Our last stop in New York before entering Massachusetts was at a good local fresh fruit and vegetable stand where we stocked up for the week. We have now returned to the Hardwick house, which is freshly painted -- thank you, Erik -- and tomorrow we will move Marina into her dorm room. It was a great trip, but we are happy to be "home" (one of them) for a while.
Over and out.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Sept 8, Marina
Today I got my first massage. It was better than when I got my first facial. The woman who did my massage was absolutely wonderful and her name is Audrey. I asked her how long she had been doing massages, and if she enjoyed it. She said, she has been doing massages for about two years and loves every minute of it every day. She loves meeting new people, and getting to know them. I told her that I was going to a private high school in Hardwick, Massachusetts, called Eagle Hill. Like most people, she had never heard of Hardwick and didn’t know where it was.
TO BE CONTINUED……………
Today I got my first massage. It was better than when I got my first facial. The woman who did my massage was absolutely wonderful and her name is Audrey. I asked her how long she had been doing massages, and if she enjoyed it. She said, she has been doing massages for about two years and loves every minute of it every day. She loves meeting new people, and getting to know them. I told her that I was going to a private high school in Hardwick, Massachusetts, called Eagle Hill. Like most people, she had never heard of Hardwick and didn’t know where it was.
TO BE CONTINUED……………
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Sept. 8, Donna
Yesterday we started at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Cooperstown is all about baseball. Every store in town sells baseball souvenirs, or baseball logo-wear, or personalized baseball bats, or baseball art. Apparently baseball was invented here, although they’re not entirely sure, but they’ve sure made a good business of it just the same.
We enjoyed strolling through the museum, which has more information about baseball than you ever knew existed. Our favorite sections were watching the Abbot and Costello comedy skit, “Who’s on First”, reading about integration of major league baseball, and posing with the sculptures out back. This museum was clearly well supported and high quality – guess there are a lot of baseball fans who keep it going strong!
We then visited the Fenimore Museum which had a strong collection of folk art in a lovely old mansion alongside the lake. Our lunch was at the Cooperstown Diner, which we picked because it looked so adorable. The food turned out to be fine, too.
We drove for a few hours to our next destination, Fleischmann’s. This town was the other major destination of our trip (third to Niagara Falls and Jamestown) because it was where Lenny spent his summers as a youngster. Amazingly enough, he managed to find his grandparent’s home, not knowing the street name or address (thanks, in part, to helpful information from Aunt Dotty and from cousin Eric). Read his blog entry for his thoughts on it. Fleischmann’s definitely had seen better times, but it was fun to hear Lenny reminisce about his adventures there, mainly with Eric.
We next drove on to our hotel for the evening, the Emerson Inn, which is a very modern and well appointed hotel with a spa. We even have robes, and all agree that it is the nicest place we have stayed in.
We went to Woodstock for dinner, strolling through the town which is well known for its many artists (also well known for the music festival that did not happen here, but happened miles away at Max Yaeger’s farm). Woodstock is a bizarre combination of hippie stores with hanging beads, peace symbols and tie dye, next to chic and expensive clothing shops. We had a wonderful Mediterranean dinner at Joshua’s restaurant. Woodstock definitely gets the award for cutest town on the trip.
Today we desperately felt the need for a walk given a lot of sitting in the car for the last few days, so we drove into the Catskills Mountains for a hike on a nice trail. It was a bit hot and muggy out, so we only did about 1.5 hours, but it felt good to be outside and walking.
We returned for a bit to eat. Lenny went back to Fleischmann’s to visit the museum in town, while Marina and I have been hanging out. We visited the “World’s Largest Kaleidoscope” which was pretty cool … you lay on the ground and look up at a dome filled with a video show magnified by the kaleidoscope. I just had a decadent treatment in the spa, and Marina has signed up for her first (mini) massage. I don’t recall having my first massage until my thirties … my how times have changed!
Yesterday we started at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Cooperstown is all about baseball. Every store in town sells baseball souvenirs, or baseball logo-wear, or personalized baseball bats, or baseball art. Apparently baseball was invented here, although they’re not entirely sure, but they’ve sure made a good business of it just the same.
