw the bridge and the later scripts were changed to include the episode. The museum itself was very cute, with lots of Beautiful Life memorabilia. Every December, they have a festival in the town, and a number of businesses have names which link them to the movie.

By this time it was about 3pm, and we decided to do a little research on the idea of kayaking on one of the canals. We went to a local kayak rental place and I had a good talk with the guy who ran it. He was most helpful. We decided that we really didn’t want to rush it in the afternoon, so instead we headed back to Cayuga Lake State Park with the intention of relaxing and getting up early tomorrow.  On the way, we explored some more and found our way to Locks 2 and 3 on the Seneca-Cayuga Canal. I spoke to the lockmaster about coming tomorrow morning, and he was very encouraging. Now we know where to go and where to park!  But it was hot and muggy back at the park, so before going back to our campsite, we parked and walked down to the beach on Lake Cayuga. There Joey and I went swimming—we were the only ones there, leading us to conclude that we were the only people swimming in the entire lake! The lake water was very clear and the bottom is sandy, so it was really lovely and not very cold.  It’s a nice little park area, with picnic facilities, playground, and a large bath house.

After about 30 minutes, we were relaxed and no longer hot and sticky, so we came back up to the campsite and sat outside with our books and some cold drinks until it was time for dinner. We are getting ready to go to sleep (Joey just finished his book—the third one on this trip!) and get up early tomorrow. We are going to go back to the canal and go kayaking through the locks before heading east again.

Round and round and up and down

Monday, August 26, 2013

We woke up this morning to rain—it sure makes you appreciate a hard roof when you are camping in rain, I must say! The tents around us looked kind of forlorn under their rain covers. And I was happy to think that my first plan for the day was a museum, so I didn’t really care too much. We can’t complain, either—we’ve had glorious weather up until now.

We left the campground at around 11 and headed for North Tonawanda, a suburb of Buffalo, to visit the Herschell Carrousel (sic) Factory Museum. We’ve always had a “thing” for carousels, and Herschell was one of the famous classic carousel companies.  The museum is set up inside the same factory buildings which were used to carve the animals, construct the carousels, and ship them all over the country and the world. There are large mural-sized photos of the factory when it was in operation, hanging in the same area where the scenes they portray were actually happening.  North Tonawanda was home to four carousel companies through the years, all of them associated at one time or another with Allan Herschell, who brought the "new-fangled" idea to his steam engine factory after he visited New York City and saw a carousel in operation there. Within 2 years of manufacturing their first carousel in 1883, carousels had become 50% of their business.

Early style wooden horses

There are, of course, a lot of carousel animals—mostly horses, but also menagerie animals such as a zebra, a pig, a dog, an ostrich, and a frog. The relatively simple decoration style of his horses was known as the "County Fair" style.The animals on display are from various time periods, and show some of the evolution of the styles used. For instance, only the early horses had ears perked up; later they were carved laid back against the head. One practical reason for this was that riders would often use the ears to hold on to and break them off. Customers complained about this to Herschell and they redesigned the horses.

"Pinto" horse with bearskin saddle

Legs were also tricky. On one hand, they were carved by the apprentice carvers, because they were the easiest part to do. (Journeymen carvers did the bodys, and the Master Carvers did the heads.) But they also broke frequently because people would use them as “steps” to get onto the horses. Eventually the company started making the horses as a composite, with metal legs for increased sturdiness, and wooden bodies.  In the carving room, there was a video explaining all about the process in reproducing carved horses.  We learned that it is easier for the museum to create reproductions than to purchase original horses and restore them.  The frog we saw as part of the carving display was a reproduction—an original sold at auction to a museum for $50,000!  One  very neat thing is that the museum is actively soliciting woodcarvers who would be interested in demonstrating the art of carving to visitors. They even offer woodcarving classes.

The Carving Room. Animals were assembled from several pieces.

