Letchworth State Park

Laura:
Before moving to Rochester, we were completely unaware of the amazing natural scenery in Upstate New York. Our first taste came during our excursion to Chimney Bluffs State Park back in September, and now that we have time to kill this summer we're exploring our immediate surroundings even more.

One of the surprising aspects of the landscape up here (at least to me) is the number of waterfalls. They're everywhere! Of course you know about Niagara Falls, but there are a number of smaller waterfalls all within a 50 mile radius of Rochester. Here's a link to a map showing all the falls, big and small, surrounding our new home town. Who knew?!?

Of course, now that we know there are so many falls we've gotta find them all! First on the list: the falls in Letchworth State Park. There are three main waterfalls (Upper, Middle, and Lower falls) plus some smaller ones sprinkled throughout the park. The park itself runs along a portion of the Genesee River (the same river that runs up through Rochester and dumps into Lake Ontario) about 50 miles southeast of Rochester.

We drove down to the park and entered at the northern end, which if you want to see the falls right away is a bad idea since they're located at the southern-most end of the park. No worries though! Since we'd never been to the park we just took our time driving through and stopping at a number of vistas along the main park road. Our first stop was at the Mt. Morris Dam. The dam was built in 1948 by the Army Corps of Engineers to prevent yearly flooding from destroying lands further downstream. Wikipedia pic of flooded valley behind the dam. This is not a constant state though for the river. When we visited, the valley upstream of the dam was very dry.

Next to the dam viewing area there was this giant chair...

Here are some more pictures from another vista along the river valley...

The next place we stopped had a few small waterfalls, so we stopped to take some fancy "water-smoothing" pictures (click to enlarge!) and relax next to the stream.

After another short drive, we finally arrived at the Lower Falls - the first of the three waterfalls along the Genesee River. We walked along the trail and found a bridge a little downstream that was great for a photo shoot. There were also some really interesting rock walls along the river that we think are made of shale.

Then we walked a little further up the trail to get some closer shots of the waterfall...

Next we pulled off at another vista to look at the Middle and Upper falls together...

Finally we reached the pull-off for the Upper Falls! We spent a lot of time taking pictures and even hiked to the top of the ridge to check out the old railroad bridge spanning the river just above the Upper Falls. 

 

All of this hiking, driving, and picture-taking took 3-4 hours, so when dinner time rolled around we were starving! We left the park and started heading north back towards Rochester. On the way we stumbled across a small town, Nunda, NY, where they were having a parade and fair. It was really neat to see all the local people lining the streets while the high school band, sports teams, and a number of fire trucks rolled along. We tried to take a picture, but not sure you can really tell what is going on.



We maneuvered our way through the town, going pretty far out of our way driving-wise since the parade was running along the main highway, and finally ended up in Mt. Morris, NY where we spotted this cute little Italian restaurant along their picture-perfect Main Street. Being lovers of lasagna, we just had to stop! The lasagna was very tasty and so were the chicken/red pepper ravioli and garlic bread. Never would have expected such a lovely little restaurant in this tiny town.

All in all we had a really great day! Got some good exercise hiking through the woods, snapped some nice pictures of all the waterfalls, and enjoyed a delicious meal at a local restaurant. First summer excursion into the villages and state parks of  Upstate New York was a great success!!



Alex:
Laura really liked the camera on a stick.  I snapped this picture of her holding the camera aimed in my direction.

The "stick" is a gift from Hugh (Laura's dad, but that's not his real name...  That's George...  It's like how Laura is aka Foof...  anywho) it's for taking self pics without the funny arm angle.  Laura was carrying the camera around everywhere on the stick, so I thought this was a funny shot.  Little did I know she was actually shooting a video, and she wouldn't stop anytime soon... [Laura: Best video ever!]

Lorax portraits using "The Stick"

 -The Lorax-

Star Spangled Memorial Day

 
Laura:
Since I am officially on "Summer Break", Alex and I are trying to take some mini-vacations to explore big, East Coast cities. Our first trip was a very spontaneous, last minute adventure to Baltimore, MD during Memorial Day weekend. We literally decided over Sunday brunch at James Brown's Place that we were going to leave in the next 2-3 hours to spend Memorial Day in Baltimore. Lol.

