The Ray Adventures: July 2015

Monday, July 27, 2015

Bar Harbor, Me. Freeport, Me. Bellingham, Ma.

I can't believe we are in Massachusetts already, it seems like we just left Rockport. We've traveled to 17 states, Michigan and Ohio twice. We bring out the worst in local weather, it seems when we hit town the weatherman says "temps way below average", be careful what you wish for, starting Tuesday the weather forecast will be in the 90's with high humidity.

Friday, July 17, Our last day in Bar Harbor. We drove into Bangor for the day, population over 33,000, about a 30 mile drive. In it's day it was a bustling community but now not so much. We had lunch at a brew pub downtown that must have been very proud of their food, it was quite expensive. The downtown area is pretty sad, we saw a few historic buildings and churches and visited a historic cemetery established in the 1800's that was quite large. We enjoy walking through the old gravestones, some of the people have died before Oregon was just a gleam in somebody's eye. We did a little geo cacheing then returned to an unhappy dog, she had to stay behind. We did the usual drill of preparing for our move the next day.

Saturday, July 18, We left about 10:00 for our 140 mile drive to Freeport, Me. the home of L.L. Bean. We decided to take scenic Hwy 1 down the coastline.  We went through the town of Bucksport again and across the Penobscot Observatory Bridge. Several towns along the way were having local antique/art fairs. Traffic would come to a halt then crawl through the main streets.  Antique shopping must be a big draw, northbound traffic was stop and go for miles. We pulled into Cedar Haven Campground about 3:30, about 5 miles out of Freeport.

Sunday, July 19, It was time to do much needed housekeeping. We haven't had a full hook-up site since we left Michigan, wah hoo, I could do laundry. Ah, the simple things in life make me happy. In the afternoon Peter and Phyllis, from Florida, pulled in next door. They gave us some good ideas for RV parks and places to visit in the Boston area. We went to dinner at Harraseeket for our first Maine lobster. Neither of us particularly care for lobster but everyone talks about how good the Maine lobsters are.  The manager of the RV park suggested Harraseeket, I figured a local would know the best place. With his heavy Maine accent I slowly understood it was on the waawf (wharf). He must have thought I was deaf, I kept saying "what?" The restaurant was "unique", you order at a window, outside seating with picnic tables and wait for your number to be called.  We both got the small lobster with red potatoes and coleslaw, $43.00 yikes! I always thought lobsters were supposed to be inexpensive here. We wouldn't have minded so much if we'd been in a nice restaurant. As it turns out, we just don't care for lobster. I felt bad that I was eating something that was alive until I showed up, plus I don't care to see the eyes of something I'm eating.  Oh, the green "stuff" (liver) everyone says is the best part, uh uh, I couldn't get past the color. Ok so we don't have any taste. We had a noisy thunderstorm and heavy rain.

Monday, July 20, We took a scenic drive to Bailey's Island and Lands End, where Lands End started. A beautiful drive along the peninsula, we took mile plus hike down to the waterfront, picking up 4 geo caches along the way. We let Luci off leash for a while to let her run. Well she ran right down into the water, usually she just wades, the bottom must have dropped off sharply, she came back soaked including her head. She must have been surprised. We stopped for lunch at a little deli on a picturesque harbor, we ate outside, watching two girls jump off a dock. Well back in the car, something smelled "fishy", our next stop was a rub a dub dog wash. We enjoyed happy hour with Peter and Phyllis, they also spent the day on Bailey's Island, bringing home 3 lobsters and a dozen steamers to cook. I could barely watch them put the lobsters in the boiling water, I think I distinctly heard screaming. I bbq'd pork chops, they were very quiet.

Tuesday, July 21 We drove into Freeport after lunch, we visited the 3 LLBean main stores and also the outlet. All too expensive for our budget. We opted for the outlet mall, I got 2 tops at Talbots, a hat and a pair of shorts, Gary found a pair of shorts at North Face. Shopping is such hard work we needed an adult beverage, we walked to historic Jameson Tavern had calamari which turned out to be our dinner. I managed to get my airline ticket booked from Tampa to Portland in late September, I'll be there a week for my 50th high school reunion. Gary gets to stay in Tampa with Luci, my date for the reunion is Linda, a life long friend who moved to Washington in the 7th grade. Another thunderstorm. I talked with our other neighbor Tammy, I needed a recommendation for a hair stylist, the hair cut I got in Michigan was a two for the price of one, meaning one side was longer.

