1000 New Tastes: Days 17 through 20 - Watkins Glen, NY and Niagara Falls

Leaving the ridiculously beautiful Vermont and New Hampshire behind, we took a scenic drive through the Adirondack Mountains. While the lakes were plentiful and pretty, the greens just didn't compare to the Green Mountain State and it seemed a bit underwhelming. It did remind us of Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss (a little known but hilarious movie sequel of the family in A Christmas Story with Ralphie is a teenager) with all of the ramshackle fishing cabins, perched on the edge of fish filled lakes.

But the drive that day was long and we didn't have time to stop and do any hikes so we kept going.

We did take time to stop in Seneca Falls at the Women's Rights National Historic Park. It was a really interesting stop (and 2 more stamps!). Neither of us knew much about the women's suffrage movement before our stop. It was sad to read the old newspaper articles that sounded exactly like some of the same arguments we still have today: that women aren't promiscuous for wanting equal rights, treatment, and power in society. As a linguist, Megan was particularly interested in the exhibit about the etymology for the word "loose". Around this time women were realizing that corsets and big crinolines were restricting. The corseting fashion of the time put a woman's liver in her pelvis! In an effort to become more "free" women who supported suffrage would loosen their corset strings or not wear a corset at all (up until this point that "fashion statement" was reserved only for the very poor). They also cut off their big skirts so that they were knee length and revealed poofy bloomers underneath. Their legs were still covered, but they could walk around with a greater level of freedom. Because people objectified women, the desire to be physically free from restrictive clothing had to be shelved. People against women's right apparently couldn't hear their logical arguments over the sound of their legs in poofy pants.

The park site also talks about the development of the women's liberation movement and current issues and myths about gender inequality in America and the rest of the world. It was a great discussion starter and we both learned a lot. We would highly recommend the stop to anyone in the area.

We didn't even get to see anything other than the museum and the outside of the meeting house, where the first convention was held, but we spent quite a bit of time there. It was late evening when we left so we headed on to our campsite. However, the road along the Seneca Lake, and the whole Finger Lakes region, is covered in wineries. So we stopped at Swedish Hill Winery to see what all of the fuss about the Rieslings in the area is about. Stand by for tasting list. As always for wines, the notes are in the links.

We ended the day at Watkins Glen State Park. It's a campground next to a beautiful ravine with several waterfalls, which we visited bright and early the next morning. All of the hype didn't disappoint. It was a beautiful place with a magical feel.

Then we started the drive to Niagara. We were finally trading our tent for a real bed and staying in a hotel in Niagara. Speaking of this, we'll interrupt the narrative for some tastes to count. In addition to new prepared foods and drinks, new recipes also count for towards our list. As we took many frozen meals in the cooler with us, there were several recipes we had never tried before. They were all delicious and froze just fine, two reasons that we'll be making them again! (The last few are products we ate while camping or took on hikes, so we'll throw them in here too.)

Cooking Light - Chicken and Black Bean Burritos
Cooking Light - Tex Mex Rice Bowl
Cooking Light - Quick Beef Stroganoff
Cooking Light - 20 minute Chicken Cordon Bleu
Cooking Light - Cherry-Almond Crisp
Kurt Beecher Dammeier's Pure Flavor - World's Best Mac and Cheese
Erin Bakers - Endurance Granola - Tri berry - A sticky dry granola that is great when mixed with flavored yogurt but not spectacular alone.
Fresh Market - Chili and Lemon Crisps - Spicy and zesty round crackers that sounded like a better idea than they ended up being.
Larabar - Apple Pie - A delicious gluten free wonder. We weren't looking for gluten free in particular but it did turn out to be a very healthy and truly apple pie tasting trail snack. The bread-less part of the make up did leave it exceptionally mushy and the texture wasn't amazing, but it was quite tasty.

Wanting to kill a little time for check in and because the drive to the interstate was on a wine trail, we stopped at a few more wineries along the way and scored some more tastes.

Rock Stream Winery was a disappointment in quality of wine and service. The people behind the counter made fun of customers after they were gone. When someone wanted to taste the beers (they have a counter for a brewery there as well) a young man had to be yelled at to make him pour the samples. He called the yeller "Mom" - nepotism rarely works for the business. Tasters are forced to choose dry or sweet and cannot deviate from the set. When one customer complained that she didn't realize she wouldn't like the one she chose (but knew after the first glass it was a bad idea), they berated her for choosing poorly rather than letting her opt to switch.

2011 - Rock Stream - Traminette
2010 - Rock Stream - Semi-Dry Riesling
NV - Rock Stream - Make Me Blush
NV - Rock Stream - Poolside Pink
NV - Rock Stream - Vignette
NV - Rock Stream - Shamus White
NV - Rock Stream - Grappa
NV - Rock Stream - Grape Brandy - the grape species can't be identified so you can't enter it into CellarTracker - you can taste some floral, but this is mostly just an alcohol burn
2009 - Rock Stream - Vignoles Port
NV - Rock Stream - Shameless Red Port
2010 - Rock Stream - Cayuga White
2011 - Rock Stream - Niagara
2011 - Rock Stream - Riesling Semi Dry
2009 - Rock Stream - Pinot Noir
2010 - Rock Stream Cabernet Franc
2010 - Rock Stream - De Chaunac

From there we headed down the road a ways and stopped at Fruit Yard Winery. As the name suggests, they mostly specialize in fruit wines, which usually aren't our thing. But after the previous tasting, a change seemed like a good idea. Turns out we were right. They don't charge for tastings and instead say "if you don't find anything you want to buy, then give us $2 on your way out." With their low prices and approachable flavors, there were close to 20 people and only one person paid the $2.

