From Waterfalls to Shopping

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.

"Wine, Water and Wonders"

The drive from Corning into the Finger Lakes region was beautiful, even with cloudy skies, also, thanks to our great "guide" Cindy, who knew all the picturesque back roads. Passing farm stands with maple sirup and honey, Mennonite farms, dairies, wineries and breweries, and, with breaks at two smaller lakes, Lamoka and Waneta Lakes (picture), we arrived to Keuka Lake, one of the officially declared eleven glacial "Finger Lakes". First stop there was Hammondsport and the Curtiss Aviation Museum, one of the most famous aviation museums in the U.S. focused on Glenn H. Curtiss, aviation pioneer and early motorcycle manufacturer. The museum includes a sizeable collection of early aircraft and motorcycles, which illustrate the innovative genius of Glenn Curtiss.


The centerpiece of the motorcycle collection is an exact reproduction of the famous 8-cylinder motorcycle which earned Curtiss the title of "Fastest Man on Earth" in 1907 with a land-speed record of 136.4 mph. Also, Curtiss - a jack of all trades - made the first officially-observed, 1-km flight on July 4th, 1908. It was the first officially witnessed flight in North America. In addition to planes, there is a seaplane, the U.S.Navy's first airplane, a "Flying Boat" as well as different automobiles and boats.

Sticking to the point, our next stop was the Finger Lakes Boating Museum. It's all about the rich boat building history in the region, the many boat-builders and the distinctive boats they made. The collection consists of more than 150 boats built by many of the 40+ commercial builders throughout the Finger Lakes Region during the last century. Besides canoes, rowboats, hydroplanes and sailboats, the restauration workshop (where also courses and workshops take place) and the building itself are equally interesting. The property was home to the former Taylor Winery and there are still the old barrels in the basement and a lot of solid oak doors and wall panels and ceilings.


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In the Village Tavern Restaurant and Inn - in downtown Hammondsport, which was voted coolest small town in America – we regained enough energy by eating a meatball sandwich (pic) and a Greek Burger (with feta) to continue with wine tasting in the afternoon. Spectacular views towards the lake all the time, just wish we would have had blue skies in addition. But, at least, it was still over 20 deg. C warm.

In the Heron Hills Winery, which just had celebrated its 40th anniversary, we met with Barry, the winemaker, after a regular tasting, for a wine cellar tour and some more interesting barrel tasting. Riesling is the region's flagship varietal and, mostly Northern European varieties are planted. Besides Riesling it's most notable Gruener Veltliner, Gewurztraminer and Blaufränkisch (the latter one of the few reds which are growing well). In general, it's mostly white wines which are being produced in this special cool climate around the Finger Lakes.

On to Dr. Frank Wine Cellars for another tasting, passing several other wineries and breweries. Dr. Konstantin Frank was the one who probably made the New York wine industry to what it is today. A European immigrant from the Ukraine, Dr. Frank - with a Ph.D. in viticulture - and his family arrived in the U.S. in 1951. He introduced proper rootstock basing on his research for growing the delicate European vinifera grape varieties in cold climates. In 1962 he founded Vinifera Wine Cellars, which quickly earned a reputation for spectacular Rieslings. Today it's grandson Frederick Frank, who took over and his daughter will continue the family tradition. Frederick was very eager to practise his German and let us try his wines, different Rieslings, but also some rare Eastern European varietals and a great champagne.

Stopping by at the Mennonite Store in Penn Yan, another little town on the northern tip of Keuka Lake, Cindy picked up a whole box of picnic items for our dinner – sandwiches, soups, bisquits, muffins, cake. This shop had an enormous variety of items, mostly produce made by Mennonites, therefore you could also get Sauerkraut, Kassler and sausages there. Especially, the baking goods department - different flours, aromas, toppings, nuts and stuff - is heaven, but, also, the adjacent bakery, operated by Mennonites, is fantastic and prices really reasonable.

We would have had problems to find the cabin, where we spent the night, but, fortunately, Cindy showed us. What a surprise: A 3-bedroom cabin, directly on the lake, with a patio, a fire pit, its own boating pier, very luxurious, fully equipped and very tastefully furnished. The cabin is one of many luxurious properties "Finger Lakes Premier Properties" is renting out in the lakes area. We just wished, we could have spent a couple of days here instead of just 14 hours. But, at least, we were having a quiet, peaceful evening (though working), sitting on the patio, having a glass of Dr. Frank's wine, and listening to the waves. Life can be good.

Keuka Lake sunset:

The "other" New York

Sunday morning, while other people were still sleeping we left the house at 7 am with a reduced amount of luggage to catch a train to Uptown and the Avis rental car office. I was a little nervous, because of the drive out of Manhattan, but cleverly we had booked the car on a Sunday morning and traffic out of town was light.We got a Mazda 3 Sedan, nicely equipped with a lot if extras (like a push button, a rear camera, lights in the mirrors showing passing cars, etc.). We dove to the Northeast, through New Jersey and even a little distance through Pennsylvania, and soon after found ourselves in another world: woods everywhere, partly at the peak of fall foilage, gentle hills, only few small towns.

