The Finger Lakes, New York

Visited July 28 - August 3, 2022

By Janell

We really enjoyed our exploration of New York's Finger Lakes region. It was a very pretty area, and I can see why folks want to summer up there. 

Below is a map of the region. You can see by the inset in the upper left corner of the map, how the Finger Lakes region fits into the state of New York. 

Upon driving into the area we saw several signs for wineries. We were surprised to learn that the Finger Lakes region is home to 144 wineries! We didn't go to a single one, but if we go there again . . .

There are eleven Finger Lakes, and our campground was between the two largest lakes, Cayuga and Seneca, on the outskirts of a town called Ovid. Cayuga is longer, but Seneca has more surface area and water volume. (Onondaga Lake in the upper right near Syracuse, is not considered one of the Finger Lakes.)

For those of you interested in such info, Wikipedia provided me with Cayuga's and Seneca's stats.

Cayuga Lake

Length: 38.2 miles

Surface area: 66.0 sq. miles

Volume of water: 2.3 cubic miles

Max depth: 435 ft.

Seneca Lake

Length: 38.0 miles long

Surface area: 66.9 sq. miles

Volume of water: 3.81 cubic miles

Max depth: 618 ft.

Seneca Lake

The following three pics are from the town of Ovid:

South Seneca High School looks pretty regal

Tillinghast Manor Bed & Brunch

Lodi, NY . . . apparently there's more than one Lodi - a lot more actually!

Our first outing was a short hike to Taughannock Falls. This is Taughannock Creek on our way up to the falls. Having heard that New York was having a dry year, and then seeing this near-dry creek bed, we weren't expecting much from the falls.

As predicted, the falls were quite pitiful up close. Here you can see the "big picture" from a view point after our hike.

We strolled around Cornell University in Ithaca. Quite impressive!

One of the most popular attractions in the Finger Lakes region is Watkins Glen State Park.

From the Finger Lakes' tourism website: "Known for its natural beauty, the Watkins Glen State Park features a series of waterfalls and gorges that are sure to amaze anyone. An almost two mile hike will take you past 19 waterfalls and up over 800 steps."

Knowing about New York's dry year, we were worried but still hopeful about what we were going to see.

Well, the water level was lower, to be sure, but Watkins Glen was still an amazing and beautiful sight!

We were surprised to come upon a cemetery -- Greenwood Cemetery, up above the gorge at Watkins Glen.

And in the town of Watkins Glen, we saw this!

We didn't stop this time, but we do love Ben & Jerry's. Some of you may know that several years ago we actually purchased two B&J's in the Sacramento area! Where would we be now if we'd actually gone through with the deal? Probably a few sizes larger than we are today. 

We visited Corning, New York. It's at the very bottom on the Finger Lakes map, about a half hour southwest of Watkins Glen. In Corning, the biggest attraction is the Corning Museum of Glass, which is a must see if you're ever in the area. Really incredible!

The museum was opened in 1951 by the Corning Glass Works (now Corning Incorporated). Yes, this is the Corning, the maker of Corningware, Pyrex, and Corelle dinnerware. At this point, you may be thinking that we went to a museum full of dishes, but you would be wrong. 

The museum currently contains over 50,000 objects representing over 3,500 years of glass history. In addition, you can watch live hot glass demonstrations, flameworking demos, and glass breaking demos, or you can try making glass yourselves. It's a very interactive museum for people of all ages. Almost 460,000 visitors come from around the world each year. There certainly were a lot of people on the day we visited (and that was just a Monday). 

Before you even enter the museum, you're greeted by this amazing piece that adorns the lobby. Yes, it's a Dale Chihuly and is called "Fern Green Tower". It was made in 1999, and then at Chihuly's request reconfigured in 2013 to increase its height from 11 feet to 15 1/2 feet. The reconfiguration added another 200 blown glass elements, resulting in 712 handmade elements attached to a steel structure. By the way, Chihuly no longer blows glass himself, but conducts a team of glass blowers. 

We started the afternoon by attending a Hot Glass Demo. Beginning with a glowing glob of molten glass on the end of a pipe, this artist gradually shaped the glob into art, while another artist narrated and assisted.

The glass is repeatedly inserted into a 2300°F furnace (as seen behind him), and then twirled on the pipe to ensure a balanced piece. 

Here the assisting artist applies a smaller molten glob of glass to the side of the pitcher, forming a handle.

They made it look so easy!

I happen to know it's nowhere near as easy as it looks. I took a glass blowing class in San Jose, California a few years ago and created a glass bowl. The bowl turned out great, but I can tell you that that's only because of the expert assistance of the instructor. Without his help, my bowl would've been a lopsided mess!

After the demo, we ventured into the Contemporary Art & Design gallery, where we saw a wide variety of art, including these two interesting pieces (above and below).

In the Innovation Center we saw cool scientific things such as this structure above. What is it? Perhaps the individual parts look a bit familiar? They should. If not, keep reading.