I didn’t realize that the first carousels were considered thrill rides for adults, too dangerous for children!  In fact, Herschell was the first to come up with the idea for “kiddie rides”—not only a smaller, slower carousel for children, but the classic car ride, boat ride, plane, and mini-train rides which are still standard at kiddie parks today.  But the earlier adult-sized carousels were thought by some to be a waste of money, and a source of danger and corrupter of morals!  The museum has two operating carousels—a small aluminum one for children, and a large 1916 carousel for us big kids. A ride on the carousel is included with admission. There is also a big collection of Wurlitzer rolls and band-music machines, which were an important part of the carousel mystique. The music is LOUD--the idea being that it would attract customers to the fair, midway, or park where the carousel was installed.

We were more than ready for a late lunch when we left the museum after our carousel ride. (No evidence that our morals had been corrupted, however, LOL!) We discovered that the weather was turning nasty again and we could feel the cold front about to hit. Sure enough, not 10 minutes after we were back in the RV, the skies opened and it poured. We ate our lunch and just let the cloudburst pass over us. By the time we were ready to move again, the rain was stopping.

A Herschell carousel back home in the factory where it was originally made.

Our next destination was Lockport, with a lot of wonderful Erie Canal sites to visit. We were too late for the 3pm boat ride on the canal, so we went first to a nearby campground to check in. Then we went to downtown Lockport and parked right beside the canal. We had time to walk a little bit with Roxy before we left on our boat trip. 

We headed upriver first—that is, toward Buffalo. The water in the canal comes from the Niagara River (after it plunges over the falls) and flows from Buffalo to Albany, down the Hudson, and into the Atlantic. So we are close to the beginning of the canal here in western New York. The boat went through two locks to get up to the same level as Lake Erie. We traveled a bit farther, going under the “Big Bridge”, a bridge which is 399 feet wide (the widest single-span bridge in the country, I think our guide said) and the “upside down” bridge, a railroad bridge with the supporting framework underneath rather than over the tracks. The guide said it was deliberately built this way by the railroad, because they wanted to make it harder for boats to utilize the canal. Any boat which couldn’t pass under the  bridge would be forced to unload and send its cargo on a train from that point.

Lock gates open for us

Then we turned around and went through the locks again, this time being lowered  back to our starting point. From there we cruised downriver, going under two lifted bridges. One stays lifted (it stopped working some years ago and they decided not to fix it, and to leave it in the raised position.) The other one was down, and it went up to accommodate our boat both times we passed under it. We saw a number of other places of interest, and we asked a lot of questions, taking advantage of our semi-private tour! We were one of only two couples on the entire boat!! The ride was cool (temperature-wise, I mean) but it didn’t rain at all. Maybe the storms have passed us by.

Lift Bridge going up to let us under. Red lights and a red/white striped barrier warn cars that the bridge is up.

When the trip was over, it was 7:15. We were getting tired, so back we came to the campground. Tomorrow we are going to have to do some grocery shopping—it’s been quite a while, and our refrigerator is pretty empty. After that, I am not sure which direction we will go!

A Totally Lazy day

Sun setting over Seneca Lake

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Not too much to write about today—we were lazy and relaxed! During past vacations, we have tried to zoom around and keep to a pretty hectic schedule with a lot of driving. This year, we are taking it a lot slower—covering far less territory and not feeling terribly pressured to do much of anything. We decided to stay here all day and a second night, and just relax. We put up the RV awning (it was quite warm today, and our campsite was sunny in the morning) and we read our books all day.

In the late afternoon, we took a walk on a path through the woods and down to the lakefront, to see what the rest of the park looks like. It is a VERY big park with lots of open green space. Considering the warm weather, we might have gone swimming, but it was cool in the shade and somehow the day went by very fast. It was nice to feel like we really didn’t have to do anything if we didn’t want to.

Tomorrow, though, we will be leaving here—we have reservations for the next two nights at Letchworth State Park, about 2 hours drive from here according to Google maps. Of course, we will manage to stretch it out a lot longer than that—somehow we always do. But compared to most of our RV trips, two hours between stops is essentially “right next door.”   We will stop and look at the military museum here at Sampson SP before we leave, and keep our eyes open for anything else interesting on our way. Meanwhile, I am looking through the tourist literature I’ve picked up and trying to decide what to do when we leave Letchworth. I have not ruled out finding another pretty state park and stopping again for a couple of days. After all, we have a LOT of books with us!

