Corning and Rochester - Day 1

My friends and I drove down to Corning and Rochester last weekend. We wanted to see the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning and the George Eastman Museum in Rochester.

It was my turn to drive this trip. To save some time I slept over at Peter's condo on Friday and we picked Justin and Gabe up Saturday morning. Originally we were aiming for 8:00 a.m., but were a little late.

We took the 401 west to the 427 and connected with the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way) to Niagara Falls. The quickest way over at that time was at the Rainbow Bridge. We got through the border quickly which was nice.

Our first stop over the border was to a mail depot in Niagara Falls. Justin and Peter mail ordered some items there. So we went to pick them up. After that we headed towards Corning.

We made it about 100 kilometres past the border before we got hungry. By this time it was shortly after 1:00 in the afternoon. We had made it to Warsaw, New York. Time to eat.

We parked on Highway 20A (Buffalo Street) and walked over to Main Street where we found a BBQ restaurant called the Rock and Roll Bar BBQ. It looked all right, so we walked in.

For lunch we ordered the full rack of ribs for $23.99 as well as an order of their beef brisket for $15.99 to share. Each order came with with two sides. We had the coleslaw, corn bread, mac and cheese and fries. I have to say we thought the portions were a bit small for what we paid. But it was enough to satisfy our hunger for the time.

We hit the road again by 2:30. An hour and 45 minutes later we were in Corning. We walked around downtown briefly before heading over to the museum. Peter had bought advanced tickets that were good from 4:00 p.m. onwards. We got there shortly before 5:00.

Here's a description from their website:

Founded in 1951 by Corning Glass Works (now Corning Incorporated) as a gift to the nation for the company’s 100th anniversary, The Corning Museum of Glass is a not-for-profit museum dedicated to telling the story of a single material: glass.

The Corning Museum of Glass cares for and displays the world’s best collection of art and historical glass. When you visit, you’ll see more than 3,500 years of history displayed in the Glass Collection Galleries, from the glass portrait of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh to contemporary sculpture made in glass.You can learn about the science and technology behind innovations in glass through hands-on exhibits in our Innovation Center. There, you can explore the concepts behind optics, vessels, and windows, and meet the innovators who have changed our world using glass.

Glass is brought to life through live, narrated glassmaking demonstrations, offered all day, every day. If you can’t make it to Corning, watch our live Hot Glass Shows on three Celebrity Cruise ships, or on the road with our traveling hotshop. We also offer a traveling design program, GlassLab, aimed at helping designers explore glass as a material for their work.

It's a pretty cool place - both the building and the demonstrations and exhibits inside. I think we all really enjoyed the visit. Though, Justin did get a bit bored near the end when Peter and I ran around trying to take more photos. That's the problem when traveling with us. We can't put down our cameras.

We left around 7:30 and headed back up to Rochester where Peter had booked us rooms at the local Motel 6. After checking in we headed back out to grab a late bite. The girl at the front desk had directed us to a nearby Appleby's. That would suit us fine. We all ordered the 8 oz. steak. Not very original, but what can you do?

We got back to the motel by 11:30. Justin and I shared a room on the second floor, while Gabe and Peter took the one on first floor. They had noisy neighbours and Gabe found a bedbug on his bed. Needless to say, they weren't happy campers.

Letchworth State Park pt. 3

The Prospector Restaurant, Attica, NY.

We didn't really spend too much time in the park on our last day. After waking we took our time with breakfast and lit our last campfire (to use up our remaining wood). Then we packed our gear and took down our tents and headed off.

Our first idea was to go to Mount Morris Dam just outside the park. But after getting gas and realizing it was kind of hot outside, we passed. We were still recovering from the 22 kilometre hike the day before and it was running late.

Next we thought we'd visit the nearby town of Perry 13 kilometres away. We had seen some Perry's Ice Cream advertisements on the walls of the convenience stores in the park and thought we'd try some.

The town was easy to find. It's pretty small though. We drove around looking for the ice cream factory and couldn't find it. We didn't even see any advertising in any of the town shop windows. We thought it was strange. After driving around for a little while we gave up and headed out to look for a place for lunch.

There was a steak restaurant somewhere that Peter had heard about and wanted to try. Though he couldn't remember the name (or exactly where it was located). It could have been in Buffalo or in Niagara Falls, New York. We wanted find a spot with Wi-Fi and do a search for it.

I thought we should drive an hour towards Niagara Falls/Buffalo to look for it, but the guys were too hungry. We searched for nearby restaurants on the GPS in Peter's car and headed off.