We enjoyed strolling through the museum, which has more information about baseball than you ever knew existed. Our favorite sections were watching the Abbot and Costello comedy skit, “Who’s on First”, reading about integration of major league baseball, and posing with the sculptures out back. This museum was clearly well supported and high quality – guess there are a lot of baseball fans who keep it going strong!
We then visited the Fenimore Museum which had a strong collection of folk art in a lovely old mansion alongside the lake. Our lunch was at the Cooperstown Diner, which we picked because it looked so adorable. The food turned out to be fine, too.
We drove for a few hours to our next destination, Fleischmann’s. This town was the other major destination of our trip (third to Niagara Falls and Jamestown) because it was where Lenny spent his summers as a youngster. Amazingly enough, he managed to find his grandparent’s home, not knowing the street name or address (thanks, in part, to helpful information from Aunt Dotty and from cousin Eric). Read his blog entry for his thoughts on it. Fleischmann’s definitely had seen better times, but it was fun to hear Lenny reminisce about his adventures there, mainly with Eric.
We next drove on to our hotel for the evening, the Emerson Inn, which is a very modern and well appointed hotel with a spa. We even have robes, and all agree that it is the nicest place we have stayed in.
We went to Woodstock for dinner, strolling through the town which is well known for its many artists (also well known for the music festival that did not happen here, but happened miles away at Max Yaeger’s farm). Woodstock is a bizarre combination of hippie stores with hanging beads, peace symbols and tie dye, next to chic and expensive clothing shops. We had a wonderful Mediterranean dinner at Joshua’s restaurant. Woodstock definitely gets the award for cutest town on the trip.
Today we desperately felt the need for a walk given a lot of sitting in the car for the last few days, so we drove into the Catskills Mountains for a hike on a nice trail. It was a bit hot and muggy out, so we only did about 1.5 hours, but it felt good to be outside and walking.
We returned for a bit to eat. Lenny went back to Fleischmann’s to visit the museum in town, while Marina and I have been hanging out. We visited the “World’s Largest Kaleidoscope” which was pretty cool … you lay on the ground and look up at a dome filled with a video show magnified by the kaleidoscope. I just had a decadent treatment in the spa, and Marina has signed up for her first (mini) massage. I don’t recall having my first massage until my thirties … my how times have changed!
Friday, September 7, 2007
When I was a child we spent summers in the Catskill Mountains in the house my grandparents had bought in Fleischmanns NY in the 1930’s. It was well maintained by my grandfather and the sons-in-law, and it housed the extended family as well as boarders. We sold it in the early 60’s.
Going back to refresh idyllic childhood memories was a disheartening experience. The house is dilapidated and surrounded by trash. Everything made of wood is rotting, windows are broken, and the interior is filled with junk. Some of the walls are missing sheetrock. People are clearly living there, but they may be vagrants.
The barn still stands as it was, but it is also filled and surrounded with junk. The yard that used to seem expansive and extend forever up the hill is closed in with trees and feels claustrophobic.
Many of the buildings on the main street in Fleischmanns are still maintained and are in use, although some are derelict. The library is still open, there are some nice B&Bs, and there is a grocery store. There is evidence of the presence of Lubavichers, Hispanics, and blacks. Business is bad, though; many houses and stores had “for sale” signs, and the owner of “Griffen’s Corner Café” told me that he had had enough and fantasized setting fire to the building with him inside it. I tried to be encouraging, but Fleischmanns is a dying town. On the other hand it has been dying for 30 years and is still hanging on, so maybe the last chapter has yet to be written.
Here is a picture from the 1950's of Eric and me, with our great-grandparents, on the steps of the Fleischmanns house.
Here is a picture of Marina and me, on those same steps, fifty years later.
--Lenny
Going back to refresh idyllic childhood memories was a disheartening experience. The house is dilapidated and surrounded by trash. Everything made of wood is rotting, windows are broken, and the interior is filled with junk. Some of the walls are missing sheetrock. People are clearly living there, but they may be vagrants.
The barn still stands as it was, but it is also filled and surrounded with junk. The yard that used to seem expansive and extend forever up the hill is closed in with trees and feels claustrophobic.