Now you may be thinking...Why Baltimore for Memorial Day?!? Why not Philly or Boston or DC, for Pete's sake?!? Well friends, Baltimore happens to be the home of Fort McHenry, the site of a great battle during the War of 1812 that inspired Sir Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner, aka the National Anthem of the United States of America!!! This historical event (and my intense desire to visit the Baltimore Aquarium) sparked our journey to Baltimore on such a patriotic holiday.

Here's me holding my hot, fresh chicken sandwich and fries. Super good!

We drove to Baltimore from Rochester, cutting through the mountains and valleys of Pennsylvania. If you've never driven through Pennsylvania, you're missing out! There are a lot of great vistas and tiny towns along the way. Another bonus of driving is getting to eat at Sheetz! What makes Sheetz (a swanky gas station) so awesome is their Made To Order food menu. There are many options and everything is cooked fresh right after you order it. On the drive to Baltimore, we stopped at Sheetz for dinner during a horrible rainstorm (see the rain streaked window!).

The drive took about 7 hours, including a dinner stop and the rain slowing us down, so we arrived at the Hotel Monaco in downtown Baltimore pretty late Sunday night. Fun fact about the Hotel Monaco - the building used to be the headquarters of the B & O Railroad! No....it's a real thing, not just a square on the Monopoly board! There is even a museum. Seriously! At any rate, the building is beautiful on the inside and the rooms have the highest ceilings I have ever seen in a hotel. Probably at least 15 feet tall with a massive floor to ceiling headboard at the top of the bed. This place was super classy and the room was very nice. Plus, the hotel is located just a few blocks from Baltimore's Inner Harbor, where all the action is!


The next day, Memorial Day, we set out for Fort McHenry! We took the Water Taxi from the Inner Harbor out to the fort. The ride out there was pretty nice...except for the smell and the heat. Apparently there had been a semi-recent algae bloom that killed a lot of fish in the harbor. Of course we did not know this until we watched the morning news from our hotel room. Lol. It really wasn't too terrible, but the weather was sweltering! Temps in the 90s with lots of humidity. Quite a change from the cool weather we'd been experiencing in Rochester.

After crossing the harbor, we finally arrived at Fort McHenry. They have a very nice Visitor's Center with a small museum and an EPIC movie telling the history of the fort, it's significance during the War of 1812, and the inspiration it provided to Francis Scott Key, writer of the Star Spangled Banner.

Alex:
It was pretty neat to stand on the ramparts of the fort and imagine what it must have looked like without all the buildings and bridges, with the British navy sailing in and lining up for a bombardment.  It must have been pretty tough for the people in the fort, many of whom were volunteers, to stick around through the bombardment with no bomb shelters and the British out of range to return fire.  Luckily, because the British were so far away they were woefully inaccurate. In the morning the defenders shot back by taking down their small flag and raising their giant 40 foot flag for all to see through the smoke and fog.  That must have been a sight to see for the surrounding forts and all the troops and residents in Baltimore.

Laura:
The fort itself is a decent size and there are a number of old cannons/guns and several buildings, some of which have exhibits about life in the fort. There were also quite a few park rangers/volunteers walking around in authentic uniforms and civilian clothing from the 1800s, which definitely added to the ambiance (although they must have been dying wearing full skirts and wool suits in that heat!).

Barracks & other buildings at the center of the fort

While we were wandering around the fort, a fife & drum brigade showed up to give a demonstration before the Memorial Day festivites began. They played a number of different musical sets that would have been used during the War of 1812 and the Civil War. Check out the video:

After the fife & drum jam session, the official Memorial Day ceremony began. A couple of speeches were given that described the significance of the Memorial Day holiday and it's origins, an official military trumpeter played Taps on a horn from the Civil War, and then we all observed the national moment of silence at 3 pm in honor of all the men and women who have fought and died for our country.