I can't remember which restaurant in which small town we went to, but it didn't look very good so we hopped back in the car and  hit up the GPS again to look for another place. This time it took us to Nino's Pizzeria in Attica.

When we arrive we found it too was a pretty rundown establishment. No luck again. We drove around Attica a bit and noticed a Burger King. Since Peter and Gabe wanted to eat soon we decided we'd go there if we couldn't find anything else. Though we really didn't want to because we wanted to try something new.

Across the street we saw this small restaurant called The Prospector. We thought we'd give it a try. It was run by a nice middle-aged lady and served things like burgers and fries etc. As well, I saw a sign for Perry's Ice Cream on the outside wall of the building.

Peter and I both ordered a burger with fries. Gabe had the meatloaf sandwich. They had Pepsis with their lunch. I thought I'd be a good boy and ordered a glass of milk.

We all topped it off with a Perry's soft serve cone. Gabe and I had the vanilla/chocolate twist, while Peter had vanilla. They were much better than the soft serve cones you get here (at McDonalds or from the ice cream truck). These ones were much creamier. Very good.

We also found out from the patrons there (most of whom were middle age to elderly) that the Perry ice cream plant isn't located in Perry, but in Akron, New York. They were a chatty bunch. I'm sure we were the first foreigners to poke our heads into their semi-out of the way restaurant in a long time.

Another neat thing about the restaurant is that they had these really cool tables from the 50's, 60's and 70's. I think the owner and other patrons were amused at my fascination with them. I took photos of quite a few of them.

The owner asked if we wanted to take any home with us because they were moving locations and she wasn't bringing them along. If I had the means I would have taken some for sure. They looked so cool.

Once again we hit the Rainbow Bridge on our way back over the border. The wait was a very respectable 1/2 hour.

We didn't do anything upon our arrival home. We just parted ways to meet again another day.

Chuck and Betty's 55th Anniversary Party

The main purpose for our trip down to Long Island was to attend my aunt and uncle's 55th wedding anniversary. They held it at the Sand Castle, an event centre on Long Island where their son-in-law, John, is the executive chef.

The party was a ritzy affair. It was held between noon and 5:00 on Sunday, October 20th. All the relatives met up a bit early in one of the reception rooms where they served hors d'oeuvres and booze. Any of the guests that arrived early hung out there too.

After that we moved to a large dining area on the second floor. There they served all manner of meat, pasta, seafood and other goodies at different stations around the room. In the middle of the room there was a replica sailing shipped stocked with sushi, shrimp, oysters and lobster. It was all you can eat. And, of course, you could have whatever you wanted to drink. There even was a bartender who descended from the ceiling in a mini bar who made "Chuck-tinis" and "Betty-tinis" in honour of the couple of the day.

But, that was just the warm up for the main sit-down meal which was served in another lovely decorated room back down on the main floor. Diners started with a fruit medley, followed by penne a la vodka and mesclun greens. They then had the choice between filet mignon, rack of lamb, grilled swordfish, sauteed veal chop, French breast of chicken or a vegetarian platter. That was followed by a Viennese café bar where they wheeled out, perhaps, ten trolleys full of a variety of desserts and ice cream to finish off the afternoon (...as if you could actually eat any more).

In between courses there was music played by a DJ and the MC gave dancing lessons. As well there was a photo booth where you could go have your picture taken. You could do three poses and the machine would print out two copies; one for you and one for a souvenir scrapbook.

9/11 - Ten Years Later

Where were you on September 11th, 2001 at 8:46 a.m.? That's when Flight 11, the first plane, hit the north tower (World Trade Center 1). I was at my parents' place, either asleep or having barely woken up. I was staying there temporarily having sold my house in Scarborough while waiting for my new condo to be completed.

My mother was listening to the news on the radio at the time. I think details were sketchy at first. No one really knew what was going on. If it was some kind of accident or something far worse. As we all know now it was something much worse.

After confirming it was an attack and turning on the television my mom came to get me to tell me what was going on. I went into the living room and sat on the sofa and watched the coverage.

The news reporters still weren't clear on what was going on. The was panic because no one knew how many targets the terrorists had in mind. The twin towers had been hit and so had the Pentagon, but how many more. Everyone was on high alert.

Most of the coverage was now focused on New York City. The two World Trade Center buildings were afire. They kept on burning and burning and burning. I watched it live as it was happening. I'm not sure what was going through my mind. Probably I was wondering how they would put the fires out.

To my horror, at 9:59 a.m., the South Tower collapsed. I did not expect that at all. Not at all. I can't recall my exact reaction right now. But, I believe something that terrible would have made me cry. To imagine all the lives lost in that single instant would have been overwhelming.

