Altogether my best calculation is that we took 8 home/mansion tours, visited 3 state capitols & 3 halls of fame, ascended 4 observation towers, saw at least 8 lighthouses, a few national park sites, 3 Erie Canal locks, 1 aquarian exposition site (aka Woodstock), 1 baseball game & 3 pretty big waterfalls!
We did all this in 10 days from start to finish – whew! Even by our standards this was a pretty ambitious road trip. We need a vacation from our vacation. Here is a recap & lots of photos from our Toronto, upstate New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island & Massachusetts trip.
DAY ONE – Buffalo/Toronto
Our flight arrived at 4:05 PM into Buffalo. We grabbed our luggage & hit the ground running - well, driving actually. Half an hour later we were staring, open-mouthed at Niagara Falls. Lou had been there before but said it was really built up from when he saw it over 30 years ago. I think his comment was, “It looks like Branson on steroids.”
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| Niagara Falls is actually made up of three separate waterfalls. This is American Falls & Bridal Veil Falls (the smaller one on the right after the gap). Rainbow Bridge separates the U.S. & Canada. |
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| A small rainbow formed near Horseshoe Falls which is separated from American & Bridal Veil Falls by Goat Island. |
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| Naturally, the overcast skies gave way to sunshine AFTER we descended the Skylon Tower. |
DAY TWO – Toronto
After reading about Casa Loma, a castle in Toronto, we decided to tour it instead of the Hockey Hall of Fame. I’m not really a fan & only know about 5 hockey players anyway. Our day in Toronto was packed full as it was but Casa Loma was amazing – glad we added it!
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| Casa Loma is a huge castle built on a hill overlooking Toronto. We could even climb up into the tallest turret on the right which was really cool. |
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| The tulips were everywhere in bloom - beautiful. |
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| An interesting scupture in the Historic Distillery District. The old buildings have been turned into shops & restaurants. |
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| The view of downtown Toronto from the top of the 1815 foot CN Tower. |
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| Unfortunately the Giants got off to a bad start & never recovered losing to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. |
DAY THREE – Back to Buffalo
Frank Lloyd Wright designed several houses, a boathouse & a mausoleum in Buffalo but only one complex of two homes (the Martin & Barton houses) is open for tours. We did drive around & check out all the others though.
Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated in Buffalo which had us somewhat confused until we learned that President McKinley was shot & later died in Buffalo which is why Roosevelt was sworn in as President at a private home.
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| The art deco Buffalo City Hall - it has an observation deck on top, too. |
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| The Frank Lloyd Wright designed Darwin Martin House in Buffalo. |
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| The Blue Sky Mausoleum also designed by FLW in Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemertery. |
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| The home where Vice President Roosevelt was inaugurated in Buffalo. |
DAY FOUR – Lake Ontario/Rochester
The day was gorgeous making for some wonderful photo ops of lighthouses on Lake Ontario. The Erie Canal is still operational & used only for recreation now. For a small fee, they will open the gravity fed locks for boaters & kayakers.
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| Part of the Erie Canal in Lockport, New York. |
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| I just loved this shot of two old barns in upstate New York. |
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| Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse along Lake Ontario in New York. |
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| Oak Orchard Lighthouse where we had our picnic lunch with a great view. |
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| The Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse. |
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| An old waterway & power station in Rochester, New York. |
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| The George Eastman House (of Eastman Kodak fame) in Rochester. |
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| The conservatory in the Eastman House. Oddly, he wasn't a hunter but had animal heads for decoration. |
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| One of the Erie Canal locks near Rochester that shows the different water levels. |
DAY FIVE – Syracuse/Cooperstown
I was excited about seeing Cooperstown. I’ve known about the National Baseball Hall of Fame since I was a little girl – & a baseball fan! It is a tiny town of less than 2000 residents & pretty much EVERYTHING in town is baseball related.
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| This is a monument to the Erie Canal which traveled right through downtown Syracuse. |
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| The elaborate art deco Niagara Mohawk Power Building in Syracuse. |
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| Fort Stanwix National Monument in Rome, New York. |
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| The National Baseball Hall of Fame is an unimposing brick building. |
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| The San Francisco Giants display as the reigning World Champions. |
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| A Hall of Fame inductee plaque - this one belongs to the Oakland A's great relief pitcher of the 1970s, Rollie Fingers. |
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| We ate at the Doubleday Cafe in Cooperstown where their motto is "we're a drinking town with a baseball problem". |
DAY SIX – Woodstock/Hyde Park
Woodstock happened about two weeks before I was married in 1969. By that time I wasn’t too interested in the “hippie scene” & I certainly wasn’t interested in sitting in the rain & mud with almost half a million people, only a few bathrooms, little food & no showers. After seeing the Museum at Bethel Woods, my guess is that it has been romanticized a ton from what the true experience was like. No freaking way!
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| Me sitting in a beanbag chair (we had one at home!) watching a film about Woodstock. Getting up out of the beanbag chair was a little harder than it used to be. :-) |
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| One of the psychedelic displays at the Museum at Bethel Woods. |
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| A monument overlooking the site - the stage was located on the flat area in the upper left & the crowd occupied the hillside. |
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| Lou jogged out in the rain to sit in the field so I could take a picture of him imagining Jimi Hendrix rocking out. |
DAY SEVEN – Hyde Park/Hartford
This was by far our busiest home tour day. We started with Springwood, the home of Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt (or rather it was owned by his mother, Sara who lived with them). We skipped Eleanor’s home, Valkill, also in Hyde Park due to a lack of time – no doubt she needed her own space to escape living with her mother-in-law for her entire married life.
From there we rushed to a Vanderbilt Mansion a couple of miles down the Hudson River. We learned that the millionaire businessmen of the gilded age tried to out do each other with their opulent mansions.
After a two hour drive to Hartford, Connecticut, in the rain, we toured Mark Twain’s home for our third home tour. Neither of us were sure which house had which features by then. They were all gorgeous, but Lou & I decided we both preferred the Twain house if we were going to actually live in one.
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| Springwood in Hyde Park, New York - the home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. |
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| The White Bridge on the grounds of the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park. |
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| Mark Twain's house in Hartford, Connecticut. |
DAY EIGHT – Hartford/Newport
This was the first of three of State Capitol tours in three days. Thank goodness for photos since it all seems to run together after awhile. This makes 32 state capitols for me & a few more for Lou.
I wished we had more time in Newport, Rhode Island. It is a cute, little town that is preserving its Millionaires Row of mansions - at least eight are open for tours. The two oldest sons of the Vanderbilt who built the mansion in Hyde Park were competing to construct their mansions with the most excessive display of wealth. The Breakers is considered the most opulent but Marble House comes in a close second. We chose The Breakers as our last home tour. Lou said he was “mansioned out”.
For those of you Anderson Cooper fans – as you know he is Gloria Vanderbilt’s son. Her grandfather built The Breakers & Anderson said the third floor is reserved for family who still visit. He remembered peeking out at the tourists as a child.
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| The Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford. |
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| A grass court at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. |
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| The Breakers - one of the Vanderbilt Mansions in Newport. |
DAY NINE – Providence/Springfield/Albany
After a quick tour of the Rhode Island State House, we headed to Springfield, Massachusetts for a visit to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. I’m a huge basketball fan which put this museum on a par with Cooperstown for me.
There was some terrible weather enroute to Albany when suddenly my phone starts making a loud, weird noise. I received a text message which read, “Imminent Threat – Extreme! May 21 – Emergency Alerts: Tornado Warning in this area til 5:30 pm EDT. Take shelter now.” Uh, where???
We were driving on the highway with no cities in sight. Lou surmised that it was lighter the direction we were going so hopefully any tornadoes were behind us. I know you are supposed to get in a ditch & lay flat if there are no cellars or basements, but I really didn’t want to have to do that! Fortunately, none formed & we arrived safely in Albany. I’ll take our earthquakes any day!
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| The Rhode Island State Capitol in Providence. |
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| The interior of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. |
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| One of the displays showing Michael Jordan's number 23 jersey among others. |
DAY TEN – Albany
Our final tour before flying home was the New York State Capitol. It looks much more like a French chateau than a state capitol. There is no dome (10 state capitols don’t have one) although there was one planned. The state spent a fortune before new governor Teddy Roosevelt put a stop to the spending saying, "Enough is enough" & sent all the workers home.
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| The New York State Capitol in Albany. |
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| A view of downtown Albany from the 44th floor of the Corning Tower, the tallest building in New York outside of New York City. |
The trip was wonderful & we had a great time exploring the Northeast. The weather ranged from the low 50s & cold wind to 85 degrees & humid. We had rain, bright sunshine, thunderstorms & tornado warnings. It was tons of fun & we're already looking forward to our trip to Turkey, Greece & Ukraine in October. But it's always nice to sleep in your own bed & as Dorothy said, “There’s no place like home.”
