Week 16

August 19^th – August 25^th 2013

SUNDAY – YES, WE ARE IN NEW YORK CITY. Some unpacking and practical issues. We are on busy street (8^th Avenue), but the noise in the night is just fine. A bit messy street. We walked down to the grocery store (surprisingly nice and reasonable). Continue walking to Columbia University Campus area with Farmers Market (about 13 stands, pretty bad). People were moving to the school. Interesting. Sunny and warm. Continue walking to check another supermarket – really bad. One more found on the way – something in between. Hot – going back to the apartment. Unpacking and taking it easy and cooling for a bit. Get a subway passes and get down to 76^th street. Busy and nicer. Trader Joe's store – extremely busy, the line for registers was 9 minutes. Welcome to NYC (I guess). Back on subway and stop by our first store to finish our shopping. Walk back (8 blocks). There was some small fair or something and we saw two horses going back to the trailer. Horses on Manhattan – just strange. A lot of people. Very lively. Still feeling stiff and tired from yesterday. By the evening, the apartment looked more normal and we were more less settled. Starting the next chapter – again.

SATURDAY – morning in Syracuse 6.10 – 7.56: finish packing, clean up last things, move the rest of the stuff, have a breakfast and take pictures of the apartment. Foggy morning. An hour and half to Binghamton, where we stop to buy J.'s scrubs (she found some, not all needed). Over two hours to Central Valley and another scrubs shop (get the rest of it). Last hour to NYC. Busier traffic, but we did not have to stop. Cars, cars and cars. 13 dollars to cross the bridge to Manhattan. Few turns and we were on 8^th Avenue (our intersection street). Busy traffic but still doable. Many streets closed and we had to circle around few times. Park, get the keys from the apartment (pretty nice). Ready to move in around two o'clock. Move the car, park close to the apartment and start moving to the second floor walk up. It was sunny and warm. Horrible – we were sweating like animals, but we got it done in an hour or so. Relax for a bit, check out the parking garage next door – safe and very convenient – that is where we have the car now (for 300 dollars a month). Walk several blocks to have a dinner – average meal for above average price (really New York?). Our apartment (for 14 weeks) – unpacking and just chilling out. WE ARE IN NEW YORK CITY!

FRIDAY – slow morning and uncertainty about our day. Mostly packed and ready to leave, still some stuff to do. Drive to New York State Fair, park for 5 dollars and take a shuttle to the gates. Relatively easy. The weather got much better, sunny with few clouds and cooler. Possibly because of the early time, there was not too many people. Huge grounds with hundreds and hundreds of stands (business, professional associations, fire departments, all branches of army ….). Probably also hundreds of food stands. Plenty of live animals (cows, horses, chicken, goats, lamas …). Exhibitions. Rides. It got warmer and busier. It was very interesting experience and we were glad we went there. It is hard to describe how it was and the impression of it. Drive back to Syracuse, stop by post office. Home – J. found a place where to sell her bike – do that. Almost five o'clock. Finishing packing and moving part of our luggage to the car – heavy and hot. Get the apartment and the rest of the stuff ready. Last night in Syracuse.

THURSDAY – switch day for J. or it could as well be called her last “Monster Inc.” day in Syracuse. Figuring out last things to arrange and do before leaving. Nothing really special. J. had to do huge amount of training online for the hospital (took big part of the afternoon). And it was real “Monster Inc.” day. Last one caused by the night shift.

WEDNESDAY – J. worked. Her last work night (relatively good one). Trip to Labrador Unique Area and walk to the Jones Hill (launching site for hand gliding). Hot and humid. Really steep one mile walk, nice view of pleasant countryside. So buggy – I felt eaten alive. Longer drive to the town, car what. More cleaning and packing (piece by piece, slowly).

TUESDAY – J. worked. Hot and humid. Some packing and cleaning. For over two hours wait for oil change and car being checked – some problems. Happy to leave that place. Drive to Camillus and walk along old Erie Canal to Aqueduct (according to the sign possibly last working one in world). Really hot and not so impressive like on picture from air. Oh well … Drive home and be pretty much done for the rest of the day.

MONDAY – J. worked. Hot and humid. Packing. Clark Park – walk down to the small glacier lake and walk around. Really nice natural site – too many bugs, unfortunately.

Week 15

August 12^th – August 18^th 2013

Monday – almost last J.'s switch day. Some sorting and checking emails and documents to get ready for the move.

Tuesday – nice and breezy morning. We walked to Clinton Square to the Farmers market. Pleasant walk, familiar surroundings. It got warmer and humid so the walk back was not so pleasant. Some packing. In the afternoon J. tried to do some scrub's shopping (dress code for NYC).

Wednesday – Ithaca. Relatively early morning, cloudy and breezy. About an hour drive to the outskirts of Ithaca, where was Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Quick look in their building and walk in the sanctuary (park). It was really nice, marshy and peaceful. No birds though. A lot of funky looking mushrooms. Drizzling rain. Drive to Ithaca – few stops along the Fall Creek on Cornell campus. It was incredible to see the top of the gorge (deep and rugged) with nets on all the bridges and the bottom where we just found small creek next to the houses. Nature. Some trouble with parking, but we saw several waterfalls and took a short trail to the bottom of the gorge. Nice. We drove through downtown to Treman State Park. Lower entrance – short walk to the waterfall with swimming area, all closed due to the damage from flooding (a week ago). Gorge trail closed. Drive to the top of the park, visible flood damage, really sad. Over half a mile trip to overlook of Lucifer Falls, few peaks at the gorge trail – it would be really interesting. Deep and completely wooded gorge with the views of more forest in the distance. And actually relatively nice weather. Next the the parking lot – old mill open to the public, we walked through. Ithaca – walk in the downtown, apparently one of the biggest “outdoor city malls” left in the US. Shops, restaurants and bars – nothing spectacular. Both tired – drive home. Last bigger trip from Syracuse, good one.

Thursday – pretty much nothing. J. slept during the day to go to work at night.

Friday – the same, I guess.

Saturday – J.'s day off without switching. We just enjoyed the afternoon off. Probably last grocery shopping in Syracuse. It is going to be interesting to move from “slow and relatively quiet” Syracuse to New York City.

Sunday – back to work for J. Some more packing and planning. Finishing the class for the summer semester. And getting into our last week in Syracuse. NYC, here we come (almost).

Week 14

August 5^th – August 11^th 2013

One of the last “busier” weeks in our Syracuse stay. On switch day – Monday – we went to Dinosaur BBQ restaurant, there are several in New York state and apparently it is one of the best ones in the country. … it was good … Some errands and shopping and easy evening at home.

Nice, mild, and sunny day as we were driving east on route 20 (scenic and historic route). Bunch of small towns and villages (most of them with some abandoned buildings). Bunch of farms and farmland (many with the old barn just falling apart – slowly and surely). Still, very pleasant drive with rolling hills, woods, and farms, very picturesque. We took a detour and drove to the town of Cooperstown (without knowing much about it). Several museums and parking lot for the town's trolley – interesting. First we saw some fancy country clubs, golf course, and Farm museum, which we visited. The collection of older buildings and houses more less dating to 1850. Some were staffed – printer, pharmacist, farmer, store keeper – and producing something. Some farm animals, “real house”, and large entrance barn with display of farm equipment and tools. Not bad. We drove through town's center and were surprised how big and busy it was. It was the location of the Hall of Fame of Baseball. Who knew? Somewhat interesting, but too busy to enjoy. Drive back northeast. Secret Caverns was another stop. About 120 feet below ground, about quarter mile path ending by the waterfall. It was just two of us and a guide, nice and quiet and pretty interesting. The fall was amazing. Via road number 30 heading south. Schoharie cover bridge. North Blenheim covered bridge – the biggest in the world. We did not find it and later discovered it was destroyed by Irene (hurricane in 2011). Another stop by Bilboa water power project. J. watched a movie and I was playing with their display (making power etc). Mine Kill State Park – waterfall at the end of short walk. Almost six o'clock – tired and done. Another hour of driving to the motel in Catskill. Quick stop on the hill “Five states lookout”, pretty wide and nice view of the area. Motel – just fine.

Wednesday. Super easy and slow morning. Back roads drive to the town of Catskill. Breakfast – average one with really bad waitress. Kind of normal town, main street was lined up with pretty ugly statues of cats (strange). Staying on small county roads – drive to Athens to view a lighthouse. Tiny village with the houses telling the past story of success and wealth (the times of commerce on Hudson river). The lighthouse was in the middle of the river in significant distance, not super easy to see. Pretty though. Back in Catskills and driving to Saugerties, another town (this one with almost 20000 inhabitants). Stop at the end of the town and walk about half a mile to the lighthouse. Nice one. The town – pretty much the same, we walked along the main street, J. went into few stores and after that we continued driving to Kingston (apparently first capital of New York State). Nice … the same, sort of. Few stops, some wandering around, few shops, visitor's center. Drive to the old uptown, where we passed the intersection which had houses from 18^th century on all corners. Day was passing by pretty quickly. We drove towards motel, it did not start raining yet, so we decided to walk up to Kaaterskil Falls. We did not have detailed directions, so we thought we missed it (as there were some smaller falls along the road) or that it was not accessible. Another mile up on that twisty road and we found a parking lot for the fall, next to the narrow road and ninety degree turn over the creek. To get on the trail, one had to walk along the road for several hundred yards (cars were not slowing down much) and it was not pleasant. Next to the road, there was smaller water falls and some people – it was pretty. There we as well saw “stairs” up the hill which was the trail. Walking and walking, pretty steep and hard trail, few people leaving. Drizzling rain, on and off. Really amazing site of the fall, last people left and we were left alone to enjoy the view. …. Walk back and drive (in rain) to the motel. Many trails, buildings, and other stuff named after Rip Van Winkle. Day over.

Thursday, cloudy morning, it rained whole night. Easy and slow. We took small county roads heading to Syracuse, so the whole drive took over four hours. Same rolling hills and farms and woods landscape, many small towns and villages. Goofy weather, sun, clouds, rain. Few stops – nothing spectacular though. At about two o'clock we were back in Cazenovia and stopped for the lunch. The same place I had “the heart stopper burger” with J.'s parents. It was still so good. Nice end of the trip. Home. J. switching and staying up whole night. Warm and muggy again.

The rest of the week – nothing special, pretty nice “end of summer” weather.

Week 13

July 29^th – August 4^th 2013

Getting close to the end of our stay in Syracuse. On August 24^th we will travel about 4 hours to our next destination, New York City. J. found an apartment in Harlem. Everything should be more less set and ready to go (as much certainty there is with the job of travel nurse). J. has to get some blood testing and physical done for the next assignment. Otherwise nothing really special – more work nights, couple of switch days – we will be more then thrilled to get rid of those. The life goes on ...

Wednesday. Easy going morning, nice and mild weather, J.'s day off. Via Thruway 90 and then road along Seneca Lake we were driving to the village of Watkins Glen. An hour and half (and perhaps some change). We made a small detour to visit Seneca Mills Falls. Nice country, house now and then, a lot of farming and really tall corn. Small county roads, couple of smaller settlements. Quarter of a mile walk along a mall river. A waterfall, used to be some kind of mill side. Bustling town of Watkins Glen – summer is in full swing and people are vacationing (good for them). Almost full parking lot at the state park – Watkins Glen. We visited the park with J.'s parents, but we did not walk along the whole gorge and it looked really interesting. Relaxing walk along the gorge and it was indeed gorgeous (not counting all the people who were there). Many incredible sites, few “water falls” - water falling on the rock and creating “rain”. Steps, steps and more steps. We walked almost to the other side of the park, where we saw remains of railroad bridge (impressive). Got warmer a bit. We walked back, left the gorge at one point and cross it on the suspension bridge (unbelievable views) and finished the walk on the rim trail (not much to see). We ended up walking the stars down to the gorge entrance. Really great. In close proximity to the town, there were several more waterfall sites. A – small and tall along the main road (kind of goofy site). B – in the middle of village (town) of Montour Falls, within the residential area, actually between two houses. Anyway, it was incredible site, very tall and pretty big fall, cute town. C – at the end of street, in the woods with oh so many signs “posted – private property”. We saw it, but we could not get really close. D – within the town's park and campsite. Walk way along the stream (short walk) and really nice waterfall with high cliffs all around.

Still relatively early, we decided to take a small detour and drive to the town of Corning. Same or similar landscape. Bigger town, several blocks long main street, while entering the town we passed the Museum of Glass (the main attraction of Corning). We parked on the main street and strolled along. J. went into several shops, otherwise there was nothing super special. Many shops were displaying or selling … wait for it … glass. Still, pleasant and pretty town (or at least this part). The interstate to the village of Bath, where we had a hotel room booked. Small and not very interesting, very small main street, we even missed the hotel along the way. It was very old building (traditional one) with the bar and restaurant on the main floor. It was a bit strange (we got keys on the bar). We walked to the main street and one into the diner with funny name (Chat-a-Whyle) for a dinner. J. had fish and chips, I got chicken and bacon sandwich with cheese and santa fe dressing – sounds boring, but it was really tasty sandwich. Done with the day, pretty tired.

Thursday. Cloudy and rainy morning, pretty sad. We left around eight o'clock, got on the interstate and within half an hour parked in Stony Brook State Park. It was quiet and empty, it was humid and misty, not rainy yet. It was about a mile walk through the gorge. Even it tried to rain few times, we were lucky enough and did not get really wet. We did not meet any people either (it was a relief after yesterday's visit to Watkins Glen). Wider gorge, stream in the middle, several waterfalls and peaceful beauty all around us for an entire walk.

 I think we left around ten o'clock and were heading to the Grand Canyon of the East – Letchworth State Park. Instead of interstate and arriving from the east side, we drove on county roads and arrived from the west side. It almost felt like fall. The park is pretty long and obviously, there is a river in the middle (more less). Big railroad bridge (not used anymore). First view of the river. Walk to the Upper Falls. Walk to the Middle Falls. Museum. Lodge. Extremely well maintained park. To our surprise, relatively empty. Longer walk to the Lower Falls. Several view points. Visitor center. They were mainly spots to view to river and waterfalls, there was no real hiking to the falls or around. There are many trails in the park, not just suitable for quicker walks (us). We stopped by Trout pond (no visible fish) and had our lunch.

Indeed, with all the beauty of nature around us, the time was flying by as we were making our way through the park. The weather got pretty nice, breezy and sunny. There were few moments that it felt like real fall. Oh well … the view has to be absolutely amazing in the fall when leaves are changing colors. At one point, we were watching several birds (falcon, hawk, who knows what it was) flying around – it was unbelievable. We actually saw several more birds sitting on the cliffs. Few more view stops and we were at the last one – Morris Dam. There was a huge wall in the middle of the valley and almost no water – just river. We drove for about ten minutes to the dam area. Apparently, it is dry dam – they catch water in case of flooding. We were told that a month and half ago, the dam was full – hard to believe and imagine. We missed the tour of the dam by about twenty minutes. Quick stop in the village. Nothing really special. We made one more small detour to the town of Geneseo – nice main street with farmers market. Interstate and drive home (113 minutes).