Nearly half an hour later at 10:28 a.m., the North Tower collapsed. After seeing the first building fall I suppose it was inevitable. Still it didn't lessen the shock.

If I was able to I would have liked to have stayed home to watch the rest of the news. But, it was getting late and I had to go to work. I would have to get updates throughout the day from whoever was following it there.

In the following days I was relieved to hear that since it was so early in the day the buildings weren't completely filled. The loss of life, though quite high, was less than it could have been.

I was saddened to discover that one of my high school friends, Ralph Gerhardt, was killed in the attacks though. My sister read it in the Saturday Star (newspaper). She saw that he graduated from my high school the same year as me and asked me if I knew him. That's how I found out.

While I wasn't extremely close to Ralph, we did go out cycling a few times. I recall he used to start off really quickly on his 10-speed after the traffic lights changed. Me, I started in a higher gear and slowly caught up to him.

Ralph was a really nice guy. He had a big, bright smile. His family held a memorial service for him not long after. Along with other family and friends a group of us from his high school class attended. It was nice to seem them again after about 15 years. Though I know all of us wished it could have been under other circumstances.

In 2005 I was down in New York City. I took a photo of Ralph's name on the memorial at that time. I was down again in 2008. The memorial was gone. There was a lot of construction going on.

The photo above is of the World Trade Center site now (in 2011, ten years later). Progress has been made. Structures are going up. The new memorial is almost complete. Once again the names of the lost will be there for all to see. I will go down again. And I will take pictures. We won't forget what happened that fateful day back in 2001.

Long Island, NY (Part III) - New York City

On Wednesday I finally made it out to New York City. I went with my cousin Anna who took the Long Island Rail Road in. It's quite a trek from their place.

We went to the Northport station which is around 10-15 minutes drive from her home (and my aunt and uncle's who live nearby). It's the ride into the city that's a killer. At one hour and thirteen minutes from station to station (Northport to Penn Station) it's quite a ride.

Luckily the ride was free for me. Anna's husband, Andy, works for the railway. So she gets a free monthly pass. Somehow they let her bring friends for free. So I didn't have to buy a ticket. That saved me anywhere from $9.75 (off-peak hours) to $13.50 (peak hours) each way.

We arrived at Penn Station in Manhattan just before 9:30 a.m. Anna took the subway to work and I headed to street level to explore. I still hadn't really decided exactly what I was going to see. But, since I was near Times Square I headed there first.

Now I've been to Times Square a few times already. The most recent, when I was last in New York City in 2008 for a few days. Before that it was in 2005. It's changed a bit though. They closed off some areas to cars and put seating for people to hang out in. That was nice.

Next I was off to Central Park. It was another place I said I wasn't going to go to, but did anyway. The only reason I went was because it was so close to Times Square. But, it was nice there too. The weather was great. It was generally sunny. So that made for some decent shots.

Afterwards I headed down 5th Avenue to check out all the stores that sell things I can't afford. I stopped at the Rockefeller Center for a few shots when I got a call from my cousin Anna. She suggested I take the subway down to the World Trade Center site if I wanted to get there on time. It was getting on in the day and I had to meet her at about 5:30 p.m. to take the train back.

Things have changed a bit since I last visited the Ground Zero site. Buildings are going up at a steady pace. But, there still seems like a lot to go. The 10th anniversary of the attack is coming soon. I believe they want to have some sort of a memorial ready by then.

Time was getting tight after I visited the WTC site. I had to pick up the pace if I wanted to meet my cousin on time. I walked quickly up Broadway Avenue making my way over to Washington Square Park. The last time I was there the "Arch" was being renovated and was fenced off. I thought it would be nice to get a shot of it unencumbered.

After that I hurried up 5th Avenue taking pics of the Empire State Building along the way. I also stopped for a few shots of the Flat Iron building as I passed it.

Now it was really getting late. I phone my cousin to switch up meeting places. Originally we were supposed to meet at her workplace. But, I was closer to Penn Station where we were going to take the train back home. So I suggested meeting here there.

After all that I ended up waiting for her anyway. She got stuck at work and came a little late. It wasn't too bad. I only waited about 1/2 an hour.

Back on Long Island we had dinner at Zena and John's place again. Yum.

That was pretty much it for my Long Island trip. Besides spending a bit more time shopping and hanging out with my nephews and my cousin's kids I did some yard work around my aunt and uncle's place. They have a huge yard. I mean huge.

