Niagara Falls/Finger Lakes week-end About This Page:

[Janet 46]

Adventurers: Janet (44)
Rusty (41)
Purpose: Week-end getaway without the kids

We planned to leave first thing Friday morning. Problem is, my idea of 1st thing is quite alot later than my husband's. I thought we'd be out by 9 or 9:30, he thought we should be on the road no later than 8. DS's bus for school doesn't leave until 8:25 and we needed to drop off DD at Rusty's parents house. Everyone had orange juice, cereal and milk for breakfast so that I wouldn't have to spend a lot of time cleaning up before we left. Unforunately, 3 year old DD somehow got milk in her hair and I had to spend half an hour washing and drying it.
I was mostly packed except for last minute items and I had packed twice as much for the kids to spend the week-end at their grandmother's house. My sister was going to come in each day to bring in the mail and newspaper and check on the bird. We had a reservation at a bed and breakfast on Conesus Lake for 2 nights. Rusty wanted to go to Watkins Glen, I wanted to go to Niagara Falls, but otherwise we had no real plans.
We drove to Rusty's parents house which is only 3 miles away. When we arrived, only DFIL was there but he said Mom would be back soon. I gave him all kinds of last minute instructions for picking up DS after school, make sure they both take a bath and brush their teeth, what they are allowed to snack on,etc. Just as I was finishing, MIL walked in so I gave her instructions too. We finally left at 10:00 am.
It was raining as we started out and the forecast was for rain all week-end. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img] Not my favorite weather. We drove away on Route 80 into Pennsylvania. I never realized that I have a habit of reading just about any sign that I see. I can be very annoying! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] We passed a big outlet mall in Pennsylvania (Crossroads? I think) and I told Rusty that I might need to buy new sneakers on our trip. He said I'd be wearing my water boots all week-end anyway because where we were going, it was going to be very wet.
We turned North onto 81 and headed for Binghampton. We were both familiar with this stretch of road because his mother's family came from a town near Syracuse and we had visited them from time to time. When we reached Binghampton, we headed west on Rte 17 toward the Finger Lakes.
I kept reading the little signs that tell you which restaurants are at each exit and around Corning, he agreed to stop for lunch.

[PS - I LUV WDW]

Another trip report [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Thanks!

[iloverags2]

Cool! Niagara Falls. I've always wanted to go...looking forward to the rest of your trip report!

[Janet 46]

We drove through the town of Corning and went past the Corning Glass Museum. We agreed to stop there on our way back if it was raining. Otherwise, neither of us felt it was a priority. We found a little Italian restaurant named Sigore's. We parked in the metered lot but when we tried to put a quarter in the meter box, it kept spitting it back out. After about 8 tries, Rusty decided that it was broken. We went inside and sat at a booth. I ordered a chicken salad sandwich and Rusty had chicken parm. Both were really good! and the bill was only $8.50. Rusty asked the waitress about the parking meter and she said someone had reported it to the police so we didn't have to worry about a ticket. When we finished, Rusty asked the guy behind the counter (the cook) the easiest way to get back to Rt. 17 West. The cook said "Towards Binghampton?" No, West. The cook said "Towards Syracuse?" No, west, we said. The cook said "Where are you folks heading?" I said towards Rochester. He said "Oh, you're going that way" and he pointed over his shoulder. [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] He gave us simple directions and we were on our way.

[Janet 46]

Rusty had heard about a place called Letchworth State Park that was supposed to have 3 waterfalls and a river running through it, and it was just southwest of Conesus Lake where we were staying. He said he'd like to go there for the afternoon and then head out to the B&B. I said okay and consulted the map to figure out where to exit the road. We got off in Dansville but we had no idea where to go from there. Rusty said he needed batteries for his camera, so we stopped at CVS pharmacy and I asked a couple of local people where Route 436 was and told them we were going to Letchworth. Neither of them seemed to have any idea so we got back into the car and managed to stumble upon it on our own. After a 20 minute drive, we came to the entrance and stopped at the booth. For a $5 entrance fee, the lady gave us a guide book, a map and a bunch of brochures.

We started off on Park road and if I didn't know better, I would have sworn that I was on Skyline Drive in the mountains of Virginia. It was really pretty. The map said the first overlook was Upper Falls, but unfortunately, the road was closed. We drove further and came to a parking area with buildings on each side of the road. To the left was a museum and to the right was the Glen Iris Inn hotel and restaurant. Rusty needed to use the facilities and I needed to call the B&B to let them know we would be arriving late. Once that was accomplished, I got back into the car because it was starting to rain again. (Notice a theme here?) I consulted the guide book which said that the inn had been the home of William Letchworth - in fact all 14000 acres had been his but was donated to the state when he died in the early 1900's. It said that the Inn had a lovely view of the falls. At that point, Rusty returned and said he was going to walk behind the inn to see it. I told him to let me know if it was worth it for me to get out of the car in the rain. He had walked no more than 30-40 feet when he nodded his head and beckoned me to join him.

