Finger Lakes
We came here following a recommendation from someone who knew the area. The lakes are pretty, but as Scots we are rather spoilt when it comes to this kind of thing! Our first day here it rained, which makes everywhere feel miserable. We hung around waiting for the rain to go off, which it didn’t, so we went out and had a look at a couple of the lakes. The guidebook said Penn Yan was an interesting town, so we headed there. It was quaint, but very rundown, and looked like it needed much tlc though I see the photos show it up not too badly.
We stopped off at the Fox Run winery, one of dozens of them round the lake shores. We did some wine tasting and bought a couple of bottles. Nice wine, but we felt we wouldn't rush back for more.
We liked the little town of Hammondsport at the south end of Lake Keuka, it was pretty and had a real community feel to it, and everyone we encountered was very nice. So much of the lakesides are lakeside property after lakeside property, some grand, some modest. Some photos of Hammondsport:
Yesterday the sun came out with a vengeance, so in the morning we headed to the Taughannock Falls. We did the Falls Trail, and saw both Upper and Lower Falls. The Lower Falls were stunningly spectacular, and the photo doesn’t do them justice, they have a 125 feet drop. The rock formation is amazing, and completely rounded.
Some pictures of Cayuga Lake we took on the way back.
In the afternoon we went to the golf course just a few minutes away from where we were staying, not expecting too much of it as it was a public course and only 15 dollars a round and 5 dollars each for the club hire. The club hire certainly was only worth 5 dollars (two drivers each but no fairway woods), but the course was super, so interesting and every hole different. Had we not been leaving today, we would have gone back for another round. I am pleased to report that in the Gap Year Tournament, Jennifer leads by 3 games to nil, thanks mainly to some demon putting with an ancient putter. Himself is starting to mutter about getting strokes, but I feel that is unnecessary, especially as there were three lost balls in the water, all of them mine! Here is a flavour of this great little course.
Today we left the Lakes after church, after we attended the 9.30 Eucharist. We had a lovely welcome, and realised, yet again, how important that is to a stranger. We then set off on what turned out, with false turns and wrong roads, to be a six hour journey, but the countryside was beautiful all the way, so it was a very pleasant journey. There was nowhere on the highway to stop and take a photo anywhere with a nice view, so here is one through the windscreen, it fails to do the scenery and the colours justice.
Tonight finds us in a Radisson Park Inn in Uniontown. Neither town nor hotel have anything to recommend themselves, but the Frank Lloyd Wright buildings we have come to see are all within easy reach of here. We had to cancel the nice Airbnb we had booked near Jamestown as we had got the wrong Jamestown (there is one in New York State and one in Pennsylvania), so this was all rather last minute. When we arrived we remembered we had stayed in a Radisson Park Inn in York several years ago and said then, ‘never again’. But you can’t win them all and we have been lucky with most places we have stayed so far. At least the bed is firm, having suffered from an over soft bed these last three nights. Tomorrow we begin the long planned for FLW fest.