Wednesday, July 22, I had a 10am appointment with Casey for my hair, the salon is in downtown Freeport. She had to cut it fairly short but at least both sides match. Gary took the computer to a tech here in town, will be fixed by Friday. No more excuses for crazy blogs. We rented American Sniper at Red Box, we thoroughly enjoyed the move.

Thursday July 23, We took Luci to the Brown Dog Inn for day care on our way to Portland, about 15 miles south. Portland Head Lighthouse, built around 1791 although it took until after the founding of the United States to complete, the most photographed light house in the world (or so I was told) is located in 2 Lights State Park in south Portland. The weather was beautiful, we took the Cliff Walk, about a mile long past the lighthouse along the water. Portland Oregon is named after Portland Maine, a toss of a coin between a guy from Portland, Me. and a guy from Boston, Ma. determined what to call the town in Oregon. Portland, Me. population 66,000, is the largest city in Maine, the tallest building is also in Portland, a whole whopping 16 stories, is the northern most and closest major harbor to Europe, both chewing gum and donuts were invented here,a vital fishing industry and home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The city burned down four times, after the fourth time commercial buildings were constructed out of brick. We had lunch at Portal, in a historic building right on the harbor. We took the Duck cruise, a land/water amphibious vehicle maneuvered through the narrow streets and took us out in the bay, it went a whole 5 mph in water. As we got off the Duck the rain started, of course our rain coats were in the car about 8 blocks away. We drove to Sew Portland, a quilt store to pick up a Row by Row Pattern. You know the saying "if you have to ask, you can't afford it", we picked up Luci, it cost $35.00for day care. Yikes!

Friday, July 24 Happy Birthday Gary! I promised him Baby Back Ribs for his b.d. dinner, which meant I had to stay home all day, it takes about 5 hours to smoke and bbq, so he went off to the Desert of Maine, an area of sand dunes that have grown since the early 1900's, once a farm now it has dunes of 90 feet tall. He took a guided coach ride through the dunes. Who knew? Maine has a desert. Since we are moving down to Massachusets I cleaned and did laundry while the ribs cooked. Gary said they turned out excellent! Poor Gary, no bd cake.

Saturday, July 25 Moving day, we left Freeport around 11:00 for our drive to Bellingham, Ma. about 30 miles out of Boston. We stopped in Portsmouth, NH to pick up a NH postcard for our 90 plus year old neighbor on Lone Oak, she grew up in NH. While there we had lunch and bought some groceries, Wal-mart is a good place to park when you're as big as we are. We hit a couple of traffic jams along the way but no big problems. We pulled into Circle CG, ahhh happiness is a pull-through site. For some reason our big slide won't open, there's always something.   It's a bit cozy in here. I think we'll be using our extended warranty insurance for the first time.

Sunday, July 25 We left Luci in the coch while we went into Boston to see JFK's Presidential Library. Built on the banks of Boston Harbor with sweeping viw of downtown Boston. We were both a little disappointed, we expected the library to be more grandiose like Regan's. It started out good with a 20 minute movie about his life up until he was elected President. The exhibits are designed to tell his story in his own words, giving you a "you are there" experience of the world of the early 1960's and the Kennedy White House. We found the exhibits stark, especially Nov. 22, 1963, it was a wall with several small screens showing snippets of the days events and the funeral. It only took us a couple of hours to go through giving us time for lunch and visit Gillette Stadium home of the New England Patriots. We searched online for tour information only to find out they don't give tours, in one of the reviews someone wrote no tours are given but the best view of the stadium is from the CBS Scene restaurant. We sat outside although showers were threatening, the food and service were less then mediocre. Live and learn. The complex beside the stadium had several restaurants, shops, a bowling alley, two hotels and a cinema. Taylor Swift performed in the stadium Saturday night, we could see the maintenance crews cleaning up. We overheard from another wait person (not ours she was usually nowhere to be seen)that it had been a zoo, parents dropped their kids at the concert, spending their time in the bar and restaurant, it also gave them a free concert if they were sitting outside.