[Janet 46]

I put on my Mickey Mouse rain poncho and my NY Yankees cap and walked out behind the inn. I was not prepared for the sight in front of me. This area was called Middle Falls. The river was running from right to left in front of me before plunging over the falls into the gorge far below us. To the far right we could see Upper Falls and Erie High Bridge which apparantly was a train bridge years ago. We took pictures from every angle before we walked up the path to the lookout for Upper Falls. By now the rain had stopped again so I looked very silly in my yellow poncho when other people we encountered were in shorts and tees. After more picture taking, we went back to the car and started back up the road. We stopped at just about every overlook to see the gorgeous scenery. If you'd like to get an idea of what we saw, go to www.glenirisinn.com and click on 'photos'.

We left the road to go to an overlook called Lower Falls. We parked in the deserted parking lot and walked about a hundred yards to a sign that said the falls were down below us - in fact they were 187 stairs below us. I started down, but after about 20 steps, I turned around. It was wet, muddy and slippery and I didn't want to think about the return climb. I'm not exactly skinny or fit and so Rusty decided to go down into the gorge alone. I paced the entire 15 minutes that he was down there. If anything had happened to him, I would have had no way to know it. Finally, he returned and we went back to the car.

We spent the rest of the afternoon driving through the 20 mile park and checking out the cabins and camp sites - Rusty thinks I'm going to go camping there! HA! I'll stay at the Glen Iris Inn. He can camp. At the exit, we turned onto Route 390 and headed for the Conesus Lake B&B.

For the next 30 minutes, I looked for someplace to stop for dinner. The only rule I had was NO McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's or Arby's all week-end. When we got off the highway and drove down Lake Drive, we found lots of little restaurants but since we didn't know which ones were good and which were not, we decided to go on to the B&B, check out the lake while it was still light out and ask about the local restaurants.

We found the place easily and went inside. The owners welcomed us and showed us around. We could use the kitchen any time after 12 noon, there was a living room with maps, brochures and most importantly MENUS! Ginny, our hostess, brought us upstairs and showed us the bathroom we would be sharing with another room. The bathroom was the size of my dining room at home! It had two sinks, each assigned to a room, two shelves stocked with toiletries, two towel racks with fresh towels, a skylight and the biggest bathtub I've ever seen. She said it was a two-person jacuzzi and also had a shower. Then she led us down the hall to our bedroom. It was kind of small but one wall was completely covered with mirrors so it looked bigger. It had a small closet with robes (for walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night) a dresser, shelves with a hair dryer,alarm clock and box of tissues next to the queen sized bed and a door leading out to the private deck. We went out there and had a panoramic view of the lake. It was beautiful. On the deck was a small refrigerator if we needed it. From the deck, we could see two docks, a canoe and a row boat that Ginny said we were free to use. Rusty of course asked her about the type of fish to be caught in the lake. [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

I was getting hungry so I said I was going down to look at the menus to find a place to eat dinner. Our hostess followed me and began suggesting various places. We settled on a place called Leisures which was located in a local hotel. As we discovered later, we would have been better off getting a slice of pizza from the pizza place across the street.

[ 06-19-2002, 02:58 PM: Message edited by: Janet44 ]

[iloverags2]

Wow! This sounds beautiful. I really need to go to the Northern part of the Eastern U.S., all along the lakes and Canadian border. Always hearing how pretty it is.

[TINKN]

I haven't been to Niagara Falls since I was in Jr. High. I'mthinking about going back next summer with DD and DH who have never been. I'm looking forward to that part of your report.

[September]

Janet--DH & I went to college literally about 10 miles from Letchworth State Park and spent so much time there while we were in school. It is beautiful. Your descriptions of the gorges brought back all sorts of memories...one of DH's roommates jumped off a bridge into the water on a dare--over a 100 foot drop! Paramedics had to rescue him & he got a big fine (on top of the sprained knee).

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip. I'm so glad you and your husband had a good time!

