Day Two April Vacation 2010

Spent the day with Shirah and had a great time. We had lunch at a Greek restaurant and then went to see the silliest movie out there...Hot Tub Time Machine. I had already seen it, but I knew she would love it. :-) We laughed so hard, we cried!

Tomorrow I have a 3 and a half hour drive to Cobleskill, NY where I will go WAY underground for a walking and boat tour at Howe's Caverns. I may also go to the Iroquois Museum. If not, I will go there Wed. before heading home. This is such a short trip compared to my summer adventure, but it is perfect for a school vacation. I will still have time to vegetate at home as well!

I expect to have some magnificent pics to share tomorrow!

Day Four: Ithaca is Gorges continued

Had a beautiful, scenic drive on 86 East today from PA to NY. I took some pics of Chautauqua Lake (put on Facebook) that was on the way. Great rest area with scenic view of the lake.

It only took me about 3 hours and 15 minutes to get to Ithaca. I have been VERY lucky so far with the traffic...there has been practically no one on the road these past few days! I feel that might change since tomorrow is the weekend. Yikes!

So I arrived in Ithaca around 2:30 or so. Got settled in my room and went back out to the visitor's center to find out where I could go for a swim. The weather was hot and sunny this afternoon. Yeah! The sweet girl at the center told me that I should go to the Robert H. Treman State Park where I could swim under a waterfall. I was psyched! I changed into my bathing suit in the rest room at the center and headed over to the park. See the pictures below. I am in one of them...the lifeguard did not do a great job. HA! You can barely see me.

I grew up swimming in the frigid waters of Nantasket Beach, MA. This water was warmer, but not by much! It was very refreshing. Fresh water swimming is great because you don't have the salt or the chlorine factor. Amazing!

There was a diving board for people to jump into the deeper areas. I passed on that due to my knee issues. I did go over to the fall and under it. FUN! I recommend it to EVERYONE!

Tomorrow I am going to put my home address into my GPS as my destination. I will drive for 3-4 hours and see where I am. Then get hotel reservations that are within an hour of that location. That will be my Saturday. I will check out whichever area I end up in and hopefully find something fun to do. That will be my Saturday. Sunday will be drive until I get home! WOOHOO!

Ithaca is gorges!

Day Three: Turtles Crossing

7-23-09

Today, I went to Presque Isle which was 25 minutes from my motel. It was BEAUTIFUL! I was a little nervous driving there because Erie looks like parts of Lynn and areas of Route 1. Strip mall after strip mall, as well as auto parts and dollar stores. Restaurants of all kinds lined the streets. This did not seem like a place that would have this gorgeous isle that I had been reading about in my travel books. The contrast was shocking! Once on Peninsula Drive for a few minutes, the scenery began to change. Presque Isle is lush and reminded me of a rainforest in certain areas. You know, the trees that have the leaves all over the trunk! I knew I was in a very different environment when I came upon the Turtles Crossing sign. Unfortunately, I didn't see any. :-(

I found Misery Bay on Presque Isle and took a 90 minute narrated cruise on Lake Erie. We saw all of Presque Isle from the water and three lighthouses.

After the tour, I drove around the rest of the Isle and took more pics. I found this area magical and hope to visit again. I got here just in time because they are having a huge festival this weekend and the ranger that I spoke with said that there will be up to 4,000 people visiting Presque Isle. YIKES

So I started my visit at Presque Isle at 10:30 and left at 3:30. Lots of fresh air! Then I headed to the Erie Zoo. It was small, but they had some very entertaining animals. Joe, the orangutan was the highlight. The zoo closed at 5:00. I saw the entire zoo and then spent the remainder of the time watching Joe. Amazing animal!

Then it was off to Bob Evans for the first time, for dinner. I liked it, but I am not a big fan of gravy! HA! I just got a burger and fries. Their peach tea was yummy. I ordered a root beer float to go for dessert. It was huge! 32 oz. of yum!

I am pooped. Not a very detailed account of the day, but the gist!

I am leaving tomorrow to head east. Either through PA or NY. I am thinking of checking out the finger lakes. The great thing about the past few days was that they were weekdays. I am not sure what I am going to find when the weekend starts! I have hit NO traffic. I'm thinking that it may change starting tomorrow.