Hard rain on Tuesday night, but it cleared up in the morning and in front of our vacation home the lake started to "shine" - what a great wake-up experience and what a peaceful and quiet place! Got up early, walked the lakefront, collected shells and wished we could have stayed longer.
Cindy picked us up for breakfast at the Penn Yan Dinner in town - a 10 min. drive - another picturesque little town with a typical American Main Street. In this "authentic" diner you still get a full plate of homemade pancakes or a filling egg dish for a bargain. We had French toast and biscuits & gravy and, at the same time, good conversation with the manager of the vacation properties.
On we went, to another "natural wonder": Watkins Glen State Park in a town of the same name, where a famous road race took place long time ago. Initially, public roads in the village were used for the race course and only in 1956 a permanent circuit for the race was built. Also, "The Glen", an automobile race track located at the southern tip of Seneca Lake, was long known around the world as the home of the Formula One United States Grand Prix.
Watkins Glen State Park is the most famous of several Finger Lakes State Parks. Within two miles, the stream descends 400 feet past 200-foot cliffs, generating 19 waterfalls along its course. Trails wind over and under waterfalls and through the Cavern Cascade and there are overlooks of the gorge, bridges and tunnels constructed by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) during Depression in the 1930ies. In 2015, the park was declared the 3rd Best State Park in the United States by USA Today! We walked the trail with Josh for 1,5 hours – an enthusiastic ranger, educator, biologist, manager and multi-talent and, again, learned a lot about geology, geography, flora and fauna.
We would have loved to spend more time, to explore this and other State Parks nearby more intensively. Also, would have loved to make a couple of stops on our drive along Seneca Lake - another Finger Lake, dotted with lots of wineries and breweries - and in the city of Geneva, but we had to head on, after a lunch stop in Watkins Glen (I had the pulled pork salad on the picture) to see a huge shopping mall.
"Destiny USA" in Syracuse was the next point on our itinerary. This 6th largest mall in the U.S. with over 250 places to shop, dine and play (including an antique carousel, a raceway, "Canyon Climb" and others) is visited by 26 mio. guests a year. It's partly a conventional, partly an outlet mall.
Well, it had been quite a bit of driving, over 3 hours in total back and forth to the mall, and after a half-hour-tour we had approx. another half hour for shopping before we had to leave for Rochester. About 45 min. after arrival we were picked up from the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown by Diana for dinner at Next Door by Wegmans, a great restaurant across the street from Wegmans. This superb supermarket, found in Rochester, has lots of organic and regionally sourced produce and a huge variety of things. Once you have seen this supermarket, you'll ask yourself even more, why variety and quality like this one is not possible in German supermarkets.
And, finally, since it's really fantastic: our view right now, Wednesday evening, towards Niagara Falls and Canada from our hotel (the "smoke" comes from the waterfalls). More tomorrow,,, it's been another long day.
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