New York, New York, It’s a Wonderful State!

Since we enjoyed meandering through Michigan so much in June, Paula and I decided to try the same thing in the state of New York.

We spent eight days taking in Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake in Canada, Watkins Glen State Park and the Finger Lakes of Seneca and Cayuga, Mark Twain’s grave in Elmira, the tall but narrow Taughannock Falls near Ithaca, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s home and gravesite and the Vanderbilt mansion, both in Hyde Park, and Fire Island and Staten Island, the Algonquin Hotel of literary 1920s Round Table fame and a Central Park concert in New York City.

On this visit to Niagara Falls, we went onto Goat Island, which has the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls flowing on either side of the observation point, the smaller waterfall within 10 feet of us. It gave us a different perspective, rather than doing our usual view of the Horseshoe Falls from the Canadian side.

We got our taste of Canada in Niagara-on-the-Lake, which is 12 miles from Niagara Falls. We went into the Niagara Apothecary, which was built in 1819 and is the longest operating pharmacy in Ontario, and enjoyed the quaint houses and streets.

Watkins Glen was a fascinating park. We walked through two miles of a narrow gorge that was cut 400 feet into a former ocean floor to see the 19 waterfalls and walk up more than 800 steep steps. Tiring, but well worth it.

We enjoyed lunch at the Montage Restaurant, which overlooks Seneca Lake, and watched sailboats go by. The drive to and from Auburn, which bordered the Seneca and later Cayuga (pronounced “key-you-guh” in New York) Finger Lakes, was spectacular.

While visiting Mark Twain’s grave in Elmira, which is where author Samuel Clemens lived, we also stopped by the grave of Ernie Davis, the 1961 Heisman Trophy winner from Syracuse University who died of leukemia at age 23 before he could play for the Cleveland Browns, who had drafted him.

Then there was the trip to Taughannock Falls near Utica, which at 215 feet is 33 feet higher than Niagara Falls, but less than a few feet wide when we got there. The solid rock floor is more than a hundred feet wide. The waterfall was created by centuries of cutting through shale.

The visit to FDR’s birthplace and grave was significant for me. In my childhood, as the son of a coal miner in tiny Monongah, West Virginia, Roosevelt was considered a God, a savior of the workingman. I remember my Mom crying when our only four-term president died on April 12, 1945, and wondering what would happen to America.

Up the road a few miles is the Vanderbilt mansion, built by Cornelius’ grandson Frederick. These are the same Vanderbilt heirs who ran through $200 million with extravagant parties and mansion-building.

We grabbed some eats at the large Whole Foods, which has both prepared foods and groceries, and took them to New York City’s Central Park where we took in a free concert attended by thousands of New Yorkers. I munched on ribs while listening to some excellent folksong-ish music.

Fire Island was an interesting experience for a kid from a small mining town in West Virginia. It is the land of lavender. I had never seen men holding hands and kissing each other on the mouth before. Some swimsuits were little more than G-strings. The white beach was great, although the Atlantic Ocean was too cold for more than wading near the shoreline.

The Algonquin Hotel was where such literary giants as Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, William Faulkner, Sinclair Lewis, Gertrude Stein, James Thurber and Alexander Woolcott hung out, exchanging witticisms around the Round Table.

Since New York has a plethora of restaurants, this time Paula and I accompanied her son, Pat, a jazz musician who lives in Brooklyn, to a Peruvian restaurant. Great tasting food! The next night, with Pat’s girlfriend, Erin, joining us, we went to Brooklyn Fishing Camp, a restaurant where the entire fish, eyeballs and all, is cooked. It tastes better than it sounds.

Our next trip? Well, West Virginia Mountaineers football begins Sept. 1 so Morgantown will be our travel destination at least six times this season, with trips to Tampa and Cincinnati for away games. Expectations are high for WVU. Anything less than the national championship will disappoint fans who aren’t realistic.
Click on the headline if you want to see photos of our trip.