September

[Janet 46]

We drove up the road to a hotel with Leisures restaurant. The name should have been a clue. All of the patrons were old folks. Rusty saw some people in the parking lot dressed up alot more than we were and wasn't sure if we should go in. I should have listened to him and turned back. Instead we entered and were seated quickly. And then we waited...and waited...and waited. We were finally given menus and water and the waitress recited the specials, one of which was a fish fry. You didn't have to tell us, we could smell it the minute we walked in. One of the cooks came out and sat down at the table behind us and talked to the patrons for at least 20 minutes. Our waitress finally returned and we ordered. Rusty had a hambuger and I ordered grilled chicken. The cook got up and sat down at a different table for 15 minutes. The manager came out and sat down at another table. An old woman carrying an infant made the rounds showing off her newest grandchild. And we waited... The waitress came back with two salads of iceberg lettuce, a cherry tomato and two slices of cucumber swimming in oil and vinegar. Yuch! We waited a while longer...the cook went back into the kitchen, and finally our dinners arrived. Rusty said his burger was pretty good. My chicken was a disaster. It was very thick (don't they know about pounding a chicken breast to flatten it out a bit?) and it was greasy as if it had been marinated in the same salad dressing. I took a taste and realized it wasn't salad dressing but was possibly the oil from the fish fry. Double Yuch! I ate the veggies, the potato and the bread and hurried Rusty along so that we could get out of there.

We drove down the road to fill the gas tank and Rusty wanted to inquire about a fishing license. He was told by the gas station guy that he could get a license at Wal-Mart about 5 miles down the road. He decide to wait until the next day and we returned to the B&B. Ginny stopped us to ask what time we wanted breakfast: 8, 8:30 or 9. I said 9, Rusty said we wanted to get out early since we were going to Niagara Falls tomorrow so I agreed to 8:00. We went upstairs and out to sit on the deck, but it started raining again, so I went inside to watch the Yankee game. I never did find out if they won or lost because I shut it off in the 10th inning.

Tomorrow: Niagara Falls

[ 06-20-2002, 02:23 PM: Message edited by: Janet44 ]

[AKLRULZ]

Janet, I'm enjoying the report! [img]graemlins/love.gif[/img] I've only stayed at a B&B once, and we loved every minute of it! Hopefully your dinner is better tomorrow night! I can't wait to hear about Niagra Falls - I've always wanted to go!

Thanks for posting this! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Janet 46]

We woke up early, showered and went downstairs to an early breakfast since we were leaving for Niagara Falls. Ginny told us that juice, coffee and tea were available on the side board in the dining room. We served ourselves beverages and sat down. At each place setting, there was a plate with two small homemade cheese danish. Another plate held a strawberry, a slice of cantelope, a slice of kiwi and 4 grapes. Kind of strange way to serve fruit. But, we ate the delicious danish and fruit while Ginny appeared from the kitchen to place before us 2 ham slices, 4 pieces of French Toast with syrup or strawberry sauce, and a covered dish with scrambled eggs. Everything was really good and we ate more than we normally would have.

We headed out on the most direct route west - we knew it would take a little longer by using a farm road instead of the interstate but we were in no hurry. It was only 8:30 and raining offf and on again. I had a bunch of maps of the area and we talked about what we planned for the day. Rusty had been to Niagara as a kid, but this was my first time. He also said he wanted to go farther into Canada to the canal where we could see the ships go through the 'locks'. I had no idea what a lock was so I figured we could go and I might learn something. [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

I started reading all the signs we passed and one of them said "Soft serve farm produce". I said, what in the world is soft serve farm produce? Veggies that have gone bad? Rusty decided that since the farm had cows and the cows give milk and you can make cheese from the milk, they must be advertizing Cheese Whizz! A few minutes later he shouted OH MY GOD! really loud. What? What did I miss? He said we had just passed the biggest pig he had ever seen - it was almost the size of a cow. I said maybe he ate too much Cheese Whizz. You can see that we were getting very silly. It was fun to just relax and make jokes like we used to. Lately the kids and our jobs and family responsibilities have robbed us of down time.

Anyway, we made it up to Buffalo and crossed the Peace Bridge into Canada. At the other side of the bridge we stopped for Customs - it consisted of handing our drivers licenses over and answering a couple of questions: Where are you from? Where are you going? What is the purpose of your visit? Do you have any firearms? We drove off along the QEW. I guessed that it meant the 'Queens Express Way' but that sounded more like a New York City road. We made up some other words that QEW could stand for but eventually saw it written out as Queen Elizabeth Way.In a few minutes we left the highway in the town of Niagara Falls. We then made a series of wrong turns but eventually pulled into the parking lot across the street from the Falls. We could hear the falls but our view was blocked by the Visitors Center (read gift shop). We crossed the street and walked toward the overlook which was already crowded with people at 10:00 am. The view was amazing. Niagara Falls is HUGE! Just standing near it, you can feel the power of the water and the speed at which it goes over the falls. Far below, we could see the Maid of the Mist boat ride going closer and closer to the bottom of the falls until the water forced the boat back. There had to be at least a hundred people on the boat, all wearing blue plastic ponchos and snapping pictures. I tried to lean over the stone wall to get a picture and I was shoved from behind by some teen-age boys who felt it was their right to be at the front. Since they didn't seem to speak English, I ignored them and moved farther down the stone wall to get my picture. Rusty said he wanted to go down behind the falls to a viewing platform that he remembered. We went inside the building and paid for the 'tour'. We went down some stairs to a holding area where we were given yellow ponchos. We shuffled along through the que area for about 20 minutes and then boarded an elevator for the descent to the bottom of the falls.