Taughannock Falls State Park

Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2013

A busy and lovely day at Taughannock State Park! We drove down to the main area of the park, right on Cayuga Lake, and found an rv-sized parking spot next to the boat launch.  There was even a little bit of shade! Then we headed up the Gorge Trail to Taughannock Falls with Roxy (always so nice when dogs are allowed to join their people!) The path was very easy—no elevation, wide and shady. The final cascade of the Taughannock Creek is right near the road, so we stopped to admire it.

Lower Taughannock Falls

Continuing along the path, it was obvious that the creek was pretty low at this time of year. A lot of the creek bed was dry, and the temptation to walk alongside or even in the water was irresistible to most of the folks following the trail.  We too went into the creek, where Roxy had a drink. 

After a bit, we opted for the shadier path, and got out of the creek channel. The views were still lovely, and it was fun watching the families with small children making their way up through the water. What a great hike for little kids! 

We finally arrived at the base of Taughannock Falls, which we’d seen from the upper overlook yesterday. It is really awesome and beautiful! We walked across the wooden bridge to the other side of the river (Roxy did NOT like the bridge but followed when I led the way and we encouraged her) and spent about 20 minutes just taking photos and looking up at the rock walls. There are interpretive panels all along the river and we enjoyed reading those too.

Close-up: Top of Falls

We finally headed back—the walk back to the RV was a lot quicker than the walk to the falls, because we didn’t  stop for as many photos and panels (plus we stayed out of the water!) We got back to Samantha at 1:00, just in time for lunch.

After eating, relaxing and reading for a little while, it was time for the next big attraction of the park, Cayuga Lake itself. We pumped up our inflatable kayak and walked over to the boat launch which was just a few yards away. How easy! We were out on the lake for about 90 minutes. The park has a beach for swimming, and several launch areas. Folks were also fishing, and we got a kick out of one guy with two black dogs (part lab, both of them.) They were on a jetty fishing, but then he literally picked them both up and tossed them into the water, jumping in after them himself! A few minutes later they all scrambled out onto the rocks and were back on the jetty shaking themselves off. So cute! It is nice to be in a dog-friendly place.

Pointing our kayak toward Cayuga Lake

We were not very energetic, although we paddled all up and down the shore of near our launch site. We also paddled up the river to where it became quite shallow—we could see the base of the falls (the ones near the road, that is) before we turned around. Cayuga Lake was very calm and quiet—there was no wind, and when we didn’t paddle, we just floated right in place quietly. It was VERY relaxing!

We got back to Samantha at about 4:30, and although I was tempted to swim after that (I was hot!), Joey wasn’t in the mood. So instead we decided to head up the road to our next destination, Sampson State park. We stopped at Cayuga Lake Creamery (our ice cream destination yesterday) for a reprise of our respective chocolate ice creams. Roxy got lucky too—I noticed today that they sell a “Doggie Sundae”!  For years Joey has occasionally bought a small vanilla cup for his dogs, and a special sundae topped with a dog biscuit was too cute to resist. Roxy loved the ice cream, but we were not that surprised when she had no interest in the biscuit…. She is simply not a dog-biscuit fan!

From there, it was a short trip to Sampson State Park, on Seneca Lake. The park is quite large, occupying the site of a World War II naval training station. There is a big campground, a marina, a military museum, and of course the lake with trails and bike rentals.  No waterfalls this time, so we are on the shore of the lake, and fairly flat for a change. The shower facilities are nicer than the one at Watkins Glen, and we both took long hot showers tonight, which was lovely. We had a delish steak and salad for dinner.  The campground also has electrical hookups, which is a nice change—we can use real lights instead of flashlights and we don’t have to conserve our power. In fact, I am recharging everything to the max! So we are feeling pretty pampered right now. We will hang around here tomorrow and play a little bit, and decide where to go next. I have no idea yet.