Still in the craziness of Niagara Falls!
We left the cacophony of Niagara Falls around 9AM, crossed the border back into the USA, and prepared ourselves for a full day relationship with Route 90 East. We had considered staying the course in Canada, but a propane facility exploded in Toronto and there were protests in the streets of Montreal.
After Neil’s heroic two-hour stretch, we stopped for lunch at Magee’s diner in Magee, NY, just north of the finger-lakes. After lunch, we passed through Seneca Falls, famous for being a crossroads, mill town, and in 1848, the site of the Seneca Falls Convention where Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and over 300 others made a public plea for women’s rights.
After Neil’s heroic two-hour stretch, we stopped for lunch at Magee’s diner in Magee, NY, just north of the finger-lakes. After lunch, we passed through Seneca Falls, famous for being a crossroads, mill town, and in 1848, the site of the Seneca Falls Convention where Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and over 300 others made a public plea for women’s rights.
In Seneca Falls, they give you directions on how to clean your hands
And yet, we saw all three swarming in this very area next to the river!
Seneca Falls mills
I drove for a while and celebrated the North East feeling of being at home. Some trees are actually beginning to turn colors here, and the occasional town with a rising Church spire felt very Norman Rockwell, not the Georgia O’Keefe we became quite used to out West.
We’ve created a Mad-Libs list of Eleni-isms when her world becomes too much for her…consider each line coming at you one a minute. If you don’t stop the car for the first one, she moves on to the next (mix and match as you like and you’ll get the feel for much of our trip right now!)
“I need to go potty!”
“I tired!”
“Guys, this taking too long!”
“I need a drink!”
“I too hot!” followed quickly by, “I too cold!”
“Guys, I think you going the wrong way!”
“I see a hotel! Guys, I found a hotel for you!”
“I need to go home!”
“It taking long time!”
And finally, the especially endearing “Shake your booty boys and girls!” (where she picked up this one, we know not…I wasn’t going to include this in the list of Eleni-isms, but I would be leaving out her best line. She is particularly fond of screaming this in the middle of a store when she wants something that we aren’t buying for her…excellent evidence of how she picks up on what I dislike)
We crossed Route 90 East with the help of Goldfish crackers and the Muppet Show. Hitting Albany at rush hour in a rainstorm slowed us down a bit, but we persevered on towards Vermont on Route 9.
For us, the Green Mountains were covered in misty cloud cover and/or complete downpours of rain, so two protracted hours later, we finally arrived in Tyson, Vermont.
In 1938, my mother’s parents met when they were both working at Echo Lake Inn in Tyson. With this being the year of my Grandparents, it seemed a fitting place for us to visit. We imagined my Grandfather bringing luggage to this room, and my Grandmother cleaning this room seventy years ago. And, while our boisterous children ensured that the visit was not as romantic or nostalgic as we had hoped, we still felt very connected to this Inn and its historical meaning for our family.
We ate dinner in the old dining room and settled into our suite. We gathered some basic information about the Inn: Echo Lake Inn is over 150 years old and President Coolidge and Thomas Edison are two of its famous visitors. However, the story of how two Finnish twenty-one-year-olds met and fell in love was the only history I wanted to know. We have visited so many sites this summer, well equipped with books and tour guides to ask questions of if necessary, but all we had to navigate here was our imaginations.
We’ve created a Mad-Libs list of Eleni-isms when her world becomes too much for her…consider each line coming at you one a minute. If you don’t stop the car for the first one, she moves on to the next (mix and match as you like and you’ll get the feel for much of our trip right now!)
“I need to go potty!”
“I tired!”
“Guys, this taking too long!”
“I need a drink!”
“I too hot!” followed quickly by, “I too cold!”
“Guys, I think you going the wrong way!”
“I see a hotel! Guys, I found a hotel for you!”
“I need to go home!”
“It taking long time!”
And finally, the especially endearing “Shake your booty boys and girls!” (where she picked up this one, we know not…I wasn’t going to include this in the list of Eleni-isms, but I would be leaving out her best line. She is particularly fond of screaming this in the middle of a store when she wants something that we aren’t buying for her…excellent evidence of how she picks up on what I dislike)
We crossed Route 90 East with the help of Goldfish crackers and the Muppet Show. Hitting Albany at rush hour in a rainstorm slowed us down a bit, but we persevered on towards Vermont on Route 9.
For us, the Green Mountains were covered in misty cloud cover and/or complete downpours of rain, so two protracted hours later, we finally arrived in Tyson, Vermont.
In 1938, my mother’s parents met when they were both working at Echo Lake Inn in Tyson. With this being the year of my Grandparents, it seemed a fitting place for us to visit. We imagined my Grandfather bringing luggage to this room, and my Grandmother cleaning this room seventy years ago. And, while our boisterous children ensured that the visit was not as romantic or nostalgic as we had hoped, we still felt very connected to this Inn and its historical meaning for our family.
We ate dinner in the old dining room and settled into our suite. We gathered some basic information about the Inn: Echo Lake Inn is over 150 years old and President Coolidge and Thomas Edison are two of its famous visitors. However, the story of how two Finnish twenty-one-year-olds met and fell in love was the only history I wanted to know. We have visited so many sites this summer, well equipped with books and tour guides to ask questions of if necessary, but all we had to navigate here was our imaginations.
One of our rooms at Echo Lake Inn
2 comments:
Congrats on being back on the east coast! "Shake your booty" is a day care thing, so thank them. :) It's a Brendan and Ed (among others) favorite. Ian wants to know how quickly he can see Alex upon your return, and why can't he see the cool stuff too. :) Enjoy the rest of the trip.
What a trip! Eleni is my hero! See you in 1o days!!
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