brainsplotch

I better finish up this Labor Day Vacay series before a) I forget what happened and b) my readers completely cease to care (assuming they already DID care). So on Day Four (Sunday, September 4) we collectively agree to check out Watkins Glen State Park, which is on the south end of Seneca Lake, about a half-hour(ish) drive from Ithaca. We didn't anticipate the huge crowd at Watkins Glen, but we should have. It was the Labor Day weekend, after all. Even though there were a lot of people, and they made climbing the hundreds of narrow steps of the Watkins Glen gorge falls a bit tight and mildly treacherous, they didn't detract from the amazing beauty. Watkins Glen has to be seen to be appreciated. We returned to our hotel in the early afternoon sweaty and dirty. We cleaned ourselves up, and walked up route 13 to the Barnes & Noble about a mile from our hotel. (It's been a pleasure to discover how much Nora likes books and bookstores). We, of course, got iced coffees from t...

I meant to write yesterday about Day Three of our Labor Day Vacay.  So we fought traffic and much larger crowds on September 3 to view the falls from the city of Niagara Falls, NY (and not Goat Island). The first stop--after thankfully finding a parking spot in one of Niagara Falls' massive parking ramps--was Starbuck's. I must emphasize how much all four of us love Starbuck's. Yes, I know it is a giant monstrous corporate coffee chain, and I'm not necessarily proud of my devotion, but the product is consistently good. So we stopped there, as we did often on this vacation, and I got my iced brown sugar oatmilk shaken espresso and was ready to face the hordes. The view of the falls was as equally impressive as it was from Goat Island. Niagara Falls reminds us of how small and insignificant we are as humans--at least that is my theory. There is something awe-inspiring to witness this enormous cascade of water tumbling 170 feet. The sheer power, danger, and beauty of the n...