[ 06-20-2002, 04:19 PM: Message edited by: Janet44 ]

[PS - I LUV WDW]

Sounds like you had a great time! DH and I have been to Niagra Falls twice since 1988 (and I was there once as a child). It is such a beautiful place, especially if you get to see more than just the falls.

He also said he wanted to go farther into Canada to the canal where we could see the ships go through the 'locks'.

<font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">I hope you got here (will wait patiently for another installment or two). We loved it. I had been with my parents and still have a coin from a South American country that some of the guys on a ship were throwing while going ever so slowly thru the locks. And as I suspected, DH thought they were neat to watch. We actually kept moving further up the road to continue watching them progress. We have lots of pictures of them 'stepping' thru the canal.

[ 06-20-2002, 05:09 PM: Message edited by: PS - I LUV WDW ]

[Janet 46]

At the bottom, we got off the elevator and walked down the tunnel path. People coming toward us were VERY wet. Some were carrying screaming toddlers. How stupid! Anyway, there were 3 tube choices. Two took you directly behind the falls and the third took you to an observation platform at the base and off to one side. We chose the 3rd tube. When we arrived at the end, we could see water flying onto the platform from the right (where the falls were.) If we stayed to the left, it wasn't quite so bad. There was also a flight of stairs to the actual platform. We went down the steps. There were only half a dozen people down there. It was impossible to stay out of the Falls spray but I took a close up picture of Maid of the Mist and a couple of pictures looking up toward the top of the falls. The roar of the water was deafening. Rusty beckoned to return to the steps. We retraced our steps and went to the first tunnel behind the falls. This was a disappointment. All we could see was a sheet of water at the mouth of the tunnel. The second tunnel was no better. We went back up the elevator and up a short fllight of stairs that dumps you into a gift shop. (Surprise, Surprise!) We decided to buy snow globes for both of the kids, and tee shirts for each of us.

We went outside and decided to head back to the car and try to find Lockport on the canal to see the locks.

We got a little lost due to my navigating. I do fine if I have a good map but these maps were a bit sketchy. Anyway, we found the right road and followed signs to the observation area. As we parked the car, we could see that a ship was in the lock and rising. Rusty hurried to get the video camera ready but we missed most of it. The ship pulled out soon after so we decided to go into the museum building where a sign said "Restaurant" because by now I was hungry. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed. Rusty wanted to see the museum so we went over to the cashier, paid and were led into a movie room. She said the movie was only 12 minutes and the next ship would be moving through the locks in about 20 minutes. We watched the movie (we were the only people in the room so we could make comments about how lame the movie was) and after it ended, we went into the museum. Also, very lame. Part of it had to do with the history of the locks but toward the back, it became a history of Lacrosse and how well Ontario has done. I said, "Why didn't they tell me that it was going to be a museum of Rah, Rah, us" and "We are the greatest at lacrosse" We walked through quickly and checked to see if there was a boat coming yet. No boat. I said I wanted to leave and find lunch. Rusty appeased me by offering me a cone at the icecream snack bar if we could wait for the next ship. Okay, icecream now, lunch after the boat. Pretty soon another ship pulled into the lock. The doors at the front were closed, the boat was tied up and the doors at the back were closed. Then the lock quickly began to fill with water and the ship rose up to eye level. Wow, in about 15 minutes the ship had risen at least 30 feet. Rusty videoed the whole process. He wanted to wait until this ship pulled out, but I was getting whiney so we returned to our car for the trip back to the good ole U S of A.

Coming next: Customs, dinner and Watkins Glen State Park.

[September]

As I stated earlier in this thread, I went to college in Western NY...we used to frequent Niagra Falls in college because the drinking age was 19...I've been to the falls umpteen times and never in daylight or when I was completely sober. It was sort of a ritual to stop there after clubbing.

Oh, the good old days. I don't remember the last time I was out that late!