Lew here updating the blog for the past two days. It was a little bit difficult to try to post last night given that we were camping in the finger lakes near Seneca Falls, NY. We barely made it in time to check in to the park (arrived at 8:00 and the office closed at 8:30). After saying goodbye to our families and getting what I assume will be our last really good bagels for quite a while, we were on our way. Going through Philly we said goodbye to everything we'd miss: William Penn, Cheesesteaks, the Waterworks, Ben Franklin and his crazy lightning key statue – you get the gist of it. It turns out we said our goodbyes too early, as we wouldn't leave the Philly metro area for hours. The good ol' Pennsylvania turnpike had us at an average rate of 4 miles per hour for an hour and a half. Of all the things we won't miss, it will be that northeastern traffic.
Between Allentown and Scranton we hit Forty Fort, Pennsylvania, where our friends Katie and Greg live for now. It was great catching up and nerding out with those two. To imagine Forty Fort, think about every big box or chain store you know of, then put a football field of parking between each one. I know exactly what not to design once I start my urban planning courses!
Getting off my soapbox, we drove another three or so hours to Cayuga Lake State Park, where we set up camp just before twilight. On the way there we must have seen at least ten wineries, along with sunflower, corn and wheat farms. We did some research and found that the Finger Lakes region is essentially New York's Napa Valley. Got to try some of it later. The environmentalist in me was also happy to see a bunch of "Frack is Wack" and "No LPG" (Liquified Petroleum Gas) signs right where New York state is in the middle of its battle against Hydraulic Fracturing.
Nothing like camping to reset your natural clock, and so we were asleep at about 9:30 PM that night.
Today we woke up at about 7:00 AM to get a head start on the day. Roadside America, an awesome website we use to find weird detours like the world's largest ball of twine, reminded us that in the same area we were camping was an interesting result of evolution altered by humanity. In Romulus, NY a military base was abandoned years ago and the fences were locked up. A small herd of deer with a significant number of white deer (caused by a series of recessive genes) was locked in and, due to interbreeding, the large majority of the herd is white. We drove up and down the base a bunch of times (I wouldn't let Brooke drive away!) and managed to catch three, count 'em THREE white deer! A really awesome sight. Unfortunately they spook just as easily as normal deer and so our pictures don't depict how close we really were. On that same road, as we sat wiating for our camera battery to charge, we happened upon a little farm stand and bakery called Dave and Rita's. Apparently they were featured on the food network for their unique granola flavors and are especially famous for a spicy mix. It was tasty, but we couldn't resist investing in "White Deer" flavor granola. The woman at the counter couldn't have been nicer and kept offering free tastings. If you're ever in the area, check them out.
We made our way down alongside Seneca Lake and arrived at Watkins Glen State Park. So amazing. The gorge trail runs along this series of steps of waterfalls (16 of them, I think), interspersed with beautiful green pools between. The walls of the gorge extend up on either side by at least a hundred feet. I know words won't do it justice, so we'll just post plenty of pictures!
We left early for our hotel to get ready for my interview. Thank goodness for high speed wi-fi. It went really well and so Brooke and I went out to celebrate. Thanks to Brooke's compulsive checking-in on Four Square we found a great restaurant/microbrewery in Corning, NY, about a half hour away. It was good. And when I say good, I mean so good that Brooke wants to make an entire post just dedicated to a meal review. Yup. Best grilled cheese I've ever had. For our NJ friends, Corning (which we think might be the birthplace of corningware, since they have the world's largest glass museum there) is a lot like New Hope; a little bit ritzy but with a really fun main street that shuts down around 8 pm. Sprung for a bottle of local wine to taste the region and finished the night with sea-salt caramel ice cream. Unfortunately the glass museum was closed, but we did manage to go into a few glass and art stores and found some great stuff. If only we had $2,000 to invest in a genuine hand-crafted kaleidoscope!To top off a great night, when we got back to the hotel I found an email waiting for me. I got the job! Looks like we'll have reason to uncork that wine tomorrow. As for now, we're getting ready to get to Niagara Falls extra early. Talk to you all soon!
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