Day 11: Batavia, New York, to Albany, New York

It may not seem like we covered that much distance today, but, oh, we did. We wandered down into New York's Finger Lakes region to check out Ithaca and Cooperstown.

When we mapped our route for upstate New York, I asked Steve if it would be OK to dip south to stop in Ithaca. I always wanted to see the town and the campus of Cornell University because that is where my parents lived in the early 1950s and where my oldest brother, Chris, was born. (Actually, it was Geneva, N.Y., which is not too far away.) Steve was cool with doing this.

Ithaca is at the south end of Cayuga Lake, which is a very skinny and long lake carved by glaciers eons ago. There are other lakes like Cayuga in this area, so the region is called the Finger Lakes.

We drove south on Route 96 and then down Route 89, which are on the western side of the lake. The countryside was filled with farmland amid beautiful rolling hills covered with deciduous trees. You could see a hint of autumn in the trees. I can only imagine the stunning fall foliage that will be seen in a few weeks. I'm sorry I missed it. But that's another trip, right?


Farm near Cayuga Lake off Route 89


Bellwether Hard Cider
Near Trumansburg, N.Y., we saw a sign for a cidery with a tasting room. Steve loves hard cider, so we stopped. The place was small and quiet and Steve had the tasting table all to himself. While he tasted different ciders under the Bellwether Hard Cider label, I chatted with another employee about life in Ithaca. She's the one who told us to be sure and stop by Taughannock Falls park just a few miles down the road on our way to Ithaca. Thank you! By the way, Steve bought three bottles of the Bellwether cider. (We have since tasted the Black Magic variety and it is tasty.)
http://www.cidery.com/index.html

Taughannock Falls
These falls are tall and in a very picturesque place, but unfortunately we saw them one day after being at Niagara Falls and they seemed very dinky by comparison. We realize that anything would seem dinky after Niagara, so we tried to imagine what the falls would look like in the late spring when the runoff was higher. They probably are very pretty.

The park was very pleasant, with a lovely picnic area, except when a bunch of motorcyles with loud mufflers drove by. Steve & I don't understand the need for such loud bikes, especially in such a serene setting as Taughannock Falls.
http://www.taughannock.com/

Ithaca
What a beautiful city! There's a quaint downtown commercial district called the Commons, and the Cornell campus sits on top of the hill above the downtown core. I looked for a shoe store called Cosentini Shoes, but it isn't there any longer. The proprietor was the godfather of my brother and I was hoping that maybe I would find a family member and introduce myself. Alas, this was not to be.

The streets were quiet, being that it was Sunday, which was good for us as we tried to find our way around. I was surprised to see such steep and curvy roads as they wound their way up to the campus. I didn't realize how hilly Ithaca was. I tried to imagine my dad walking around campus in his Army uniform on his way to teach ROTC classes.





Deb quote while driving past a sign for Waterloo, N.Y.:
"I have to go to the bathroom."

The Erie Canal and Cooperstown, N.Y.
Next up, the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. We left Ithaca on Route 13, aiming to pick up Route 20 again, but we missed and had to settle for the interstate near Syracuse.

We headed east on I-90, still listening to Broadway show tunes on Sirius XM radio in our rental car, getting off in Mohawk, N.Y. It was here that we finally caught a glimpse of a section of the Erie Canal. We saw signs along the interstate that we were in the Eric Canalway Corridor, but nowhere did we see signs for further information about the canal or where we could go to see it. Thumbs down from us. Or maybe we should have done more research before we got to New York?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erie_Canal#The_route

Speaking of research, our guidebook said the Baseball Hall of Fame museum was open daily 9-9 with some exceptions. Well, I blew it. The exceptions included September, which meant we got to the museum too late and it was closed. Darn! Darn! Darn! Steve & I couldn't understand why the town thinks September isn't baseball season anymore. It's playoff time!!! Sigh....


Daily baseball game scoreboard outside the Hall of Fame

We did see the inside of Doubleday Field, which instantly made me think of the film, "Bull Durham." I closed my eyes and could hear Susan Sarandon's character, Annie Savoy, saying, "I believe in the church of baseball."


Doubleday Field

We also saw two wonderful bronze statues on the museum grounds, one commemorating the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and one capturing a scene from the final game of the 1955 World Series and featuring Brooklyn Dodger catcher Roy Campanella. While looking at the "Woman At Bat" statue, I could hear Tom Hanks' character in "A League of Their Own" yelling, "There's no crying in baseball."


"Woman at Bat" by Stanley Bleifeld


This bronze cast sculpture by Stanley Bleifeld outside the National Baseball Hall of Fame captures a scene from the final game of the 1955 World Series.

We shopped and wandered Cooperstown's Main Street -- there is a store called Rivalries which is dedicated solely to the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox -- while catching glimpses of beautiful Lake Otsego on the edge of town, then drove to Albany where we stopped for the night.

Happy Birthday to us
We grabbed a bite to eat at the hotel's restaurant, which was crowded with what we assumed were students from the University of Albany across the highway. While we were eating, people started singing "Happy Birthday." Steve & I looked at each other, as if to ask, "Is this for us? Did you have anything to do with this?" Well, the song wasn't for us, but rather for one of the young women there. As we were leaving the restaurant, we went up the woman and wished her a Happy Birthday and told her it was our birthdays, too! It was a great moment!

Favorite town names:
Romulus
Ovid

Crop circle?


Farm on Route 28 to Cooperstown