Many of the buildings on the main street in Fleischmanns are still maintained and are in use, although some are derelict. The library is still open, there are some nice B&Bs, and there is a grocery store. There is evidence of the presence of Lubavichers, Hispanics, and blacks. Business is bad, though; many houses and stores had “for sale” signs, and the owner of “Griffen’s Corner Café” told me that he had had enough and fantasized setting fire to the building with him inside it. I tried to be encouraging, but Fleischmanns is a dying town. On the other hand it has been dying for 30 years and is still hanging on, so maybe the last chapter has yet to be written.
Here is a picture from the 1950's of Eric and me, with our great-grandparents, on the steps of the Fleischmanns house.
Here is a picture of Marina and me, on those same steps, fifty years later.
--Lenny
Sept. 7, Donna
Yesterday our major activity was to spend the morning at the Corning Glass Museum. This museum really is a treat. It is housed in an impressive building made mainly of glass. There is an exhibit of spectacular glass artwork, along with an exhaustive display on the history of glass from all over the world. There’s also a theatre where we watched a demonstration of a glass maker creating a vase. As many times as I’ve seen this kind of demonstration, I continue to find it fascinating.
The Steuben factory is on the premises, so we watched the glass blowers and glass cutters for a little while. I searched in vain for a factory outlet store …. they did have one for Corelle, but not for Steuben!
The highlight was visiting the studio for the do-it-yourself glass lesson. Lenny made some wind chimes where he placed the pieces of colored glass on the clear glass to be fused later. Marina and I made blown glass. We actually got to do relatively little of the process other than select the colors, and blow into the tube. The glassmaker did pretty much everything else. I made a pumpkin, and Marina made a tear drop ornament. They have to cool for a day so we won’t get them until we are home.
After the museum, we strolled the streets of Corning with its many glass shops. We made a very productive stop at the Van Huesen factory outlet store, with its summer sale, where we picked up stuff for each of us, including some perfect shirts for Marina’s dress code.
We drove all afternoon to arrive at Cooperstown. We took an evening stroll to the lake and had dinner at the Otesaga Resort Hotel, a stately hotel looking out over the lake. (Marina kept asking why we weren’t staying there … I sort of wondered the same!).
-- Donna
Yesterday our major activity was to spend the morning at the Corning Glass Museum. This museum really is a treat. It is housed in an impressive building made mainly of glass. There is an exhibit of spectacular glass artwork, along with an exhaustive display on the history of glass from all over the world. There’s also a theatre where we watched a demonstration of a glass maker creating a vase. As many times as I’ve seen this kind of demonstration, I continue to find it fascinating.
The Steuben factory is on the premises, so we watched the glass blowers and glass cutters for a little while. I searched in vain for a factory outlet store …. they did have one for Corelle, but not for Steuben!
The highlight was visiting the studio for the do-it-yourself glass lesson. Lenny made some wind chimes where he placed the pieces of colored glass on the clear glass to be fused later. Marina and I made blown glass. We actually got to do relatively little of the process other than select the colors, and blow into the tube. The glassmaker did pretty much everything else. I made a pumpkin, and Marina made a tear drop ornament. They have to cool for a day so we won’t get them until we are home.
After the museum, we strolled the streets of Corning with its many glass shops. We made a very productive stop at the Van Huesen factory outlet store, with its summer sale, where we picked up stuff for each of us, including some perfect shirts for Marina’s dress code.
We drove all afternoon to arrive at Cooperstown. We took an evening stroll to the lake and had dinner at the Otesaga Resort Hotel, a stately hotel looking out over the lake. (Marina kept asking why we weren’t staying there … I sort of wondered the same!).
-- Donna
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Weds Sept 5, Donna
Today was a big driving day. First, we rode along Lake Erie for about an hour, then started our trek east. We stopped in Mayville on Lake Chautauqua to sample the goat milk fudge in order to report back to our friends at Harley Farms. The fudge was delicious, of course, even more so once we found out that the goat milk was from California!
We drove through the Chautauqua Institute to check it out. It’s like summer camp for adults. It is full of charming bungalows crammed in together, with a bunch of central buildings. All summer they have lectures, concerts and art festivals in the public spaces. It’s on the lake, so there’s also boating and water activities. We vowed to come back sometime in the season.