Their son-in-laws take turns mowing the front yard, but it seems like no one ever does the back. So I did both the front and back one day. It took forever. As well I trimmed back some of the overgrowth in their backyard. After I finished my aunt said there was some poison ivy back there. Now I have a rash on my arms. Thanks for the heads up =P

Still, it was nice seeing everyone again. I'll be back. In thirteen years perhaps.

Long Island, NY (Part II) - The Beach

The next day the husbands (Pete and John) and I took all the kids (my nephews, Donna and Pete's boys, and Zena and John's daughter) to the beach while the girls went shopping.

Zena and John live in the upscale community of Huntington on the north shore of Long Island. There's a private beach for the residents there called Lloyd Neck Beach Club. Only vehicles with the community residential sticker are allowed to enter the parking lot there. So that's where we went.

There isn't actually much sand in the beach area. It's more like small rocks. It's fine for sunbathing. And if you wear sandals or surf shoes you'll be fine either walking around or swimming.

The real draw, at least for the kids, is a small inlet area where they can catch tiny crabs or fish with their nets. They can put them in their buckets to observe before letting them go again. Between that and swimming and eating lunch we killed the whole afternoon.

Since I didn't bring my swim trunks I walked around taking pictures as well as spending time sitting under in the beach umbrella Pete and John had brought along. It was quite relaxing. So much so that none of us even noticed the 5.8 magnitude earthquake that took place some 700 kilometres away in Virginia while we were there. We received a phone call from the girls who had felt it while they were out eating lunch at a restaurant in the afternoon.

In the evening we headed back to John and Zena's place where John prepared a wonderful meal for us. He made steak and shrimp with potatoes, roasted vegetables, corn on the cob and a delicious pasta dish. John's a chef so, needless to say, his meals are really good. Yum.

Long Island, NY (Part I) - Stupid Crickets

I recently returned from a trip to Long Island, New York where I visited my cousins and aunt and uncle. I drove down with my sister and nephews. We stayed there for a week.

It was my first time visiting their place in 13 years. The last time being in 1998 for my eldest cousin's wedding. I had gone to New York City a couple of times (in 2005 and 2008), but never made it out to Long Island.

The drive down was long. But, as tiresome as it was for my sister and I, it was much worse for my nephews. Especially the youngest, Aaron (8). His first of many "Are we there yet?" moments happened shortly after we crossed the border into Buffalo from Niagara Falls. We were barely 1/4 the way into our trip and it continued on a regular basis from there.

We didn't do too much on our first full day in Long Island. We had dim sum with our extended family (aunt, uncle, cousins and their spouses and kids). After that the girls went shopping with the kids and I went to Queens to shop in the Chinese stores for groceries with my aunt and uncle. They bought all sorts of things for dinner which they wanted to have at their house, but didn't happen. Instead my cousin Donna (the youngest of the three girls) vetoed their intended gathering and I had dinner at her house with my sister and nephews and Donna and her family.

After dinner I spent some "quality time" with the kids. I did a few jigsaw puzzles with my cousin's youngest son, Victor. He seemed to be really into them. After I helped him with one 100-piece jungle-themed puzzle he brought out two Sponge Bob Square Pants ones for me to help him with. After finishing those I had had enough and my cousin drove me back to her parents place where I set up camp.

No, there wasn't any room at the inn for me. My cousin Donna's house was full. Besides her and her husband, Pete, and their two children Guilio and Victor, my sister and both nephews were there. So I stayed in Donna and Anna's former room at my aunt and uncle's house. It's just over 5 minutes drive from their place.

Being located in the burbs I thought I'd get a great night sleep there. As I'm sure you know I have a condo in the middle of a fairly busy part of the city. You here noise from the streets into the wee hours of the morning. When I went to my aunt and uncle's home I thought it would be quiet and peaceful.

True, there wasn't any street noise... but, the crickets made such a racket. I think it way worse than the drunken yahoos that hang out at the bus stop at 2:00 in the morning after a night at the bars. At least they're gone by 3:00. The crickets don't stop their incessant chirping until much later.

The next day was rather uneventful. I helped clean my aunt and uncle's house. My aunt still works and my uncle has been slowed down by a bum knee. And, like me, they're pack rats. Needless to say, the place needed a good sweeping and vacuuming. I also took their many, many floor mats out and beat the with a broom stick on the driveway to get the dirt out.

In the afternoon my sister and I went to Walt Whitman Mall to do some shopping. I was interested in getting some running shoes. I found a moderately priced pair of New Balance shoes that I liked. But, my sister convinced me to shop around a bit before buying, so that's what I did.

After we finished we went back to Donna and Pete's house for dinner again. I think this time we had tacos.