Upstate NY Vacation (August 2-9, 2013)

[VortexBFForever]

Just thought I would share some details of the week-long vacation I am on right now in upstate New York. I would have started this sooner, but I have had very little time to spend on the computer due to us (me, my parents, and my oldest sister) being out all day so this is why I am starting this 3 days into the vacation.

This is the first time I've ever done what I call a "live" TR. In other words, I've never written about a vacation while I'm on the same vacation that I am writing about, if you know what I mean.

I will share some details about what happens every day, but I will not tell about everything because I will be writing a complete TR in this thread after the trip. Pictures will be included!

And now, a short summary of what we did from August 2 until 2:26 p.m. on August 5 (right now):

On Friday, we left Beavercreek, Ohio, bound for Jamestown, New York. Along the way, we stopped in Bellville, Ohio, to eat at Der Dutchman (my favorite restaurant!). We arrived in Jamestown, NY just after 5:00 p.m., and dropped our luggage off at Comfort Inn before eating dinner at Tasta Pizza (pronounced Taste-a) and dessert at Perry's Ice Cream.

On Saturday, we had the first of two family reunions that we had on this trip in the nearby town of Falconer. Since this reunion lasted all day until sunset, we did not eat at a single restaurant, if I correctly recall. Saturday night was the second and final night of this trip that we would be staying at Comfort Inn before heading to Ithaca.

Sunday's reunion was in Cherry Creek, which is a little farther away from Jamestown. One of the activities there included a "coin dig" where there were coins scattered in some sawdust and the objective was to find as many coins as you can. I ended up finding over $3 total in coins, along with 1 Canadian dollar coin and 3 Canadian cents! We also visited my uncle's farm and his cows, and I found a few small pieces of coal in the driveway along with a few fossils.

Right now we are staying in an "apartment." The building is actually a big house with four separate living areas. It's pretty nice; my room has a clock radio exactly identical to the one I have at my house!

What happened so far today: We ate breakfast at the Ithaca Bakery and did a bit of grocery shopping at Wegmans. Wegmans is like a bigger, better and more upscale version of Kroger, complete with a café and Wi-Fi. It's pretty sweet.

I hope you all are interested in following my New York "adventures" on this thread. I will be updating when I can!

Edit: Forgot to add that we will stay in the "apartment" for 3 more nights before going to Geneva-on-the-Lake on August 8.

Also, there is a chance that we may go to Darien Lake on either of the next 2 days (8/06 or 8/07).

Edited August 5, 2013 by VortexBFForever

[jcgoble3]

Thanks for the report so far! Have fun and keep us updated!

[Ride On_17]

Keep up the updates! It's been fun doing something like this of my own with all my Summer Vacation activities documented, and now it's also fun reading someone else's. Can't wait to hear how you like GOTL, especially Eddy's Grille.

[VortexBFForever]

Yesterday evening was spent in Watkins Glen, a town not too far from Ithaca. We went to Watkins Glen State Park and hiked in the gorge all the way to the other end (where the park's other entrance was) and back. It was 1.5 miles one way, making for a round-trip distance of 3 miles. Also while going one way you had to walk up 832 steps, and if you went back the other way you would walk down those same 832 steps. Since we went both ways, we walked up/down a total of 1664 steps! The waterfalls were cool too; you could walk right behind one of them!

After that we ate at Jerlando's Pizza, a local Italian restaurant. Their food hits the spot! Dessert was at Scuteri's Cannoli Connection, a local Italian cannoli place. Their cannoli hits the spot as well - it's definitely my favorite Italian dessert.

So the dinner we had (including dessert) was not only local, but it was exclusively Italian!

Then after dinner we went to Clute Park, a small recreational park (you know, a park with playgrounds and such) on the banks of Seneca Lake and watched the sunset. I got a whole handful of photos just watching the sun setting behind the mountains!

As for Darien Lake, I still don't know if and when we may go there. If we do, today and tomorrow may be the best possibilities.

[VortexBFForever]

Darien Lake Update:

We plan to go tomorrow, August 7! It will be my first time going to Darien Lake since my last (and currently only) visit on July 25, 2011 (over 2 years ago!).

Edited August 6, 2013 by VortexBFForever

[jcgoble3]

Interesting that you were in Watkins Glen this week. NASCAR has a race there this weekend. Any plans to see any of the track activities?

[VortexBFForever]

^No; we're not big fans of auto racing.

...

Sorry for the late update, everyone. My laptop was having minor issues this morning, but it's all good now.

Important Note: The Darien Lake trip will be on Thursday, August 8, NOT Wednesday, August 7.

While I'm on the topic of that, Darien Lake Amusement Park is approximately 2 hours and 50 minutes from where I am staying in Ithaca. I'll be getting up at 7:00 a.m. sharp tomorrow!

Speaking of tomorrow, we'll be at two lake-themed/centered places: Darien Lake and Geneva-on-the-Lake.

Today we went to Taughannock Falls State Park. We walked up and down the gorge trail (and I walked in the nice, cool waters of Taughannock Creek for part of the way). I loved looking at the big waterfall at the end of the trail! We ate lunch at the Falls Restaurant (respectively named after Taughannock Falls). In the evening we visited Cornell University (where my parents went for college!). We ate at a Thai restaurant for dinner (and I think it was my very first time eating at a Thai restaurant!).

Yesterday we went to the Sciencenter (a science museum) and to my mom's friend's house. I won't be telling much more as it is getting late - we'll be getting up a little earlier to get to Darien Lake in time, not to mention packing all our luggage because from Darien Lake we'll be going straight to Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio!

On another note, as I am typing this I am importing nearly 500 pictures I took on the last couple days alone...

Edit: I just realized that I'll be at Darien Lake during the early(er) hours of the big announcement day(!?!)

Edited August 8, 2013 by VortexBFForever

[Ride On_17]

All this talk about GOTL is making me feel like going putt putting and getting a foot long chili dog at Eddie's. Now I'll probably head out there sometime before school starts back up. Hope you're having fun!

[VortexBFForever]

^I am!

I had a very good time at Darien Lake yesterday. I rode Viper, Boomerang, and Mind Eraser 3 times each, and I rode some other rides (Giant Wheel, Pirate, and the MotoCoaster) once. I didn't get to ride Predator, Blast Off!, or Ride of Steel due to time (I was there from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.) because check-in time at the Lakehouse Inn ended at 6 p.m., and it takes 3.5 hours to get from Darien Lake to Geneva-on-the-Lake. We got to the Lakehouse Inn in time. After moving our things into our two rooms and wading in the lake for a while, we had dinner at Alessandro's Ristorante, an Italian restaurant. Then at around 10 p.m. my sister and I took a walk down the Strip (the carnival area at GOTL). We wanted to ride the Ferris Wheel but it was closed already. The arcades were still open though, so we ended up walking through one of them and I came across my favorite arcade game, Skee-ball. I played 5 games of Skee-ball and my sister played three. We earned a total of 101 tickets!

I hope to ride the Ferris Wheel at the Strip today...and maybe even a game of miniature golf and/or a few more games of Skee-ball. But for now, I'm heading to the adjacent Crosswinds Grille for breakfast.

[VortexBFForever]

I have started work on the complete TR!

The way I'm making this work is that I'll be posting the TR one day at a time. The 1st part would be about August 2, Part 2 would be August 3, etc. But on some days I have taken too many pictures to be included in a single post (August 8 - Darien Lake day - is one example of this) so I will have to post that day in 2 or more parts.

As of now, Day 1 (August 2) will be up shortly.