Our next stop was one of the centerpieces of the trip, Jamesville, hometown of Lucille Ball. The town is pretty much about Lucy and Desi at this point, with multiple museums, gift shops and wall murals (my favorite). Marina nearly had heart failure in the shop trying to pick a few souvenirs. Everything Lucy was available … from purses, to steering wheel covers, to trivia games, to full sets on DVD of all shows every recorded by Lucy or Desi. You name it, they had it, with “I Love Lucy” on it.
After Jamestown, we took a detour through Amish country. At first we saw nothing unusual, and were really regretting having added some extra driving on an already long day. Then, just as we were heading back to the highway, we encountered a horse and buggy going the opposite direction, followed later by several others. Each was occupied by people in full 18th century costume … although they weren’t costumes, it was really how they lived. We stopped in a few shops with hand-lettered signs for quilts, preserves and baked goods. Marina was very impressed by the fact that these people live as if it was 100 years ago. She seemed to find some appeal in it and proposed we try it for a year. That is until we told her that she would have to do without her iPod and cell phone, at which point she changed her mind.
We continued on our drive to our B&B in Corning and strolled through the quaint town this evening. We had a lovely dinner at the Three Bird Café. The weather is ideal. There’s no internet connection at the B&B so I’m afraid you’ll read this entry a little late!
-- Donna
Today was a big driving day. First, we rode along Lake Erie for about an hour, then started our trek east. We stopped in Mayville on Lake Chautauqua to sample the goat milk fudge in order to report back to our friends at Harley Farms. The fudge was delicious, of course, even more so once we found out that the goat milk was from California!
We drove through the Chautauqua Institute to check it out. It’s like summer camp for adults. It is full of charming bungalows crammed in together, with a bunch of central buildings. All summer they have lectures, concerts and art festivals in the public spaces. It’s on the lake, so there’s also boating and water activities. We vowed to come back sometime in the season.
Our next stop was one of the centerpieces of the trip, Jamesville, hometown of Lucille Ball. The town is pretty much about Lucy and Desi at this point, with multiple museums, gift shops and wall murals (my favorite). Marina nearly had heart failure in the shop trying to pick a few souvenirs. Everything Lucy was available … from purses, to steering wheel covers, to trivia games, to full sets on DVD of all shows every recorded by Lucy or Desi. You name it, they had it, with “I Love Lucy” on it.
After Jamestown, we took a detour through Amish country. At first we saw nothing unusual, and were really regretting having added some extra driving on an already long day. Then, just as we were heading back to the highway, we encountered a horse and buggy going the opposite direction, followed later by several others. Each was occupied by people in full 18th century costume … although they weren’t costumes, it was really how they lived. We stopped in a few shops with hand-lettered signs for quilts, preserves and baked goods. Marina was very impressed by the fact that these people live as if it was 100 years ago. She seemed to find some appeal in it and proposed we try it for a year. That is until we told her that she would have to do without her iPod and cell phone, at which point she changed her mind.
We continued on our drive to our B&B in Corning and strolled through the quaint town this evening. We had a lovely dinner at the Three Bird Café. The weather is ideal. There’s no internet connection at the B&B so I’m afraid you’ll read this entry a little late!
-- Donna
September 5, 2007, Mina
After our hour and a half drive from Buffalo, we headed towards Jamestown, the hometown of Lucille Ball. I had been waiting for this since the beginning of the trip. I’ve recently been watching the “I Love Lucy” episodes from Netflix for about two years, and I loved every millisecond of every show. We went to two museums. The first one was about the early lives of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, where each of them came from, how they met, what early jobs they had before they started the show. Then it ends with their divorce. The second museum was the replicas of the sets that were used for the “I Love Lucy” show. On the other side of the room, there was a display of costumes that characters used for the show. If you walked outside and looked at the buildings, there were these giant murals on the sides. That was my moms’ favorite part of the town. My parents were constantly holding things up to me in the store and I’m running back and forth between them trying to decide what to look at.
