Kathy & I drove to Rochester today to visit the Eastman House and – more importantly – meet up with some of our photo friends (more on that later). This photo is not necessarily representative of the experience but is one of my favorites for the day.
We’ve got one more day in the Finger Lakes before we head south on Saturday. We should be sleeping in our own bed on Sunday and are looking forward to it!
Other than the Wright Brothers, perhaps no other individual is as important to the history of aviation than Glenn Curtiss. Just a few years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight in 1903, Curtiss, almost single handedly, improved and advanced the newfangled airplane to see ever expanding commercial, military and personal application.
Curtiss’ various ventures centered in the area around Hammondsport, New York. The Glenn H. Curtiss Museum is a tribute to this aviation pioneer and is a fascinating place to learn about this area of aviation history.
I’m finding it quite easy to make these early morning excursions when I am in an interesting place to photograph. I went out this morning in front of the lodge where we are staying. It is still cloudy, although forecast to start clearing today. The soft cool morning light made long exposures easy. In this case 7.5 seconds on a tripod gave the water a nice blur while preserving some of the detail.
I forgot to mention in yesterday’s post that we are now officially at 49 states! The last one, of course, is Hawaii. We have plans to go there in February.
We happened upon this spot on our drive from Lake Placid to the Finger Lakes area of New York. Within minutes the breeze picked up and erased the reflections. A reminder to shoot what we see when we see it.
What better symbol of Vermont than a Ben & Jerry’s? While this is not the original – it was torn down long ago – this one is the flagship store in downtown Burlington. The factory is located a few miles east in Waterbury, but the store and visitor center are undergoing renovation and currently closed. We made do with this one. What flavor did we choose? New York Super Fudge Chunk – Chocolate Ice Cream with White & Dark Fudge Chunks, Pecans, Walnuts & Fudge-Covered Almonds!
Who knew there were so many kinds of flour? I guess I did, but seeing so many varieties in one place was fascinating. Kathy & I like bread, but like so many things, we like to eat it but are happy for others’ passion in baking it! But it was the first stop after we crossed into Vermont, so we stopped in, wandered around, took a few pictures and left. It was pretty busy, we didn’t have anything we wanted to take home, and knew that we would soon have other “souvenir” opportunities – in the afternoon we stopped and purchased at (a) a distillery, (b) a maple syrup and cheese farm, and (c) a maple syrup museum (who knew?).
Blue skies and sunshine just wouldn’t have been the right way to experience Mount Washington, said to have the “worst weather in the country” according to some. We saw no sunshine today, and in fact were amazed at the strength of the blowing snow, ice and wind at the summit. We rode the cog railway – no way were they letting cars to the top in those conditions!
Lots of fall color around, although we were faced with a lot of fog, rain and tourists. Photos to follow, however!
We took a harbor cruise out of Bar Harbor today – 4 more lighthouses! During the cruise our captain arranged (likely pre-arranged) to rendezvous with a lobsterman as he was tending his traps. We got to see him pull 6 out of his trap. Our guide told us that the solo lobsterman probably tended on average 150 traps a day. That’s a lot of lobster! There are lobster traps everywhere – every harbor is dotted with their buoys.
These guys will probably be on someone’s plate in the near future!
We visited Pemaquid Point Lighthouse by land today. It’s not nearly as imposing but still pretty. Kathy stated it well when she said “from the sea you understand the context and purpose of the lighthouse and why it is there. From the land it is more about the structure itself.”
I managed to haul my carcass out the door again this morning for the second time in a row. I’ve got a number of good results but will have to process them at a later date. So much to see and do here – no time to process photos. A good problem to have!