Condensed from a display panel at the museum: 

Glass-Ceramics: A Discovery Waiting to Happen

One night in 1952, Corning chemist Donald Stookey put a piece of experimental glass into a furnace. The next morning, he discovered that the furnace had overheated. He was sure he would find a pool of melted glass inside. Instead, he found an opaque solid that was so strong it bounced when he accidentally dropped it. Microscopic crystals had formed, changing the glass into a new material that Stookey called a glass-ceramic.

Today, glass-ceramics are used to make everything from heat-defying cookware to exotic optical devices.

Below is the interior of the same structure (as above). You can see that the Pyrex dishes at the bottom, which were heated to a lower temperature are still clear glass; but those up above, which were heated to a higher temp have turned opaque.

And then we ventured into the 35 Centuries of Glass exhibit, which had a wide range of items. Some looked very simple and primitive, and others looked as ornate and gaudy as the Baccarat table (1889-1905) and Baccarat boat (1900) below. Of course, there were many, many other beautiful pieces in between, but you'll have to go there yourself to see them all!

One of the absolute coolest things about the Corning Museum of Glass was the "You Design It; We Make It" program. While we were in the Glass Breaking demo we heard an announcement on the PA notifying a customer that his design had been chosen as the design of the day. We didn't think too much of it at the time. 

Our next stop was to attend the Flameworking demonstration, where the artist uses a torch to form objects from rods and tubes of glass. The flameworking artist told us he would be making the design of the day as we watched. Patrons are invited to create a design (on paper) of something they'd like to see made into glass. Once a day, a design is chosen by the artist who will then "bring it to life". 

The design that was chosen that day was that of a young boy named Michael, who unfortunately was not in attendance at the flameworking demo. The artist explained that typically the design chosen would take an hour or so to complete, but he was so intrigued by Michael's design that he chose it even though he said it may take him four hours or more to make! 

At the very top of the above photo, you can see Michael's design sketch. The designer was also asked to write a few words about the design. Michael drew a spaceship with an alien at the helm. Beneath the spaceship are four cows, three of which are floating up towards the spaceship, moo-ing as they go. A fourth cow, as Michael described him, resisted going up to the spaceship and wore a confused expression on his face! 

You can see why the artist would be intrigued with Michael's idea. We were really curious to see how he would accomplish the design with glass, but we could not invest 4+ hours. He's working on the alien above, and we did stay long enough to see that it had three big, googly eyes. 

And then we returned a while later and saw him working on the construction of the spaceship (below).

THE COOLEST THING: Michael will get to keep the finished product - spaceship with alien and cows included!!

Did you know that Harriet Tubman lived in the Finger Lakes region? Auburn, New York, to be exact, which is just north of Lake Owasco. We visited the Harriet Tubman Home and National Historical Park. We learned a lot about Harriet, but unfortunately, the home wasn't open for tours due to renovations. Our tour guide was excellent however, and we enjoyed our visit even without going inside the home.

The brick home you see below replaced a wood-frame house that was destroyed in an 1880 fire.

Harriet Tubman was born in March of 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland. Her name was Araminta Ross "Minty", and she was enslaved from birth. She later married John Tubman, a free man. In 1849, hoping to escape slavery and the constant fear of being sold south, Tubman made the treacherous journey north. She settled in Philadelphia and changed her name to Harriet, after her mother. 

Despite the danger, Tubman soon returned to Maryland to rescue her family. She made at least 13 missions to liberate approximately 70 enslaved people, by way of the Underground Railroad. Because she was a fugitive who ventured behind enemy lines to liberate others, she was given the code name "Moses". 

With the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which required that enslaved persons be returned to their "owners" even if they were in a free state, Tubman began guiding fugitives farther north into Canada. She had settled her parents there as well, but her mother said it was too cold and pleaded could they please move somewhere warmer. So, Auburn, NY is where they settled in 1859.

During the Civil War, Tubman worked for the Union Army, first as a nurse, and then as a scout and spy. In 1863, she became the first woman in the war to lead an armed expedition when she guided the Combahee River Raid, which liberated more than 700 slaves. Later, Tubman was very active in the Women's Suffrage Movement and advocated for the impoverished former enslaved and the elderly in the town of Auburn. 

"I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say -- I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger." -- Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman died of pneumonia on March 10, 1913, at age 90 or 91.

Our last adventure was a visit to the sweet, little town of Skaneateles, which is at the northern end of Skaneateles Lake. I can just about hear you trying to pronounce it right now! 

So, here you go: SKAN-ee-AT-ləs, or as the locals say SKIN-ee-AT-ləs

In our travels, we've seen a lot of towns with little shops full of the same souvenir and boutique items over and over again. Skaneateles was different. They had a lot of fun shops, and they were all offering fun and different things. I don't think we bought a single thing, but we sure had fun looking!

Skaneateles Lake as seen from the town of Skaneateles 

Just one of the many lovely, old homes along E. Genesee Street, the waterfront street in Skaneateles. 

When/If we trade in the Beast . . . maybe one of these?