LATER THAT DAY:
Lenny’s driving the car, moms reading the map, and I’m in the back seat texting and ipoding. Then my parents decide to drive through an Amish area. This place was the most amazing place. The people there only drive horses and buggies, don’t have any electricity, grow their own food, dress like pilgrims, and they wear top hats when their out riding their buggies. We stopped at some of their homes just to see what it’s like on the inside. They have these beautiful quilts they make by hand and beautiful food that are grown fresh from their gardens. Every time we saw a horse with a person riding it we would all say “Oh, my gosh! There goes another one! Quick ! Get the camera!!” then we would take a picture and act like nothing had happened by smiling and waving nicely to them. Of course they didn’t think anything of it. So they would smile and wave back.
-- Mina
After our hour and a half drive from Buffalo, we headed towards Jamestown, the hometown of Lucille Ball. I had been waiting for this since the beginning of the trip. I’ve recently been watching the “I Love Lucy” episodes from Netflix for about two years, and I loved every millisecond of every show. We went to two museums. The first one was about the early lives of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, where each of them came from, how they met, what early jobs they had before they started the show. Then it ends with their divorce. The second museum was the replicas of the sets that were used for the “I Love Lucy” show. On the other side of the room, there was a display of costumes that characters used for the show. If you walked outside and looked at the buildings, there were these giant murals on the sides. That was my moms’ favorite part of the town. My parents were constantly holding things up to me in the store and I’m running back and forth between them trying to decide what to look at.
LATER THAT DAY:
Lenny’s driving the car, moms reading the map, and I’m in the back seat texting and ipoding. Then my parents decide to drive through an Amish area. This place was the most amazing place. The people there only drive horses and buggies, don’t have any electricity, grow their own food, dress like pilgrims, and they wear top hats when their out riding their buggies. We stopped at some of their homes just to see what it’s like on the inside. They have these beautiful quilts they make by hand and beautiful food that are grown fresh from their gardens. Every time we saw a horse with a person riding it we would all say “Oh, my gosh! There goes another one! Quick ! Get the camera!!” then we would take a picture and act like nothing had happened by smiling and waving nicely to them. Of course they didn’t think anything of it. So they would smile and wave back.
-- Mina
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
By Donna
We had a beautiful day to tour Buffalo today. As I write this, I am listening to Marina and Len perform “76 Kazoos Led the Big Parade” on their new kazoos (see Marina’s blog entry for explanation).
We started at Buffalo’s magnificent art deco city hall. This building is truly a grand example of the style at its best. The observation deck was closed, but we snuck into the top level of offices which had been deserted apparently for renovation, but with no workers in sight. There was a great view of Lake Erie and the city, although it felt a bit creepy walking around such a decrepit place with peeling paint and remnants of office lives past. The council chambers were stately and full of marvelous art deco detail. The lobby and entry were awesome with bas reliefs and sculptures reminiscent of “worker’s unite” themes.
In front of the city hall is a monument to President McKinley, who was assassinated in Buffalo. The monument looks like a miniature Washington’s monument.
After city hall, we went to visit Q-R-S Piano Roll company. This place was unbelievable. It is the last manufacturer of paper rolls for mechanical player pianos (which themselves are no longer being manufactured by anyone). At 10:45am, we had missed the official tour time of 10am (nobody actually had taken the tour), so I had to beg the rather gruff manager to let us see the place (the fact that the earlier tour hadn’t taken place was “irrelevant”). He relented in the end, and assigned us Mike, the production manager, who seemed ecstatic to have a diversion, and willingly shared with us every single bit of knowledge he had about creating piano rolls. A surprising amount of the process is manual, from cutting out the chads (remember those?) for the master roll, to creating a stencil to print the lyrics on the roll.
The most amazing thing was that the place was full of equipment from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s that was all being controlled by Apple IIe’s. When Mike found out that we had a connection to the business, he was thrilled, hoping that we would know how to come up additional RAM (memory) cards for it! We found it just wild that this factory still existed and had an active business.