Following the moment of silence, the rangers announced that it was time to change the flag at the fort and would love help from the audience. WOO HOO! We jumped right up and waited for the enormous 30' x 42' flag to be lowered until we could all grab an edge to ensure it wouldn't touch the ground! Here it is all stretched out, waiting to be folded. It took about 50 people to hold the entire flag off the ground.

Once we had the whole flag stretched out, it was time to pack it up for storage. Some how I picked the end of the flag that went into the bag first, so I got to hold the end for a minute and then helped hold the bag while everyone folded it in there. WHOA!!!

I am so glad Alex came up with the idea to go to Fort McHenry for Memorial Day. What better place to be than the fort that inspired our national anthem?!? What better to do than help raise and lower the Star Spangled Banner?!? Such an incredible day!!!

We were pretty beat from all the flag folding and crazy "Southern" heat, so we headed back to our hotel to clean up and then find something tasty for dinner. Since we were in Baltimore, we absolutely wanted to get some seafood! After talking to the very friendly and helpful concierge at our hotel, we decided to head to the Rusty Scupper, a seafood restaurant on the Inner Harbor. This restaurant even sent a free shuttle to our hotel to pick us up. Nice!!! On top of the incredible view of the harbor, the food and beverages we had at the Rusty Scupper were outstanding.

On our last day in Baltimore, we spent the morning exploring the National Aquarium at the Inner Harbor. My family used to come here when I was just a little wootie growing up in Hampstead, MD, so I definitely wanted to go back for sentimental reasons. Plus, Alex and I had tried to go to the aquarium during a trip to DC for the 4th of July a couple years ago, but were denied the chance to explore the wonders within due to time restrictions. Boo! Well this time we ordered our tickets in advance and went early in the morning to try to avoid the field trip rush!

The National Aquarium is a really neat place! Here are some pics of the cool creatures we saw...

1) A 3-legged sea turtle rescued and rehabilitated by the aquarium. 2) A camera loving cowfish. 3) A Nautilus. 4) Beautiful tropical fish. 5) A Screaming Piha - the loudest bird in the world! Click the link for our video. 6) Poison Dart Frogs. 7) Jelly Invasion!!!




However, the coolest thing we saw was the Archer Fish, located in the exhibit about Australian animals. The archer fish has a uniquely shaped mouth that allows it to shoot water up into the air! The fish use this special talent to hunt for unsuspecting bugs resting on branches above the water. We just happened to be in the exhibit during feeding time and caught some great pics and a movie of the archer fish on the hunt for a grasshopper (click to enlarge the pictures).

Alex:
If the video doesn't work so well, I took a bunch of pictures from another angle (a couple of which I think Laura posted above) and put them into an animated pic:

Laura:
While we wanted to stay at the aquarium all day, we unfortunately had to start making our way back to Rochester that afternoon. Luckily we did have a little bit of time to make a couple very important pit stops.

Pit Stop #1: IKEA!!! Alex needed to purchase an "architect lamp" for his LED grow light project, so we dropped into the Ikea outside of Baltimore to snag one and plus some sweet picture frames. We also took a lunch break in the cafeteria where we enjoyed Ikea's Swedish meatballs with lingonberry sauce and mashed potatoes. Yum!

Pit Stop #2: Hershey's Chocolate World!!! As I mentioned earlier we drove to Baltimore via Pennsylvania, so it only seemed logical to swing by the Hershey's factory in Hershey, PA on our way home. Wouldn't you?!? While we were there we participated in a chocolate tasting class, took a spin on the animatronic guided tour of the Hershey's factory (similar to the It's a Small World ride at Disney, but all about how chocolate is made and guided by singing cows...Alex really liked it. LOL!), and of course bought lots of tasty treats to bring home. Maybe someday we can go back and visit the theme park too!

We finally made it back to Rochester late Tuesday night after our two pit stops and one last dinner at Sheetz. This was definitely a really fun trip and everything turned out great despite being a last minute adventure.

-The Lorax-