Growing up in western Pennsylvania, I had actually visited New York many times prior to this most recent trip.  I went to Peek’n Peek to ski, visited Buffalo, Corning, Watkins Glen, Troy and even Lake Placid.  But those visits were all before I started getting serious about photography, and many of them, including Lake Placid, were Before Kathy, and I wanted to take her there.  While I had some photos that would have worked – they’re our rules, after all! – we decided that another swing through the state would be the right way to do it.  Plus we wanted to visit the Finger Lakes.

Departing Burlington, we swung around the south shore of Lake Champlain, crossing into New York near the town of Moriah.  Moriah’s claim to fame is as the home of Johnny Podres, 1955 World Series MVP for the Brooklyn Dodgers.  Your trivia for the day. 😉  The rain and fog were still with us, but as we drove north and west the skies finally began to clear.

Our first destination was Lake Placid, and we arrived there in time for a late breakfast and a few photos of the fall color on the lake.  We didn’t stay long, since we had a long day ahead and didn’t want to linger at the beginning.  Also, the town was in the process of some major road work in town.  Main Street was torn up and loaded with piles of dirt, rocks and road equipment, rendering the normally picturesque town pretty rough looking.  Another technicality is that the lake in town is actually Mirror Lake, and that Lake Placid is out of town to the north.  We did stop to see the Olympic ski jumping site on our way into town, but didn’t try to take a tour.

Leaving Lake Placid and heading west through Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake, we crossed a bridge over the Raquette River near Piercefield and were greeted with a lovely park overlooking the river, complete with still water reflecting the fall color of the trees along the riverbank.  The skies were clearing but still mostly cloudy, providing us with ideal conditions for photos.  It made for one of  those unplanned stops we were glad to have taken the time for.

Our ultimate destination was a lodge on the west shore of Seneca Lake, one of the Finger Lakes and central to the Finger Lakes wine region.  I had a chance to do a little early photography before heading out to explore the area attractions.  We visited three wineries, bought souvenirs at two of them, visited a distillery and the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport.  We took a boat cruise on Saranac Lake out of Watkins Glen.  That was the seventh boat cruise of our trip – do you get the feeling we like boat cruises? 🙂

One of our days there was dedicated to a drive to Rochester, where we visited the George Eastman Museum and, most importantly, met up with two of our long-time photo buddies Paul Maxim and Ken Bello.  We had lunch  with them and Ken’s wife before driving along the shore of Lake Ontario through Webster (Where Life Is Worth Living) and ultimately returning to our lodge.

New York made for our 49th state visited.  Number 50 is Hawaii, and we have plans to visit there in February.  After that?  We’ll have to see, but there is a lot more of this country we want to see, we have friends to visit all over, and we might want to see a little bit more of the world. 🙂