Breakout 2021 - The Finger Lakes

Having been “trapped” inside by COVID19 since early 2020, we had hoped that the number of vaccinations would be high and the infection rate low such that we could finally hit the road again without fear of getting sick. Unfortunately the response to vaccine availability has been too low and so with 50 to 100 thousand new cases per day we’ve had to remain cautious and limit travel and contact.

With that in mind, we decided to limit the scope of this year’s road trip and travel to the Finger Lakes region of New York and the city of Ithaca, and limit the trip to four days.

For this trip, sort of a trial run for major road trips in the Suburban, I packed too much gear for the destination but with future trips in mind I wanted to get some practice in loading the bags with a variety of gear and working out of the back of the vehicle to set up and capture the images.

Nine lenses, Three bodies, filters and accessories.

We hit the Road at about 05:00 and headed for the first stop - The Corning Museum of Glass. It was a foggy and misty morning, not the greatest for driving but not bad for photographers.

The Suburban is great for our purposes and after a quick stop along the way we arrived at the Corning museum.

We were happy to see that there was a pretty good crowd at the Museum, too many of the patrons were unmasked and we even heard some grumbling about masks.. {eye roll}. The outdoor shop that we had visited two years ago was not set up this year due to COVID but we ventured on.

For the next two days we visited the falls in the area - Buttermilk, Taughanock, and Ithaca, along with circumnavigating Cayuga Lake to take in the local scenery and wineries and a stop for lunch.

The Finger Lakes is beautiful region of NY State, with towns like Seneca Falls at the north end of Cayuga with many historic buildings, like the place we stopped for lunch.

On day four it was time to head back home - again a foggy misty morning, and when the sun finally arose, we could see that the fall colors had progressed, even after just four days.

All in all an excellent trip. Accompanying photos in the Gallery.

Great Falls Maryland

If you’re in the Northern Virginia, Maryland, DC area there’s a gem of a National Historical Park within minutes and worth the trip.

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park and in this case Great Falls Park – part of the C&O Canal Park – is a place full of beauty, history and adventure. The park spans 184 miles from Cumberland Maryland – southeast of Pittsburgh PA -  to Washington DC and Great Falls Park is about 15 miles of the southern section beginning at the Great Falls tavern in the north down to Sherwin Island in the south.

Many of you who live in the area are well aware of the park as apparent by the number of joggers on the trails.

I suspect some however have not stopped to read the history of the park which from a Nature and preservation standpoint is one that offers cause for optimism.  You see, in January of 1954, the Washington Post published an editorial in support of a government plan to convert the Canal into a highway.  Having read the editorial, Associate  Justice William O. Douglas – an avid naturalist – proposed that the Canal be preserved as public space and invited a number of luminaries, naturalists, and journalists to hike the length of the canal with him to better see and understand the natural beauty and value of the place.

Word of the hike spread and on March 4th, 58 hikers set out from Cumberland with Justice Douglas for the 184 mile hike.  Five days later nine men including the Justice completed the hike and the Post issued a reversal, now supporting the preservation.

During our visit we didn’t hike the 184 miles, but our short trek along the “Billy Goat Trail” offered a good glimpse of the beauty and history.

Accompanying photos in the Gallery.

Quebec via NY

For our first trip post retirement, we chose a short jaunt to Quebec via NY - and coincidentally, my 70th Birthday celebration in a unique (to us) location.

The Northeast (and other parts of the country) have been experiencing some severe weather - heat, rain, humidity - like we haven’t seen in decades. Our encounter with the phenomenon on this trip was torrential rain while heading north on the Thuway, At one point we considered pulling over but pushed through and after about 30 minutes it subsided.

Torrential Downpour - yes it was that bad!

After the tense beginning, we continued north for about 4 hours to Ausable (Aus-Able) chasm New York, “one of the nation’s first organized tourist attractions”. Opened in 1870 - 22 years before the Adirondack Park, the “Grand Canyon of the Adirondacks” is great place to visit, especially if you’re on your way north.
Fed from White Face and other nearby mountain streams - whose waters run east to Lake Champlain or south to New York - the river that formed the chasm flows strong and creates rainbow falls pictured below,

There are several choices for how you spend your time at Ausable, walking the rim, a deeper and more difficult hike, and rafting the river, we chose the rim walk. It takes about two hours start to finish and I think well worth it.

From Ausable we headed north on the Thruway for stopover in Plattsburgh. We chose that location since it was convenient, made the next leg a manageable drive and had lots of choices for hotels and restaurants.

For the next leg of the journey we continued north reaching the border with Canada in about an hour.

After a comical encounter with the Canadian Border patrol about transporting alcohol and tobacco we were on our way to Montreal and the next stop - the Montreal Botanical Garden.

The Garden is easy to get to - right off the highway and with ample parking, and on this particular Monday in July not overly crowded. There’s lots to see with exhibits from China and Japan, insectarium, and much more. The two sections that I really enjoyed were the “First Nations” (a nice way of referring to the indigenous peoples) Garden and exhibit, and the flower garden around the ponds just east.

From Montreal, it was about three hours north to Quebec City, and our hotel in the old city. We had researched where we wanted to go, what we wanted to see and where to stay in walking distance since our research also told us the streets are narrow and not suited for larger vehicles so we’d want to do most of our travels by foot.

Arriving at the Hotel Le Priori, unloaded the luggage and then carefully maneuvered the suburban to the designated parking garage a few blocks away, wrestled it up the ramps and turns and shoe horned it into a parking space where we gladly left it for the remainder of the stay.

The weather mentioned earlier was still with us so we had to time our exploring to the forecast and for the most part it worked out. For our first afternoon and evening we strolled the nearby streets and located a restaurant for dinner - Le Bistro Pape-Georges - a fun little cafe where had the mandatory serving of Poutine - a particularly Canadian version of fries, gravy and cheese - along with other interesting fare from the menu.

The next day we headed out early to tackle the 10 must see locations locations around Quebec. The old city is hilly so the walk was pretty strenuous but all in all we did well. First stop was the Hotel Frontenac, one of the more famous landmarks.

The history of Quebec City, its location on the St. Lawrence, and the battle history was fascinating. One of the longer walks was up to “The Plains of Abraham” and it defensive position high above the river and role in the battles between the French and British.

From there we continued on the tour and we can see many of the sights in the accompanying gallery. Worth noting that even if you don’t get to all ten “must sees”, some of the smaller venues along the path are well worth it like the
Chalmers-Wesley pictured below.

After a full day of walking, we were ready to rest up and head to dinner where we had reserved a table at Matto - right across the street from the hotel - for my 70th Birthday celebration!

The next morning we once again maneuvered the Suburban back the hotel, loaded the luggage, bid farewell to Quebec city, and drove the 9 hours straight home.

As always, your comments are welcome and if you have any questions be sure to email me.

A Backyard Story

Beginning in the fall of 2020, nearly a year after the onset of Covid, I ventured out to at least photograph the birds in the backyard. Following the guidelines from Moose Peterson, I added a perch between the bird feeders and their safe place - the bushes at the edge of the woods where they could pause before going to the feeder or wait their turn at the feeder.

Over the next couple of months I added a blind so I wouldn’t have to hold still for hours to catch a shot, and through the cold and snow, began to hone my skills at understanding their behavior and the technical aspects of focus, shutter speed aperture and ISO.

The results so far - I still have a lot to learn - are on the Birds of Civid19 section and I hope you enjoy them.

Morning Dove in Snow