Thursday, September 06, 2007

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Trip to NY Part 5

The last part of our trip was spent in Rochester. We visited with some friends of mine that I hadn't seen in years, as well as my piano teacher from Eastman, and I showed Jon a few of the places where I used to go with my parents, including Hamlin Beach, the Erie Canal, and Ontario Beach Park.

Rochester

Trip to NY Part 4

After Letchworth and the pageant, we were off to Niagara Falls. We drove first to a town called Niagara on the Lake, where we rode the Whirlpool Jet Boat. The boat is specifically designed to go fast and crash through rapids (Class 5), getting you completely soaked. The Travel Channel filmed our run, which was cool. After the jet boat we ate lunch at The Buttery, a tavern in Niagara on the Lake that has delicious brie and jalapeno jelly.

While in Niagara Falls, we did the White Water Walk, which takes you down by the Niagara River to view its Class 6 rapids; Journey Behind the Falls, which allows you to get close to and behind a portion of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls; the Cave of the Winds tour, which has the "Hurricane Deck" that gets you to within 20 feet of the American Falls; and, of course, we visited Clifton Hill. We played mini-golf, toured Movieland Wax Museum (and it's "Nothing-To-Do-With-A-Wax-Museum" mini-haunted house section), rode the ferris wheel that was supposed to give us a good view of the falls (we rode it too late and only got to see pitch-black where the falls were located), played around in an arcade, and rode a motion simulator. All-in-all, we were successful by nights end at reverting back to ten year-olds. But it was a lot of fun.

Niagara Falls

Trip to NY Part 3

After our couple of days at the Finger Lakes, we traveled to Letchworth State Park, the "Grand Canyon of the East." We spent a few hours at Letchworth, then headed to Palmyra to watch the Hill Cumorah Pageant, which is presented by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Despite it raining and protesters telling us we were going to go to Hell, it was an enjoyable evening.

Letchworth State Park

Trip to NY Part 2

After our night in Pennsylvania, we drove up to the Finger Lakes area in New York, taking Route 15, which follows along the Susquehanna River. We camped for two nights in Watkins Glen State Park, located at Seneca Lake. We spent about half a day going through Watkins Glen, then drove around Seneca and Cayuga Lakes, and stopped in Ithaca before going back to our campsite.

Finger Lakes & Watkins Glen

Trip to NY Part 1

Jon and I took a much needed week-long vacation and traveled to western NY. For our first day of the trip we stopped at Gettysburg National Park, and stayed the night at a bed and breakfast called The Pheasant Field Inn in Carlisle, PA. The main house of the bed and breakfast is around 200 years old and was a stop on the underground railroad. It is located in a beautiful area close to the national forest, and the owners serve a superb (and very fresh) breakfast.

Gettysburg + Bed & Breakfast

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Manassas National Battlefield

We didn't go to downtown DC for the Fourth of July fireworks this year. It's too bad everyone who did go down got dumped on with rain and evacuated from the Mall area because of a tornado warning. At least the storm moved through early enough in the day to not cancel the fireworks.

We did go to Manassas National Battlefield in Virginia for the day, though. It was cloudy all day (not the best light for taking pictures) and really humid, but it was fun. We did the First Manassas Trail, which is a five mile loop that covers the first battle at Manassas. We spent most of the day at the battlefield, then went home.

Manassas National Battlefield

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Old Town Alexandria

Jon and I went down to Alexandria, VA just to get out of the house and take some photos. We walked by the Potomac and around the historic part of town. We ate at an excellent seafood restaurant that had very fresh fish that we would definitely recommend if we could remember the name.

Old Town Alexandria

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Sandy Spring

Jon and I drove out to a place called Sandy Spring in Maryland after doing some volunteer work at Greenbelt NP at the beginning of June. The spot where we stopped has one of the larget tulip poplars (also known as the kitty-face-leaf tree).

Sandy Spring

Nestbox - Final Chapter

Well, our birds have flown the nest. Luckily, we got a couple pictures of them the day before they left. They were definitely getting crowded in there. Take a look.

Nestbox

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Nestbox

It is the House Wren that we have in our nestbox, not the Carolina Wren. On Saturday, June 2nd, the eggs in the nest began hatching. Our resident wren now has a family of five. I've updated the nestbox section with pictures of the babies. Check it out below.

Nestbox

Rolling Thunder

Tens of thousands of motorcyclists came to DC during Memorial Day weekend for the Rolling Thunder Event. Rolling Thunder's mission is to publicize POW-MIA issues and honor war veterans, and every Memorial Day weekend they ride through DC. According to the Washington Post, there was a record turn-out for the event this year, although, of course, no approximate number is provided.

Rolling Thunder

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Assateague Island National Seashore

Assateague Island National Seashore, located on Maryland's eastern shore, was a pretty place, but not quite what we expected it to be. We backpacked 4 miles down the beach to a backcountry camping area where we originally planned to stay two nights, but ended up only staying one. Much of the 4 mile hike involved either hiking the soft sand on the far edge of the beach or navigating around fishermen's poles and vehicles parked on the beach. We were aware to expect vehicles, but had no idea at the time that they were actually allowed to park basically the entire length of the island (which extends about 15 miles), including the beach area in front of the backcountry camping spot. Just a kilometer down the beach from our camp was an RV camp. Some backcountry.

After our first night at the camp we decided to explore the bayside of the island where there was vegetation and more wildlife. We were able to spot some really neat birds, but never able to get close enough to get any good photographs of them. We did most of our exploring in tall grass since there weren't really any trails. The bugs on the bayside were incredibly obnoxious (particularly the mosquitoes), so our exploring didn't last too long. We got back to the campsite much earlier than we thought we would be back, and didn't really know what to do at that point. So, we got something to eat, packed up and left.

We were disappointed in the amount of vehicle recreation allowed on the beach. Considering that the area is a national park unit, I expected the environment to be treated better. Assateague Island may be a nice place to go for an afternoon or to camp out of a car, but we would not recommend it for backcountry camping unless you have someone with a car who can drop you off and pick you up at the "backcountry" camping area, or unless you go early in the year (before the bugs are out) and camp on the bayside of the island. It's not worth the work hiking the beach if you can't get into any real backcountry.

Assateague National Seashore