Next we went to the Wilcox house where Teddy Roosevelt was inaugurated as president after McKinley’s assassination. A very nice docent (absolutely everybody in Buffalo is extremely nice … other than the general manager of Q-R-S, although I suppose you could say he was nice after all) showed us around. We saw the parlor where the ceremony was held, and a few other rooms of the mansion which were redone. Our favorite item was a lamp with a porcelain shade that was carved such that when the light was off, you saw nothing, but when the light was on, you saw an elaborate image that seemed to include multiple shades of grey.
After lunch (a much better lunch today …. a Greek restaurant recommended by the Nice Docent), we left town for the south to visit the Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece, Greycliff Estate. They are in the process of renovating this country estate that sits right on the bluff overlooking Lake Erie. It is full of classic Wright touches, including heavy horizontal lines, natural materials, and lots of glass. Indeed, it often reminded me of my home growing up, which was a Wright copy. We had another Nice Docent who was very knowledgeable about the family and the house.
Before returning to Buffalo, we visited the Eden Kazoo Factory. Since Marina described it so well, I won’t add any more.
We’ve just returned from a fun dinner in Allentown, a trendy section of Buffalo. Actually, it was not all that trendy. But we did manage to find one trendy restaurant, particularly if trendy means small portions. Actually, these portions were miniatures, and the place was called Sample. I couldn’t figure out if you were supposed to have eaten first or not. The food was marvelous. What little of it we had, that is.
-- Donna
We had a beautiful day to tour Buffalo today. As I write this, I am listening to Marina and Len perform “76 Kazoos Led the Big Parade” on their new kazoos (see Marina’s blog entry for explanation).
We started at Buffalo’s magnificent art deco city hall. This building is truly a grand example of the style at its best. The observation deck was closed, but we snuck into the top level of offices which had been deserted apparently for renovation, but with no workers in sight. There was a great view of Lake Erie and the city, although it felt a bit creepy walking around such a decrepit place with peeling paint and remnants of office lives past. The council chambers were stately and full of marvelous art deco detail. The lobby and entry were awesome with bas reliefs and sculptures reminiscent of “worker’s unite” themes.
In front of the city hall is a monument to President McKinley, who was assassinated in Buffalo. The monument looks like a miniature Washington’s monument.
After city hall, we went to visit Q-R-S Piano Roll company. This place was unbelievable. It is the last manufacturer of paper rolls for mechanical player pianos (which themselves are no longer being manufactured by anyone). At 10:45am, we had missed the official tour time of 10am (nobody actually had taken the tour), so I had to beg the rather gruff manager to let us see the place (the fact that the earlier tour hadn’t taken place was “irrelevant”). He relented in the end, and assigned us Mike, the production manager, who seemed ecstatic to have a diversion, and willingly shared with us every single bit of knowledge he had about creating piano rolls. A surprising amount of the process is manual, from cutting out the chads (remember those?) for the master roll, to creating a stencil to print the lyrics on the roll.
The most amazing thing was that the place was full of equipment from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s that was all being controlled by Apple IIe’s. When Mike found out that we had a connection to the business, he was thrilled, hoping that we would know how to come up additional RAM (memory) cards for it! We found it just wild that this factory still existed and had an active business.
Next we went to the Wilcox house where Teddy Roosevelt was inaugurated as president after McKinley’s assassination. A very nice docent (absolutely everybody in Buffalo is extremely nice … other than the general manager of Q-R-S, although I suppose you could say he was nice after all) showed us around. We saw the parlor where the ceremony was held, and a few other rooms of the mansion which were redone. Our favorite item was a lamp with a porcelain shade that was carved such that when the light was off, you saw nothing, but when the light was on, you saw an elaborate image that seemed to include multiple shades of grey.
After lunch (a much better lunch today …. a Greek restaurant recommended by the Nice Docent), we left town for the south to visit the Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece, Greycliff Estate. They are in the process of renovating this country estate that sits right on the bluff overlooking Lake Erie. It is full of classic Wright touches, including heavy horizontal lines, natural materials, and lots of glass. Indeed, it often reminded me of my home growing up, which was a Wright copy. We had another Nice Docent who was very knowledgeable about the family and the house.
Before returning to Buffalo, we visited the Eden Kazoo Factory. Since Marina described it so well, I won’t add any more.
