"I've Got a Mule and her name is Sal"

 
 
 
 

Our final tourist stop was at the Erie Canal Village in Rome, NY. Here is a little recreated village of days of the Canal. They have a couple of homes, blacksmith, tavern and a few other buildings. We also got to ride a canal boat pulled by horse and carriage. We rode inside and on top. As you can see, we were serenaded by this woman with songs of the times. We also took a short train ride at the village.

Well, my vacation "slide" show is done. I have really spared you. I have over 200 photos and I have put them in an album. If you want to see more, come on over and I'll show you.

Fort Stanwix National Park

 
 
 
 

This National Park was within walking distance from our motel. Besides having a great exhibit hall, you can go into the fort itself. Once there, we had a wonderful tour guide who went into detail about so many different aspects of the place and time. We couldn't believe that we spent nearly three hours there.

Rome, NY

 

 

 

 

Had to take some pictures of the remarkable artwork on the walls in Rome, NY--note the size of the cars to realize how big some of this is.

Erie Canal Museum, Syracuse, NY

 
 
 

Next stop was the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse, NY. We had a hard time finding it and just felt overwhelmed by the big city of Syracuse. We got to tour a replica of a canal boat and other exhibits. We were told that the canal used to be right in the street in front of us. It's amazing how things change.

We weren't in the big city mood, so we moved on to Rome, NY. The motel we ended up was so much nicer than the first one we stayed at. There was an outdoor pool in a very pretty setting. Everything was clean and people were friendly. I wish this motel were closer, I would go just for a weekend get away and just stay at their pool. The TV in our room was a wall mounted flat screen--and the price for the room was cheaper than the previous. We stayed two nights there before heading home.

Lake Onatario, Oswego, NY

 
 
 
 

Just by chance we came upon this Sampson Memorial Museum, the site of a WWII Navy base and later an Air Force base. They preserved a small portion of it. It is a nice presentation as you walk inside the walls and in various rooms in a circular pattern.
This was on our way to see Lake Ontario. I wanted to see another great lake again. I saw Lake Michigan in January 1975. It was just like the ocean but that was in freezing weather. Lake Ontario was beautiful in August. We saw it from two different parks. At one park we asked a local for a good place for fish and chip. We ended up at Rudy's where we could eat at a picnic table overlooking the lake. We were blessed with such beautiful days on our vacation and such amazing scenery.

Watkins Glen, NY (additonal pictures)

 
 
 
 

Watkins Glen, NY (Vacation blog continued)

 
 
 
 

We were glad we got an early start on the day we went to Watkins Glen. Each day was hot and it was nice to be near the water, but walking on winding uphill paths and a total of over 800 steps, you still get hot.
Thinking of the day we ended up looking down on the 215 foot falls, I was apprehensive as we entered the dark stairway to the glen--having no clue what was in store for us. The falls, and rock formations were gorgeous and fascinating. The paths had us under, over and near falls as the path wound through them. My fear of the unknown and heights had me doubting whether I could go on at one point. When we saw this suspension bridge overhead, I knew I couldn't go across that--I think I'd have to crawl, but as the path took us, we never ended up there. I don't know if it was open to the public. It might have been on the Indian trail which we didn't take.
Some people started from the top and when they passed us we were able to ask them how much further.
So, in the end we did it! And if I had known the unknown I would have been able to do it better. It was not so scary as Taughannock Falls. We were pretty hot and sweaty when we got to the top and glad for bathrooms and water to cool off. It's a beautiful place. I don't know how to put more than four pictures per blog entry, so I think I'll just put some pictures on another entry.