Monday, July26 Gary spent most of the morning on the phone with Fleetwood and local RV service representatives. We may or may not get the coach in this week to fix the slide. I took Luci to Pet Smart Banfield Veterinary for her shots. It was only 16 miles as the crow flies but took about 45 minutes to get there. As we get older, young people look younger, the vet looked like she was 18. When she first came in the exam room I thought she was another tech. The weather was in the 80's with humidity, when I got back off to the pool I went. Ahhh.

That's it for this week, enjoy the pic's,

TTFN

Gary and Pam

View of Bar Harbor from Cadillac Mountain

Islands off the coast of Acadia Nat'l Park

Harraskeet Lobster and Lunch on wharf

The girls jumping in

Pretty little harbor on Baileys Island

Lands End flagship store, private island in background

Lobster fisherman

Crossing the Penobscot Bridge

Portland Head light house

Statue in downtown Portland

Historic home in Portland

Sailboats in Portland Harbor from Duck cruise

Dune in Desert of Maine

Entrance to JFK's Presidential Library

Oval office

View from library

Gillette Stadium

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Niagara Falls, Watertown, N.Y. Shelburn Vt. Littletown NH & Bar Harbor Me.

220 foot Ticonderoga

Our tour guide at Ben and Jerry's

Who is Ben and who is Jerry?

The second ice cream mobile, the first one burned, they traveled around selling ice cream in this in the early years

The flavor graveyard

Covered bridge in Littletown NH

Gary's decadent lobster mac and cheese bake

Fort Knox from restaurant

Penobscot Observatory Bridge from restaurant

A very busy week for us, we didn't spend much time in Vermont or New Hampshire, will have to come back someday. The weather has been pretty hot and humid except for an occasional rainy day.

Thursday, July 9, Woke up to rain on the roof, it was forecast to rain all day. I worked on our itinerary and blog while Gary and Luci went in search of parts to replace the scorched wires. It stopped raining about 2:00, it was warm and muggy the rest of the day. We packed up our outside stuff for our departure in the morning. We had a nice visit with our neighbors Chang and Jim from Vancouver, Wa., they are on the same trek as us except they plan to winter in Florida.

Friday, July 10 We left 4 Mile Creek CG about 10 for our 215 mile drive to Watertown NY Wal-Mart, arriving about 3. We fueled up before parking then settled in for the night. I went to a strip mall close by to get a pedicure, it always feels so good, picked up a few groceries before hitting the sack.   When we went to bed there were about 5 other RV's, when we got up and looked out, you'd think we were in a used RV and boat sales lot, there must have been 15 rigs.

Saturday, July 11 We left for Vermont about 9 for our 185 mile drive to Shelburn, Vermont. We drove along secondary roads, lots of pretty countryside but the roads were rough and curvy, up into the Adirondack Mountains. Our timing was perfect, we arrived in Lake Placid Olympic Jumping Complex, a year round training facility, fifteen minutes before the "show" was set to start. During the summer athletes launch off ski jumps into a 750,000 gallon aerated pool, the bubbles make the landing softer. For about a half hour we watched kids from about 8 & up to Olympic athletes train. The little ones were fun to watch, I'd be nervous if it was one of mine flying down the ramp twisting and turning then landing in the pool. The grand finale was ten jumpers at once, staggered to avoid injury. After the aerial show we watched Olympic athletes come down 90-120 meter ski jumps. We rode the ski lift up to the top to watch them whiz by just before they leat into the air on plastic matting used to simulate snow. We felt we had to hurry to Essex, NY to catch the ferry across Lake Champlain to Charlotte, Vt., we weren't too sure what time the last one left, it would have been a long drive around the lake or drive up north to catch another ferry that cost $95.00. We didn't make many friends in Essex, (1) the street to the ferry didn't quite look right, I got out of the coach to ask if they could take a rig our size, back up #1;(2) The cost to cross the lake is $44.25 for a rig our size, we seldom carry much cash, choosing to use debit cards, we were short $1.25, it was either cash or a local check. I had to go clear in the back to our piggy bank to round up they money, cars were stacking up behind us back up #2;(3) We were directed on the ferry right next to the wheel house, told to get as close to the car in front of us as possible, one of the cars in the next lane was parked right on the line, we had to get him to move over, we had about 2 inches on both sides. Again cars and other RV's were waiting for us.   Whew, we finally made it to Charlotte, about a 30 minute ride. Back up #3. We finally made it to Shelburn at 4:45. We squeezed into our space and had a much needed adult beverage. The temperatures were in the 80's with high humidity. I'm beginning to think New England is too "small" for a rig our size.

Sunday, July 12 On our way to the campground from the ferry we went past Shelburn Museum. 45 acres consisting of several galleries, 25 historic structures moved there, a 220 ft. sidwheeler steam boat, a lighthouse, a 2 lane covered bridge, locomotive, private railcar and a carousel, plus much, much more. To bring the Ticonderoga to the museum grounds they moved it 2 miles from the lake in the dead of winter, because the ground had to be frozen hard to accomplish the feat. Elektra Havemayer, a wealthy collector, started the museum in 1947.

Monday, July 13 We left about 9:30 for our 100 mile drive to Littletown, NH Wal-Mart. We stopped in Waterbury, VT at Ben and Jerry's factory for the tour. A short movie gave us the history of how Ben and Jerry started their homemade ice cream business, a look at their production line then the best part, a sample. I forgot the name of the ice cream we sampled but it was delish! Caramel and chocolate. We stopped at the New Hampshire welcome center about noon"ish" then off to Wal-Mart. It was a lovely drive through the countryside, although it would have been more fun in a sports car.

Tuesday, July 14 We got an early start (8:00) for our trip to Bar Harbor, Maine, a long day, 240 miles, again through curvy secondary roads, arriving at Hadley's Point Campground about 2:45. Our space is nice and roomy on a grass field.    Pretty much crashed for the night.

Wednesday, July 15 We woke up to a heavy mist with showers forecast, almost a relief after the past few days of high humidity and temps. We heard on the news about a tall ship visiting the historic town of Castine, about 40 miles from here.  The frigate ship Hermoine was tied up in their harbor for a few days for tours. Since it was the last day we decided to brave the weather to see her. We took Luci along for the ride, we had to park about a mile away since Luci wasn't allowed on the shuttle, we hiked over the hill to the harbor, luckily the rain showers held off. The first settlement at Castine was in 1613 under the French, becoming American in 1783. It is the home of the Marine Academy, preparing students for careers in nautical and ocean sciences and many 18th and 19th century historic homes beautifully restored. In spite of the rain most of Maine crowded into the harbor to view and tour the tall ship. The original Hermoine was built in less than a year in 1779, the replica took 17 years to complete. We weren't able to tour the frigate, we got there about noon, the first available tour was at 5:00 so we bagged that idea and drove to Bucksport, another 20 miles to see what the Penobscot Narrows Bridge Observatory was. It's the most unusual looking bridge I've ever seen, 2,120 feet long over the Narrows, with a north and south obelisk. We entered the south tower at rivers edge, boarding the elevator for a 50 second ride to the 3 story glass-walled observation area. The view was amazing, Fort Knox, Bucksport, the Penobscot River and Narrows and bay. The view, to me, was what typical New England should look like, trees, hills and white steeples. Right next door to the bridge is Fort Knox, built in the 1840's. The fort was dog friendly (most aren't) so Luci got to go. Built between 1844 & 1869 made out of granite. Fort Knox has 2 batteries facing the river each equipped with a furnace to heat cannonballs hot enough to set wooden ships on fire. We drove back across the bridge to Bucksport for "linner" overlooking the bay, fort and bridge. Gary had decadent baked mac and cheese with lobster and I had grilled haddock and coleslaw. Yum, yum yum. On the way back to the coach we drove through the harbor front and downtown Bar Harbor. Wall to wall tourists, we couldn't have found a parking space if we'd wanted.

Thursday, July 16 We loaded Luci into the car for our visit to Acadia National Park, a pet friendly national park is very unusual. The park includes more than 54 square miles of Mount Desert Island, the largest rock-based island on the Atlantic Ocean. The elevations run from sea level up to 1,530 atop Cadillac Mountain. L.L. Bean sponsors shuttle buses, a hop on hop off type of tour all around the island, but we had Luci so we drove. We took the Park Loop Road, the highlight was the view from the top of Cadillac Mountain. Even with all the shuttle buses it was hard to find parking spaces, we headed down to Seal Harbor for lunch and called it a day. There was much more to see but we grew weary of the crowds and traffic. We took a little breather then headed to Bar Harbor's Adventure Golf. Quite a competitive game, I did win by 2 strokes. After my last game of mini golf when I was playing like Tiger Woods, this time more like Jordan Spechts (sp).

That's it for this week, enjoy the pic's. Sorry everything is scrambled, the laptop is having some technical difficulties. Not me this time

TTFN

Gary and Pam

Littletown NH river

Tall ship Hermoine in Castine Me

Penobscot Narrows Bridge

Height comparison to Penobscot bridge

Narrows heading toward Atlantic

View of Bucksport from bridge observation tower

Looking down from observatory tower

Dive slopes & good ad for KOA

Divers waiting to go

Ride up ski lift see plastic "snow"

Looking from observation platform pretty scary

Waiting for the ferry

Squeezing in

After we caused all the trouble moving the car next to us

LLBean stylists readying train depot for shot

Poor model was probably a little hot

The Colchester Reef Light house in Shelburn museum

The two lane covered bridge in Shelburn museum

Luci and me at Fort Knox entrance

Another view of Bucksport

Inside Fort Knox

Driving across bridge

Friday, July 10, 2015

Toronto & Niagra Falls

Thursday, July 2 We left Suzanne & Jeff's around 10, crossing over the St. Clair River on the Blue River Bridge about 10:30. It was a bit of a tight squeeze getting the coach through the immigration booth. No problems getting into Canada. We stopped for lunch at a service center, gas, restaurants etc , different than our rest areas. We picked up our first Ontario geo cache here, it's a good thing, we soon lost cell coverage. We arrived in Toronto at a good time, the traffic was busy but it kept moving. The Pan Am games are scheduled to start July 10 with over 10,000 athletes, I'm glad we'll be gone by then. Toronto is a BIG city with a population of 2.615 million. You could see the city was readying for the influx of athletes and spectators. Locals are not too happy, they made HOV lanes for 3 or more people, really snarling traffic. The weather was almost perfect, partly sunny and 70ish. We got to Glen Rouge Campground 3:00 a trip of 216 miles. (I'm not even going to try to convert to kilometers) Glen Rouge is a city park on the NE edge of town, nice roomy spaces with walking trails along the Rouge River. We took Luci for a walk after setting up but cut it short, the mosquitos were hungry. We are roughing it, no satellite TV, internet or phones. It's amazing how we depend on our electronic gadgets.

Friday, July 3 We left the campground to catch the GO train into downtown Toronto. We were pleased, the senior rate was 1/2 price, $6.55 Canadian. No one checked for tickets on the train. It took about a half an hour get to Union Station, the route took us along the lakeshore for several miles before turning west into downtown. We walked from there to the waterfront to the tourist center. We walked past Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jays, bringing back good memories of my trip to Toronto 20 years ago, I had won the trip through Penneys. I stayed at what they called the Sky Dome Hotel, the stadium is attached, the building would rumble when they retraced the roof for a game. Right next to Rogers Centre is the CN Tower. We had several lines to pass through, the first, bag search and metal detector, then a long line for tickets, (not quite an hour), next the mandatory photo (we never buy) and finally the elevator. At the top we had to wait in another line for a strange check, similar to a metal detector but it puffed air at you starting at your head and moving down. Whew, we made it to the observation deck. The CN Tower is 1,815 feet, the tallest building for 10 years. They say you can see Niagra Falls on a clear day, it was clear but didn't see them. There is a revolving restaurant like Seattle's Space Needle, very expensive. We were starving, we checked out the café on the observation deck but didn't want to pay $19.00 for a hamburger. Just down a flight from the observation deck is the area with a glass floor, you can look 1,122 feet straight down. I didn't "dally" long, it made me dizzy but Gary enjoyed looking down. They have an attraction called the Edge Walk, a hands free full circle walk around outside of the roof.   No Thanks!
On our way to the subway we grabbed a quick bite. We caught the subway at Union Station, what a maze, us country folks aren't used to things like that. Casa Loma is a medievil style castle surrounded by 5 acres atop a hill overlooking what is now downtown Toronto, it reaches up to 300 feet high, built in 1911 the 96 room castle cost at that time 3.5 million dollars. Beautifully decorated in mostly original furniture and furnishings. It was much easier walking down the hill to catch the subway for Union Station, navigate through the station to catch our GO Train back to Rouge Hill. Our timing was perfect, we only had to wait about 5 minutes. The GO Train and Subway cars were nice, the train had 3 levels, we rode on the top for the best view of the city and Lake Ontario. Again, no one checked our tickets. Luci , as usual, carried no grudge and was happy to see us. On our walk through the park we met Jeff and Carol, they also have a 2014 Discovery and had just come from Decatur Indiana. Hmmmm.
Jeff showed Gary how to connect the TV antenna for local channels, we were able to watch a little TV, mostly Canadian stations with one US channel.

Saturday, July 4! Happy 4th of July. it seems strange being in Canada for the holiday. The good thing is we don't have to listen to fireworks all hours of the night.   Canada had their day July 1st.
We left Luci in the coach again, poor baby, catching the 10:35 train into downtown. Still no one checked tickets, we wondered if they ever do. We walked from the station to the historic distillery district, a bit of a walk, the largest preserved collection of Victorian brick buildings and brick streets. At one time there were quite a bit of spirits produced there, now mostly "artsy" shops, galleries and restaurants. The usual high end tourist fare. The oldest and largest structure, a stone building, opened in 1861 and produced whiskey until 1990. We had lunch at El Catrin, I suppose you would call it high end Mexican cuisine. I had the Caltrin salad which was yummy, Gary had 3 tiny pulled pork tacos that looked delish! After lunch we walked to the St. Lawrence Market, only about 1/2 mile walk, located also in the industrial area, a large marketplace selling produce, gourmet food, tourist fare, meats and seafood. Saturday afternoons are the wrong time to meander through, it was really crowded. To finish our tour of Toronto we walked back to the waterfront to enjoy an adult beverage, soak up the sun, watch people and enjoy the scenery. It also felt good to get off our feet! We dragged our weary behinds back to Union Station to catch the GO train. I enjoyed a revitalizing nap. This time someone checked tickets, must be random. On the way back to the coach we stopped at a market to spend the rest of our Canadian money, after we took one apple out we had 20 cents left.

Sunday, July 5th We left Glen Rouge Campground about 10 for our (supposedly) easy 110 mile drive to 4 Mile Creek Campground near Niagra Falls on the shore of Lake Ontario. Traffic was light, we passed up the Express Lanes because traffic in the Collector Lanes was moving at speed limit. The Express Lanes are fed by the Collector Lanes to keep the flow moving. We missed our second opportunity to get on the Express, oh well, still moving along. Then: We stopped. Stop and go for over an hour! After getting out of the construction the freeway south to Niagra Falls was also jammed up with heavy traffic. After we started moving at a good clip again, someone came alongside with a note our chains were dragging. We stopped while Gary fixed them with duct tap. Off again, we made it to the border crossing, waiting about 45 minutes. We got through with no problems. at least one thing went right. Finally made it to 4 Mile Creek CG, we unhooked the Jeep so Gary could back in. I smelled something funny, the wires he'd duct taped were smoking. (and we're not even in Colorado) Good grief! I see a trip to the RV service in our future. We needed to move the picnic table to make room for the coach, Gary stubbed his toe on the runner. An adult beverage was in order after this day. The campground is very nice, the spaces are quite roomy and if you hold your head just right we have a lake view. We are still roughing it, no sewer, water or satellite TV but now thanks to Jeff we can watch local channels.

Monday, July 6, I walked Luci in the morning, G is nursing his sore toe, we don't think it's broken but still hurts pretty bad. We are planning to go to Ft. Niagra today, he thinks there will be less walking than if we went to the falls. The fort is only about 10 miles from here on the mouth of Niagra River and Lake Ontario, located in the corner of the 504 acre park it's been restored to 18th century times. Our visit started with a 15 minute movie then, to our surprise, we had a tour guide take us to the fort with historical commentary and a little humor too. FN is the longest continuously military site in the country. It began as a French military post in the late 1,600's the oldest building on the Great Lakes the French Castle was built in 1726 and remained active until 1916.
The oldest lighthouse on the Great Lakes is located there and was active until the Coast Guard took control. The fort was under control of the French, British and US. We headed back to the coach for lunch before heading out to Lockport to a quilt shop. What a surprise, we stumbled upon part of the Erie Canal, at 363 miles long, was the first all water link between the Great Lakes (Lake Erie) and the Atlantic Seaboard. It was originally 4 feet deep and 40 feet wide, 83 locks in all and mules pulled the barges on a track, (like we saw in Ohio) now is a multi use trail. We picked up our first New York geo cache on one of the widest bridges in the world at 399 feet and 129 feet across the canal. People have put padlocks on the fencing, one of which was the gc (see picture). We got to see a couple of boats traverse the locks. We are so glad we happened upon the canal. Oh and the quilt store was nice too. After dinner we rode our bikes around the park catching a glimpse of sunset, the sun was a big red ball and no camera.

Tuesday, July 7th Will get to cross another thing off my bucket list, I'm going to have to start adding things to the list or I'll finish my list before I'm ready. Today was the day we plan to go to the Falls, Gary's toe is much better. Where to begin? We bought the $38.00 Discovery Pass that gives you admittance to the Aquarium, Maid of the Mist, Cave of the Winds, Niagra Adventure theater and the Niagra Gorge discovery center, plus unlimited rides on the trolley. We started at the Niagra Gorge Center, it was a bit "hokie" but gives you information on how the area was formed. Next the theater, a 30 minute film tells about Indian legends, explorers and the true story of a boy who survived a plunge down American Falls in 1960. Finally we get our first glimpse of the falls on the way to the Cave of the Winds experience. As we all know, the Niagra River flows between the US and Canada, the falls are divided in 3, The American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls on the American side and Horseshoe falls on the Canadian side. Horseshoe Falls is the widest, Bridal Veil, the middle and smallest is separated by Goat and Luna Islands. The American Falls, at 184 feet is the tallest. Massive rock slides over the millennium have shortened them by 7 miles. The Cave of the Winds experience was a real kick in the pants-you get a pair of lovely souvenir sandals and a yellow plastic poncho which were necessary. After an elevator ride down to a stair case, taking the stairs down (?) for views up to the top of Bridal Veil Falls. The noise was thunderous, you could hardly hear anyone talking I got pretty wet, Gary stayed off the very top deck, aptly named the Hurricane Deck. After shedding our lovely rain gear and another elevator we walked to the overlook of BVFalls.   I asked the elevator operator about the stairs, he said they are torn down every fall and replaced in the spring with a new set. A job I don't think I'd like, you'll see from the pictures how dangerous it must be to build. Instead of waiting for the trolley we walked back to the observation tower and entry to the Maid of the Mist boat ride. The tower was packed with tourists (those darn tourists) so we headed to the elevator down to the river. We donned our blue plastic poncho's for the boat ride, we lucked out, we were one of the first ones on the boat so we were right up front on the bow. Good news, bad news I suppose. What a different perspective of the falls from the river. It was breezy spreading the mist more than normal. The trip took us past the Cave of Winds giving you a look at the stairs. As we got closer to the Horseshoe Falls the mist got thicker and thicker until it was more like a heavy rain. We got pretty close, I think, my glasses were so wet I couldn't really see anything. Wow, how fun, I'd do that again. I tried to do something with my hair, haha, it was hopeless. We caught the trolley back to the aquarium, which was so so. We got back to the coach about 4, I BBQ'd chicken then vegged. What a day!

Wednesday, July 8, We drove into Buffalo, about 30 miles, to visit the Ralph Wilson Stadium where the Buffalo Bills play. Talk about bare bones and in an "ugly" part of town. The population is over 200,00, a mix of old architecture, new and crumbling. We had lunch at Pearl Street Grill and Brewing in the downtown area. After lunch we walked to City Hall's observation deck on the 28th floor Built in 1931 it has been maintained to keep the original 30's art-deco look. After walking around downtown checking out the old buildings and fountains we drove out to a complex designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1903. We missed the last tour of the day, we were able to visit the gift shop which originally was the carriage house. The historical society is just completing a 50 million (yes million) restoration. After 3 days of non-stop sightseeing we were pretty tired. I did get to go into the city of Niagra Falls to the Laundromat. Wah Hoo!

Oh and it's a little under a month until football starts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, that's it for this week, enjoy the pic's, I had hundreds to choose from.

TTFN,

Gary and Pam

PS I didn't publish this until Friday eve. Lousy service at park. Now at Watertown NY