17 day photo trip report - upstate New York
 

Hello! This last summer, I did a six week trip to the Northeast, visiting primarily upstate New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. I was solo most of the time, but my wife joined me for two weeks later on in the trip, once I was done with NY.

I have just finished a web album trip report, complete with 250 photos - each with a detailed explanatory caption. I visited many corners of upstate New York in a way I realize few tourists would do - but you may find sections of my trip report interesting or helpful if you're planning your own trip soon ... or just want to compare notes between what I did and saw and what you have experienced yourself in this gorgeous state. My travels focused mostly on U.S. history, so it is heavy on historic home tours, forts, and museums, but I also loved finding uniquely beautiful places for my camera to delight in. I did a wide variety of things, some admittedly oddball and off of the main tourist radar screen.

My trip report is more or less a journal for my own memory, but I truly enjoy sharing my photos and especially aiding trip planners who are fine-tuning their own journeys. Since it is admittedly quite long and you may want to cherry pick what you are interested in, here is a breakdown of what photos line up with what corner of the state:
Buffaol/Niagara Falls area #1-28
Finger Lakes region #29-87
St. Lawrence River towns #88-108
Adirondacks #109-155
Albany area and Cooperstown #156-194
Hudson River Valley #195-250

Here's the link to my upstate NY album ...
https://picasaweb.google.com/1003399...ewYorkJune2014

You will have to click on the photos that interest you to be able to read the captions. Then you can just use the arrow keys on your keyboard to advance to the next image.

On this particular trip, I chose to not go to New York City, since I have been there quite a few times. If you would like to see a similar annotated photo trip report of NYC - my wife, son, and I went in the summer of 2009 - it can be found here ...
https://picasaweb.google.com/1003399...rkCityJuly2009

I absolutely loved upstate New York. I am a Chicago area high school biology teacher, but I love American history and it was quite the treat for me to see upstate NY for the first time! If you have any corrections to make, please fire away. I usually make at least a few errors, so I will be grateful if you point out anything I labeled incorrectly. If you have any questions for me about a particular place, I will try to answer back in this forum within a day or two. I tend to stay at relatively inexpensive motels and I am not necessarily a foodie, so I don't have too much advice about unique B &Bs or upscale restaurants. I keep both my overnight stays and food pretty simple - doing so allows me to stretch the length of my trip!

If you read every word, write to me and I'll send you a gold star! :)

Happy and safe travels!

Mike

Your pictures are great, I confess that I did not read every word, but did pick and choose. Who knew there was so much diversity of religion in the area, Russian Orthodox, Buddist, Amish.

Thanks for the album.

Hi Mjneenan,

I'm glad to see someone out there appreciating the offerings of upstate NY and in particular, Albany's architecture. I find the streets just north of the Capitol have so much character with all the beautiful row-houses, not to mention the Capitol building itself which is quite handsome with a fascinating history. I live in not-far-away Montreal and I've spent quite a few nights in the city, as Albany is a good place to rest my head prior to continuing on to points further south. I haven't been able to convince anyone to go, but I really do find the city has its charms.

Thanks for a great trip report! Daniel

Beautiful photos! Thank you for sharing!

Thank you to all of you for your warm comments! Emalloy, Yes, I took delight in such large temples for such a wide variety of religions - it seems like upstate New York is particularly blessed, if you enjoy seeing them. ... Daniel, Yes, I couldn't agree more. When I first began planning this trip, I wasn't even going to spend any time at all in Albany - just drive through it to get to Saratoga. Then when I started reading, I added part of a day, then a full day, and finally two full days. Such rich history there ... and that old town area, just north of the capitol, with all the beautiful row-houses, was truly something special. I have toured at least 7-8 state capitol buildings over the years and Albany's was by the far the most beautiful and interesting.

Thanks for sharing your great photos plus the descriptions where each one was taken.

We've visited some of the areas where you traveled. Years ago when our kids were young, we visited
Watkins Glen. I remember being very frightened when we were walking through there. One slip and that was all she wrote!

We sure do live in a beautiful country.

Katie, for me, the fact that there was so much water everywhere on the Watkins Glen trail made it that much more fun - since there were so many times when you could walk directly behind or under a waterfall - it was amazing ... but I can certainly see how if you had younger kids with, it would make you nervous, especially if they were inclined to run, with all the wet rock.

Beautiful pictures! I live in the Buffalo area and wish you had spent more time here. There is so much to do and see. Come back again!

Hi Mike,

I wanted to add that I'm pleased you made it to Plattsburgh too, as I don't see people make it there particularly often. I find Plattsburgh to be a handsome town with a charming small downtown core (with some restaurants and cafes I really like). I appreciate its bilingual French/English signs, statuary, and the parks with nice views of a rushing river and Lake Champlain. I probably never would have discovered the town myself if it weren't so close to Montreal. Thanks again! Daniel

Very nice collection of photos, and great, informative captions, too!

KathyK, When I started off trip planning, I wasn't even going to go to Buffalo - I knew basically nothing about it from a tourist perspective. When I finally added time there, I realized it wasn't enough to spend only one afternoon, but since it was at the very beginning of my drive across NY, and I left the next morning after my last day of work as a teacher, I sort of boxed myself in for adding time there. Now I know better and would definitely like to spend at least a couple full days there. Later on in the trip, I spent five days in Philly and three in Pittsburgh. Buffalo deserved a comparable amount of time. ... Daniel, I, too think Plattsburgh is interesting - the whole area there on Lake Champlain is quite pretty.

Wonderful photos..I lived in the Adirondacks....is an incredible place

Your pictures are absolutely gorgeous.Thanks for showing me a different side of New york!!!

Great photos...I really want to take this trip now!

Thank you, Jose and Rizzo for your kind words. Rizzo, If you have any questions, please let me know - you won't regret it, if you choose to spend some time in upstate NY ... it is beautiful and so very interesting, with all its history and varied architecture and art.

What a fantastic and inspiring trip report. Thanks so much for getting my husband and I excited about seeing more of our incredible upstate NY. We live in the Capital District, and although we have spent lots of time in the Adirondacks and Finger Lakes, your trip made us realize how many amazing cultural and historical sites we need to see. Thanks again for the great photos and narrative - truly inspiring!

You're welcome, Sharon ... I think I could have doubled the number of days in upstate NY to a whole month and still left the state thinking I needed much more time. If I lived where you do, I think there would be enough interesting weekend trips to last for decades. I envy you.

They are great. Can I grab some of them?

Sure, you can grab whatever you want ... public album.

Great report in a neat format. Thanks for posting.