Trip Non-Report – New England and Upstate NY
 

We (two couples) got back last week from two weeks in western NY State and New England – visited the Finger Lakes; Corning (glass museum); Le Roy Jell-O museum (a highlight); George Eastman House (Rochester); various cute and leafy towns and villages in Vermont; Portsmouth and vicinity; and ended up in Newport and Providence. Included along the way were a couple of days in NYC and a couple more in Connecticut visiting relatives and prowling around former haunts from one of our party’s misspent youth. We used Priceline, Expedia, and other travel aids where we could. One of the purposes of the trip was to look up a bunch of dead ancestors, which we did in style. Rather than produce a long and most likely boring trip report, I’ll be happy to answer any questions you might have about these places.

This makes me curious about the "misspent youth":) and how you looked up the "dead ancestors" in style?<BR><BR>Did you like Upstate NY? and NYC?<BR>How was Providence?<BR><BR>Were the trees changing colors yet?<BR>Thank you for a short and sweet non-report!

Along with hair in one's ears (men only I hope), I believe one of the things many people acquire in middle age is an interest in genealogy. Thanks to a bunch of distant relatives, we traced my people back to the 1600s around Portsmouth, so one of the objectives of the trip was to see how many of their houses/graves etc. we could find, consistent with not boring our travel mates out of their wits. (The deal we made to even it out was visiting our friend's former abodes and a number of his absolutely fascinating relatives - all in CT or Metro NYC.)<BR><BR>We found a surprising number of houses built or owned by "my ain folk" going back to the early 1700s, which was cool. The "in style" part was doing so from a way more luxurious rental car than we had planned, thanks to the upgrade fairy.<BR><BR>Upstate NY was wonderful, barely fall, but beautiful. The Finger Lakes are very impressive, as were some of the towns. We stayed in Geneva, day tripped out to Watkins Glen, Corning, Rochester, etc.<BR><BR>The Corning Glass Museum was nothing short of spectacular. I was wondering how our local (Tacoma WA) glass museum would stack up - short answer: hahahaha.<BR><BR>Because the weather had been (and still was) unusually warm, the color in NE hadn't peaked where we were (southern VT and NH). But there were still plenty of ooh-ahh moments - church steeples with maple leaves, that sort of thing.<BR><BR>Our time in NYC proper was very limited - lunch at Sarge's Deli, as good as ever, street market on 8th Ave. (is that REALLY a Rolex??) a matinee of the British production of Oklahoma (save your money but the Gershwin Theater is great) and dinner with a friend who worked in the WTC - sombre. We ate at an Italian restaurant located on the ground floor of the Time Hotel and we were the uncoolest people in the place by a factor of ten, although we did see several rock-star types checking in, including Mariah Carey, on whose head the fortune of thousands of cosmetics workers apparently rests.<BR><BR>Providence was nice; we stayed at the Radisson Hotel (Priceline, $50) and had a good dinner at Hemenway's downtown. We looked in vain for the Barkery. The Athaeneum Library was a big hit. The locals are obviously very proud of all the fixup that's taken place downtown; we didn't have anything to judge the progress against, but it seemed a nice and surprisingly small-town feeling sort of place.<BR><BR>See? More than you wanted I bet.

Thank you John. <BR>Your trip report gave me a few chuckles. (Which I now need as I am 30 miles from D.C. and I continue to watch CNN)<BR><BR>That must of been great to track down your dead ancestors, especially since you now live so far away from where your family had resided.<BR><BR>We loved our visit to the Corning Factory -- the hands on exhibits for the kids, the glass demonstrations... We stayed far longer than we expected to. Ever since we visited Watkins Glen and watched a race, I have always dreamed of speeding a Porsche around that track.

I wish there were more Non - reports like this! So interesting and witty!<BR>Thank you John. <BR><BR>PS&gt; so glad that you got to find the old "haunts" of your ancestors and friend all in the same trip, ar ar ar!<BR>

Thanks for the very interesting "non report" John. TTT

John,<BR><BR> I agree your non-report was great, I, too, have many ancestors in the Finger Lakes area, both living and dead. People in my current locale (Arkansas) do not believe NY is rural. Were you impressed by the big yellow sculpture just as you entered the glass works? I enjoyed showing pictures of it. Is this an area you would visit again? Oh yes if you didn't treat yourself to ice cream at the Winner's Circle, you really missed something grand. Glad you enjoyed it!!

Not only is much of NYS rural, but it's BIG. I don't think many people appreciate how large a state NY is, and how diverse. <BR><BR>The big yellow Chihuly piece at the entrance to the Corning museum is somewhat typical of some of his work from 3-5 years ago; there are more impressive (IMO) similar pieces of his here in the Seattle area, but the one in Corning is nice for an initial impact. I can't stop gushing about that museum, especially the way it included glass technology and optics with all the art pieces. Seriously one of the best museums I've ever visited anywhere.<BR><BR>Yes, we would visit the area again. We saw the Winner's Circle ice cream stand (the one in Watkins Glen I presume) but only one of us (misspent youth gent) voted to stop. He was outnumbered and we were on a dead run to get to Corning at the time. Pity, but he had a full day's epiphany at Ben and Jerry's in VT a few days later.<BR><BR>On the subject of sin, the Byrne & Carlson chocolate shop in Portsmouth is the stuff of dreams. Or a long spell in the confessional.

Did you happen to go to Genesee Country Museum outside Rochester? It's great!

No, we wanted to, but our friends were museumed out by that point and we were still all a-quiver from the Jell-O museum in Le Roy. We should have hit Le Roy last, because, as everyone knows, there's always room for...

That's pretty funny! Well, next time save room for Genesee Country Museum. It's great.