The last place we stopped advertised cider, so we wanted to give it a shot. There's a local cidery near our house here and we were looking to see how Earle Estates Meadery stacked up and took the opportunity to sample some of their mead as well.

From there we went to our hotel and checked in at the Seneca Niagara Casino. We bought the room on Hotwire and got a good deal on a beautiful room with a great view. The American side isn't the best side for viewing the Falls, but we could see the spray of the falls from our room. More importantly, it was easy walking distance to the Falls. After hanging out at the Falls that evening and getting our Discovery Passes, we headed back for our first sleep in a real bed since Boston - about 2 weeks of camping.

The Discovery Pass includes entrance tickets to five major attractions at the Falls plus trolley tickets. We started the morning at the Aquarium of Niagara. It was almost comical how small the aquarium was. They even had an empty tank with plastic sharks strung up on white kite string! Little kids seemed to enjoy it, but for parents it was just a break in the air conditioning. From there we wandered over to the Niagara Gorge Discovery Center. It is mostly a museum with facts about the Falls from prehistoric fossil and geologic information to more current stories of people going over the edge and surviving (sometimes). The information was fascinating. For example, we learned that people used to hang out below the falls when it was frozen over in the winter. Vendors would set up food carts and souvenir shacks on the ice and tourists would spend the day out on the ice. However, one winter the ice suddenly started to break up and caught several people unaware. Some were rescued. As one couple went under a bridge on an ice floe - headed to the Class 5+ rapids downstream - people threw ropes down to them. The woman couldn't get a good hold on her rope, so her husband let go of his so he could hold her as they drowned together. That tragedy marked the last winter the public was allowed on the ice bridge.

From there we took the trolley over to Cave of the Winds. It's a 130' elevator descent to to bottom of the American Falls. Out of the cave you can walk around on a variety of decks that get progressively wetter until you hit the wettest one called "Hurricane Deck" because of the tropical-storm wind and water conditions. It was exhilarating. The entrance fee includes a pair of disposable sandals and a rain poncho, but everyone still ended up soaked.

After that we took a second to hang out at the Nikola Tesla statue. Tesla was a contemporary of Edison and did much to help "electrify" cities. In fact, he designed the first hydroelectric dam, at Niagara, to provide power for western NY. He also provided some of the founding principles for wireless technology. Despite his advances in applied physics that raised the standard of living for us even today, he didn't want recognition or payment for most of his inventions and ideas and died in poverty with no one in his life but some pigeons that hung out with him. As a physicist, Brett needed to stop and have his picture taken with the great Tesla!

We were still pretty wet from the Hurricane Deck, so we went up to the Observation Tower, a tall tower with a walkway over the Niagara River. It was windy and warm up there, so we dried off a little while admiring the view.

Then we took our disposable sandals and wandered over to the entrance for the Maid of the Mist. It's a boat that heads into the base of the Horseshoe Falls. The company has been operating the boat since 1847, when it was a steam powered paddle boat. There was a disruption in service for the civil war, but operation resumed when people started traveling and vacationing again. After a seven year old child went over the Falls in just a life jacket and a pair of trunks, the Maid of the Mist rescued him. He lived. Driving straight into the mists and winds of the falls was an epic experience. It was definitely one to mark off the bucket lists and a highlight of an amazing final day of adventuring.

We did a few more things in the park before going back to the hotel and changing for dinner at a highly recommend hole-in-the-wall Italian place a block from the hotel. The reviews were spot on. The food reminded us of Italy and the open kitchen made us feel like we were hanging out in someone's house. We met some new friends and shared plates and wine with strangers. It was fantastic!

Here are the new tastes from lunch that day and dinner that night.

Great Lakes Brewing - Burning River Pale Ale
2008 - Monte Faliesi - Aglianico
2001 - Azienda Agricola Ca' del Monte - Amarone della Valpolicella Classico
Villella's Ristorante - Lemoncello Gelato - It's a dessert of creamy vanilla gelato served in a flute with lemoncello. Think of it as a refreshing and adult ice cream float.

The 20th day of our trip we drove from Niagara to Richmond. What should have been a 10 hour drive turned into a 12 hour one thanks to a random, large hail storm and the resulting accidents and traffic.

It was a trying last day: the pouring water on the Hurricane Deck and Maid of the Mist was far more fun than driving through a similar storm in traffic. But we made it safe and all in all, had an amazing, unforgettable #epicroadtrip full of adventures.

Below is a slideshow of our pictures from these days or you can link to the full album.

1 comment:

UnknownAugust 12, 2014 at 11:50 PM
Both place are awesome to visit. I have visited both Niagara Falls and Watkins Glen State Park before orlando tours. Niagara falls are the great combination of three falls and the best view of them you can see from the Canadian side and in Watkins Glen State Park there are also several falls you walked behind, so be prepared to get a little wet. The place is very beautiful, so I took pictures from all sides.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Days 17 through 20 - Watkins Glen, NY and Niagara Falls

1 comment: