Glad we made it out of the Lake Erie/Lake Ontario and Thousand Island regions before the snow hit. The areas are expected to get 2 to 4 feet of snow by the end of the weekend! Yes, that's FEET not inches! All we can say is Wow, we dodged the bullet! Here in Johnson City we only received a couple of inches of snow that has already melted.
Here are a few interesting tidbits and pictures of our journey over the past two weeks.
Penn Yan, NY, the self-proclaimed buckwheat capital of the world, holds the world record for the largest pancake ever made. Back in 1987, Birkett Mills built a 28 foot in diameter metal pancake griddle over a bed of hot coals. Using a cement mixer, folks mixed 15 gallons of cooking oil, 2000 gallons of water, and a ton of buckwheat before pouring it onto the griddle. A crane flipped the flapjack. The pancake was topped off with a 2 foot by 3 foot pat of butter and 15 gallons of maple syrup. One might ask how many people it fed and the answer is: 5000 people! Wow! Here is a pic of the griddle.
The town of Seneca Falls is remarkably similar to and could be the inspiration for the fictional Bedford Falls from the Christmas classic "It's a Wonderful Life". The locals have played this up along their streets and bridges....
The bridge like the one George jumped off of to save Clarence the angel from drowning
In their stores.....
And local museum with movie trivia
The city of Ithaca's cemetery built on a hill was very interesting with so many graves from the late 1700s through today. They are no longer selling new plots - no room left. Many of the grave stones were decayed or had fallen over. It made us wonder who is left to take care of the area after the occupants' descendants die or move away from the area.
On our journey, we visited the Thousand Islands at the top of New York state - near the town of Alexandria Bay. While he was growing up, Don's family owned a cottage on one of the islands - Wellesley Island. They spent time there every summer. Forty years later the place hasn't changed much. The area actually contains 1864 islands that straddle the Canadian - US border in the St Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. (Donna suggests you look at a google map.) Some of the islands are as large as 40 square miles containing roads, stores, and homes. Others are very small. To count as one of these islands, land within the river channel must have a least one square foot of land above water level year round and support at least two living trees. That's not very big, if you ask us!
Other than the family cottage, one of the other well known landmarks is Boldt Castle that sits on an island across from Alexandria Bay. The castle was intended to be a home for George Boldt and his wife. She died before its completion and Boldt never returned to the island to finish it. It languished for 73 years before the Bridge Authority purchased it for one dollar ($1) and began restoration (at a cost of $50 million). It is now a tourist attraction. Unfortunately, it was closed for the season when we arrived. However, we have visited the mansion in previous visits.
The castle's boathouse.
Miscellaneous pics of the area
Visiting with Don's mom has been great! It's amazing how well she is doing at the age of 93! We've talked, showed her our blog photos, played cards and went out to eat! We do think we are wearing her out.
We're off to Washington DC for the winter. Can't wait! We'll try not to bore you with blog posts similar to the ones from last year.
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