We’ve just returned from a fun dinner in Allentown, a trendy section of Buffalo. Actually, it was not all that trendy. But we did manage to find one trendy restaurant, particularly if trendy means small portions. Actually, these portions were miniatures, and the place was called Sample. I couldn’t figure out if you were supposed to have eaten first or not. The food was marvelous. What little of it we had, that is.
-- Donna
The magnificant (really!) Buffalo City Hall.
This afternoon I went to a kazoo factory. It was the only kazoo factory in North America. Inside they had the originals from the olden times that were made from wood. The more recent ones were made from metal and had been bent into different shapes that resembled a type of musical instrument or vehicle, such as, tractor on wheels, bi-plane, sailboat, French horns, trumpets, trombones, and the best was a cobra. Many of the little pieces of the kazoos are made from parts from musical instruments. In a separate room, big machinery stood outlining the perimeter of the room. Each machine did only one job to put together the kazoo. The machinery was used during the 1800s and is still being used today. The first step was the stamping of the metal with the name of the factory name and city on it, which was Eden, New York . The guide there told us that if you have a kazoo and it says that it was made in China and is made of plastic, then you don’t have the original kazoo. It’s only the kazoos that are made in Eden, New York, and are made from metal that are the original kazoos.
-- Mina
-- Mina
Monday, September 3, 2007
The obligatory picture in front of the Canadian horseshoe falls.
Getting wet on the "Maid of the Mist"
At the top of the Sky Wheel with a great view of the falls
Inside the Sir Adam Beck hydroelectric power plant downstream of the falls.
One of the locks on the Erie Canal. The "upside down bridge" is in the distance.
From Donna
We arrived in Buffalo late last night and found our way to the rather-tired-and-in-need-of-renovation Hyatt. We nearly left the car in the front for the valet to park as we went to our room only to realize that not only was there no valet, there was no parking at all. Lenny headed off to the local garage while Marina and I took the bags to the room.
First thing this morning we headed over the Peace Bridge into Canada. It was a large border crossing with nobody there. We drove to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls and spent of the day seeing them from every angle … above, behind, beneath. We also took an insufferable number of photos of us with the falls as background, planning the cover for our next photo album.
It’s Labor Day, so Niagara Falls was quite crowded with people from all over the world speaking every imaginable language. I noticed particularly the number of women in head scarves … there were Amish, Arabs, Chasidim, Indians with saris, etc.
We started at the spectacular Horseshoe Falls. I was amazed how close you can get to them at the top. We went in the tunnels behind the falls, and got pretty soaked at the photo spot just in front of them. Then we walked the length of the river, seeing the American Falls, before arriving at the world-famous Maid of the Mists boat ride. We grabbed our blue ponchos and headed out for a short but exciting trip into the mist. That’s one surprise about Niagara Falls … there is a huge mist constantly being thrown up from it (Lenny kept complaining that it spoiled his photographs). We got pretty wet on this trip as well.
We then walked to the Sky Wheel, a Ferris-wheel like structure that you ride for an aerial view of the falls. We went round and round quite slowly, and managed to stop at the top several times for a stunning view below.
The town of Niagara Falls, Ontario, is like a little teeny, tiny, Las Vegas. It is full of honky-tonk, cheap restaurants, and casinos. We had a pretty unappetizing lunch and then headed out of town.
After seeing the “whirlpool” where the river takes a right hand turn after the falls, my intention was to go over the next bridge north since the Rainbow bridge in town looked quite backed up. However, just looking up at the bridge we quickly got the idea that this was a problem. It was full of very large semi’s lined up to cross into the US. Just when we were debating what to do, we passed the hydro-electric plant, with a big sign of tours outside, so we figured heck, let’s do that instead!
So we coerced Marina into joining us for a tour of the hydro-electric plant. We got to go down into the plant and see where the water goes into turning the turbines to make power. Lenny particularly enjoyed seeing the tools, including a giant lathe (whatever the heck that is).
The biggest fact I learned on the tour is that the US and Canada have a treaty as to how much water they can divert from the falls in order to power their respective plants. They don’t want to destroy the lucrative tourist trade, so they are allowed to divert more at night than during the day. So apparently at night, the falls are running at far less than full on.
