Buttermilk Falls, Taughannock Falls and Lucifer Falls

We spent another day hiking the gorges

 around the Ithaca area. 

During the summer the bottom of the falls are open for swimming.

 Here we are Buttermilk Falls State Park. 

Here is a view from the top of this set of falls.  This trail had 12 waterfalls along gorge.  This means we had to climb up many more stairs!

As we hiked farther down the trail, the walls began to rise and we were surrounded by all this beauty!

The sun was a bit harsh so my pictures are a little blown out.  But I wanted to try to capture the mist from the falls.  Can you see the stairs along the right side?  

UP UP UP is the name of game today!

Pinnacle Rock

One of my favorite shots, so beautiful!

 Next stop was Taughannock Falls. This was a flat hike along a river bed.  When you get to the end of the trail you see a magnificent 215 foot waterfall.   

This is a view from a platform opposite the falls.

On the way back Michael walked in the water. 

 It was hot and the water was very refreshing!

Our last stop of the day was Robert H. Treman State Park. They have a nice gorge trail but we were pretty tired, 

so we decided to just do the shorter trail along 

the rim of the gorge to Lucifer Falls.  

What a wonderful area to visit.  

There are so many more waterfalls to see.

  We may have to come back here someday.

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a blessed day!  

Wonderful Waterfalls

 We spent the day at a wonderful state park that is famous for its gorges and waterfalls.  We walked the 3 mile trail and climbed hundreds of steps.  My pictures just don't do this place justice.  It is a spectacular place. If you are near Watkins Glen State Park, you should go visit!

You had to go through a tunnel to enter the trail.

Step by step we climbed the trail.

We saw over 19 waterfalls along the trail.

We walked behind a couple waterfalls.

The river has carved out magnificent gorges.

The walls were covered in moss and ferns.

Yes the greens are really this bright!

We had a wonderful time in the park.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!

Anniversary Trip

Boy, it has been a long time since I have last blogged.  We have been busy with outside projects, enjoying our pool and going to see our son get married in the Dominican Republic.

For our 30th anniversary we took a quick trip to Ithaca, NY.  Yes, it is a vacation hotspot!  It is a gorgeous area near the finger lakes.

On the way to Ithaca we stopped at the Corning Museum of Glass. It has been on my bucket list for awhile now.  We spent a few hours exploring the galleries and exhibitions.  Then we took a turn trying to make our own glass.

I read about this activity online and thought it would be a once in a lifetime experience.  Michael 

was game for doing "crafts" on our vacation.  

So we both signed up to make something.

 Michael was going to do the most "glass making", so he had to suit up to protect himself from the 2300 degree heat. 

The workshop staff got all the glass from the ovens.  But they did let Michael pull and twist his flower. 

 

 Now it is my turn.  I am blowing an ornament.  She pulls out my glass and dips into the colors I have picked out.

My experience was not as hands on as Michaels.  All I did was blow into a pipe and the girl did all the work.  

Here are our projects that we made.  They are unique and something we will remember from our trip.

  The cost for a professionally made flower or ornament was 25 dollars.  We paid 29 dollars "to make it yourself", so you are only paying an extra 4 dollars to get a glimpse into the glass making process.  From that perspective it isn't a bad deal.

But the quality of the product is kind of, let's say amateur.  Yes, I know we are amateurs, but I thought mine would turn out better since the staff did all the work.   

I think I would have liked to just buy a professionally made ornament.  Michael's flower turned out really cool and he got more of a real feel for how to make something from a blob of glass.

Now a quick recap about the rest of the museum.

You walk through many galleries that display both modern and historical pieces of glass.  

This is a glass mosaic.  There are 1400 glass tiles in one square inch, totally amazing!

 This diorama depicts a glass blowing factory during the industrial revolution.
It is interesting to see how they etched glassware.  The details are so pretty.

 
We learned all about the history of glass light bulbs, windows, windshields, lighthouse lenses, eyeglasses, dishes and the list goes on......

Over all this was a very interesting place to visit.  If you are a homeschooling family, I would definitely make it part of your art and history lessons.

Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day! 

My next post will be about our visit to the 

many waterfalls in the area.

Finishing up NYC

On our last day in the big city we walked down 5th Ave.  We stopped by St. Patricks Cathedral.  It is a beautiful church.  It reminded me of the churches in Germany.

They had a huge nativity. 

"After the angel announced Jesus’ birth to some wide-eyed shepherds, a chorus of angels began “praising God and saying: ‘Glory to God in the highest!’” (Luke 2:13-14). The shepherds responded by running to Bethlehem where they found the newborn King lying in a barnyard bassinet.

They returned to their fields “glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen” (v.20).

Coming face to face with the Son inspired the shepherds to worship the Father."

The alter was adorned with wreaths and the stain glass glowed as the light shined through them.

But what we thought was so impressive was the organ. It had such detail and so many pipes! You can barely see the organist playing.

Next we stopped at St. Thomas Cathedral. 

Their alter was all hand carved!

Love the details!

Then we walked farther down the street to check out all the commercialism of Christmas.  The stores were wrapped in lights and the windows filled with sparklely things.

We are in the Apple store elevator.

I had to check out FAO Schwartz!

Well that pretty much wraps up our little trip to the big city.  Thanks for following along.