First longer stop we made was at the Newtown Battlefield, where one big battle during the War of Independence in 1779 took place. George Washington had sent troops to this region to drive out British loyalists and Iroquois indians, whose home is the Fingerlakes region. Great views, too, from the monument (pic) towards the Chemung River Valley.

Next, we bestowed honor to famous writer Mark Twain in Elmira. It was not that easy to find his study (sort of a gazebo) on the university campus - Elmire College is one of the oldest (originally exclusively female) colleges in the country, founded in 1825 - and the gravesite on the Woodlawn Cemetery. His wife, Olivia Langdon Clemens, was born in Elmira and the couple and family members are burried here.

Corning - our final stop of the day - is known as the "America's Crystal City" and is proud of its historic "Gaffer District", the downtown area, named for the master glassblowers and known for more than a hundred unique shops, studios, galleries, and restaurants mostly in historic buildings.

All things glass, from innovative technology and science to the fashions and techniques in different times and places are found at the huge Corning Museum of Glass. 3,500 years of historic glass, glassblowing shows, demonstrations and an amazing glass shop (pic) - this museum was a full surprise in a small town like Corning! Especially liked the new expansion, all in white, with contemporary glasswork. The lady in black on the picture further down is made completely out of glass!





Originally, the Corning Glass Works (which moved to Corning from Brooklyn in 1868) produced ornamental glass objects on the grounds where today the museum complex is situated. The company employed many gaffers, glass cutters and designers and the produce was shipped out on a canal, through the lakes to the Erie Canal. Later, the company became Corning, Inc., and this, until today, is one of the world's leading innovators in industrial glass produce, glass science, ceramics science, and optical physics. In the quaint little town there are still a couple of glass studios and many glass artists left.

Wished we would have had more time for this unique museum, but after a 2-hour-tour, we had to head out to see historic downtown and to have a delicious dinner (steaks) at Gaffer Grill & Pub with the Finger Lakes tourism rep, Cindy, before we checked into our hotel. Never have had such a luxurious Radisson Hotel, with a spa, before. There we enjoyed a 1-hour-massage, courtesy of Finger Lakes Tourism. Physically relaxed, mentally tired, and, thirsty we walked back to Market Street, where we checked out the shops (which were of course, closed), found this funny sign and had a night cap at the bar of the local Marketstreet Brewing Company - one of many microbreweries in the area.

This morning,unfortunately, the first day with cloudy skies, we started after a full hotel breakfast with another fantastic Museum: the Rockwell Museum, which has nothing to do with the famous illustrator, but was founded by a local couple of this name. The museum boasts their world-class collection of Western and contemporary Native American Art, Remingtons, Russels, Bierstadts, etc., in the beautiful historic City Hall/Fire House building.






Out we drove afterwards, to the Finger Lakes, but that will be a "another story". Too tired today,,,

Brooklyn and the Army, markets and hockey

Saturday morning we left Heidi's and Tom's brownstone house (pic) after a quick breakfast at 9 am to join a tour in Brooklyn's Sunset district at 11 am. Especially on weekends, when subway constructions are always taking place and delays and detours are a rule, it can take forever to get from point A to B. And, distances are huge, Brooklyn would rank as one of the largest cities in the U.S. on its own with over 2,6 mio. people.

Nevertheless, we arrived on time to the Turnstile Army Terminal tour and Andrew, our guide, did a great job in explaining the history and future of this ‘US Army Military Ocean Terminal’ - the largest military supply base in the US through WWII. Today it is a fully functioning commercial/industrial complex that houses dozens of different offices and corporations. Begun in 1918 by famous architect Cass Gilbert (who also planned the famous Woolworth Building) it was built in a modern utilitarian style. The Terminal was the headquarters for the New York Port of Embarkation, that moved 3.2 million troops (among them Elvis to Germany) and millions of tons of military supplies to fronts across the globe. The huge facility remained active through the early 1970s then it was purchased by New York City in 1981 with the intention of repurposing.

At 1 pm the tour ended and we walked back to the subway to catch a train back to Manhattan, to SoHo (pic on left), to visit Brooklyn Flea (a fleamarket, which, for the first season, also takes place in SoHo) and the new Smorgasburg gourmet market with different foodtrucks and vendors in SoHo, still open-air until end of October.

Back to Brooklyn again to meet with our friend Dom, "Mr. Made-in-Brooklyn", who is giving great tours in different Brooklyn neighborhoods. We grabbed a bite in the new DeKalb Food Hall at Lioni's, famous for his "heros", the NY version of a submarine sandwich. Had a good time together and bid goodbye at Barclays Center, where we watched the Islanders play San Diego. The goalie of the NY Islanders on the picture is a German: Dennis Seidenberg.


Another long train trip "home" to Harlem, fell asleep on the train,,, don't know how many hours we spent on trains and in subway stations today. When outside, we enjoyed the weather, sunny and over 20 deg C all day!