We retreated from the northern bridge and went back to cross into the US on the Rainbow bridge in town. From there, we drove to Lockport to see the Erie Canal (I have this song about the Erie Canal going through my head now).
The Erie Canal is apparently not quite the tourist destination of Niagara Falls. Indeed, we had trouble finding it. Eventually, we made our way to locks 35 and 36, a pair of locks that replaced the original 5 locks in the early 1900’s. They are still operated pretty much the way they were one hundred years ago. We were lucky in that two boats came while we were there and we got to see them operate. (Note to Joan and LB – we even got to cross over wearing our own shoes!). We watched the young man operate the locks, and he was kind enough to answer all our questions.
Back to Buffalo, and the hotel, and next we plan to go to the Anchor Bar for a dinner of original Buffalo wings.
-- Donna
We arrived in Buffalo late last night and found our way to the rather-tired-and-in-need-of-renovation Hyatt. We nearly left the car in the front for the valet to park as we went to our room only to realize that not only was there no valet, there was no parking at all. Lenny headed off to the local garage while Marina and I took the bags to the room.
First thing this morning we headed over the Peace Bridge into Canada. It was a large border crossing with nobody there. We drove to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls and spent of the day seeing them from every angle … above, behind, beneath. We also took an insufferable number of photos of us with the falls as background, planning the cover for our next photo album.
It’s Labor Day, so Niagara Falls was quite crowded with people from all over the world speaking every imaginable language. I noticed particularly the number of women in head scarves … there were Amish, Arabs, Chasidim, Indians with saris, etc.
We started at the spectacular Horseshoe Falls. I was amazed how close you can get to them at the top. We went in the tunnels behind the falls, and got pretty soaked at the photo spot just in front of them. Then we walked the length of the river, seeing the American Falls, before arriving at the world-famous Maid of the Mists boat ride. We grabbed our blue ponchos and headed out for a short but exciting trip into the mist. That’s one surprise about Niagara Falls … there is a huge mist constantly being thrown up from it (Lenny kept complaining that it spoiled his photographs). We got pretty wet on this trip as well.
We then walked to the Sky Wheel, a Ferris-wheel like structure that you ride for an aerial view of the falls. We went round and round quite slowly, and managed to stop at the top several times for a stunning view below.
The town of Niagara Falls, Ontario, is like a little teeny, tiny, Las Vegas. It is full of honky-tonk, cheap restaurants, and casinos. We had a pretty unappetizing lunch and then headed out of town.
After seeing the “whirlpool” where the river takes a right hand turn after the falls, my intention was to go over the next bridge north since the Rainbow bridge in town looked quite backed up. However, just looking up at the bridge we quickly got the idea that this was a problem. It was full of very large semi’s lined up to cross into the US. Just when we were debating what to do, we passed the hydro-electric plant, with a big sign of tours outside, so we figured heck, let’s do that instead!
So we coerced Marina into joining us for a tour of the hydro-electric plant. We got to go down into the plant and see where the water goes into turning the turbines to make power. Lenny particularly enjoyed seeing the tools, including a giant lathe (whatever the heck that is).
The biggest fact I learned on the tour is that the US and Canada have a treaty as to how much water they can divert from the falls in order to power their respective plants. They don’t want to destroy the lucrative tourist trade, so they are allowed to divert more at night than during the day. So apparently at night, the falls are running at far less than full on.
We retreated from the northern bridge and went back to cross into the US on the Rainbow bridge in town. From there, we drove to Lockport to see the Erie Canal (I have this song about the Erie Canal going through my head now).
The Erie Canal is apparently not quite the tourist destination of Niagara Falls. Indeed, we had trouble finding it. Eventually, we made our way to locks 35 and 36, a pair of locks that replaced the original 5 locks in the early 1900’s. They are still operated pretty much the way they were one hundred years ago. We were lucky in that two boats came while we were there and we got to see them operate. (Note to Joan and LB – we even got to cross over wearing our own shoes!). We watched the young man operate the locks, and he was kind enough to answer all our questions.
Back to Buffalo, and the hotel, and next we plan to go to the Anchor Bar for a dinner of original Buffalo wings.
-- Donna
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