A FEW MISCELLANEOUS THINGS OF THE TRIP

There are a couple of things that I didn't cover in my blog that I want to go back and mention.

NEEDHAMS
When we met up with our friends, Donna and Norm, in Portland, Maine, Donna told us about a candy that is peculiar to Maine.  They are called "Needhams".  I think they should be called "Need'ems" because if you eat one, you think you need'em all the time.  They are DELISH!

The Maine potato candy known as the needham has always stood in the shadow of the whoopie pie, another big thing in Maine, but generations of Mainers have nonetheless revered the sweet candy.

Mainers find needhams in their Christmas stockings. Maine moms get them in gift boxes on Mother's Day. Maine grandmas make them at home. Maine convenience stores display them by the cash register.

Few Mainers know much about the faith healer after whom the needham was named, or that he was a product of historic conflicts between English and Irish, Protestant and Catholic.

The candy itself combines coconut, sugar, chocolate, and that classic Maine ingredient, the potato. Maine once harvested more potatoes than any other state, and the potato is still a major drop in Aroostook County.

In 1986, Maine writer John Gould described the needham as 'sacred and peculiar' to Maine. He told the commonly accepted story of how the candy originated sometime around 1872.

A candymaker, Mr. Seavey, introduced a new item when one of his cooks brought forth a chocolate-covered coconut cream with a secret ingredient -- potato. He passed it about to see what Mr. Seavey and others, thought of it. Significantly, the new candy had a square shape.

Mr. Seavey and others immediately approved the candy, but they didn't know what to call it. Mr. Seavey said, "Let's call 'em needhams, after the popular preacher," according to Gould.

And so the candy became the needham, for a century a native Maine delicacy. "Seavey's Needhams are as Maine as the lobster, the first sunrise, and the ayeh," wrote Gould. If you love Mounds or Almond Joys, you will LOVE Needhams even more. They are melt in your mouth, tantalize your tastebuds, mouth watering good.

WARRENSBURG

When we were in Lake George, the little town of Warrensburg was having what they bill "The Largest Garage Sale in the World." It may just be.  This was huge.  The town has 2 main streets through the middle of town.  Each street, the main part of the street, is about 2 miles long.  Vendors were lined side by side down each side of each street down the entire 2 miles.  Some of the areas veered off and had vendors down side areas and residential areas.

This little town really handled the crowd well. They opened their park ride lot and had vans to take you to town and drop you off. It worked really well.  I can say that there were a ton of people there and a boat load of vendors. But, there was a great variety of items being sold and food to eat.  It happens the first weekend in October each year and people come near and far each year.

ERIE CANAL

We had a rainy day and decided to ride over to the town of Lockport one day.  The town is best known for the Erie Canal.  The Erie Canal was built to create a navigable water route from New York City and the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. When completed in 1825, it was the second longest canal in the world (after the Grand Canal in China) and greatly enhanced the development and economy of New York, New York City, and the United States. It was faster than carts pulled by draft animals and cut transport costs by about 95%. The canal gave New York City's port an incomparable advantage over all other U.S. port cities and ushered in the state's 19th century political and cultural ascendancy. The canal fostered a population surge in western New York and opened regions farther west to settlement. It was enlarged between 1834 and 1862. 

They have a great historical museum in Lockport and we toured the museum. We learned about the men who actually designed and helped build the canal.  They faced many obstacles and not one of them had ever had any training or experience in building the canal with a lochs system. It was well worth the tour.

So, that wraps up a few things that I had not written about but were worth mentioning.  

NIAGARA ON THE LAKE

We had some lifelong friends meet us when we got to Niagara Falls and it was SO good to get to spend time on this trip with them.  They were leaving to head out on Sunday, so we headed up to the Canadian town, Niagara on the Lake.  We had heard that it was really a cute town and well worth the visit.  It was.

There is a wine trail on the American side, but there is WINE TRAIL on the Canadian side.  Unfortunately, everybody and their brother were visiting all these wineries on the same day! We couldn't even get in the parking lot at some of the wineries. Our friend was looking for icewine to take back to her daughter and take a bottle back for her too!  Icewine is made when the grapes freeze on the vine.  They wait 24 hours to pick them after they freeze.  The skins are removed and the nectar is used to make the wine.  You get 1 drop of nectar per grape.  You have to have thousands of grapes to get a small 350 ml bottle of icewine.  It is pretty expensive.  It is kind of a chancy thing because the grapes have to stay on the vine until they freeze.  The vintner has to hope that the grapes don't rot on the vine before the first freeze.  They also have to hope that their timing is right for the grapes to be mature enough when the first freeze hits.  They also have to hope that birds leave them alone.  By the way, we found icewine!

We visited the little town and it was very cute, but very crowded.  We had coffee and did a little walking around town, but decided to leave to see if we found anything worth looking at on our way back to Niagara Falls on the Canada side to attend a dinner theater.

Our group wanted to go to a dinner theater in Canada where the show "O Canada, Eh" has been showing for 25 years.  We bought tickets months ago to go on Saturday evening.  I'm always skeptical about the food at dinner theaters.  I realize that you are really going for the entertainment and not the food and I'm fine with that.  I must say that I was pleasantly surprised.  I thought the food was good.  Everything was served family style and the waiters were also the performers.  These young people were very talented and very entertaining.  It was a great show! I highly recommend to see this show if you are ever in that area.  It will be well worth your money.

WINE TRAIL AND SKYLON TOWER

Yesterday was a rainy, nasty day, so we decided to drive to some of the wineries and do some tastings.  There are a lot of wineries in this area, both on the American side and the Canadian side.  We did the American side wineries.  The very first one we went to had the best wines.  But, that didn't stop us from moving on to others.

Yesterday evening, we had reservations to eat at the Skylon Tower restaurant in Niagara Falls, Ontario.  It is a revolving restaurant that looks down on both of the falls which gives you an unbelievable view.  They offer a lunch, early dining, and dinner menu.  We had decided to go to early dining.  We wanted to see the falls at night because we were here during the time they light up the falls at night.  So, it was either early dining or dinner and early dining was more reasonable.

Early dining was a fixed menu. You get a salad, a choice between 5 entrees and desert.  It wasn't cheap, but it was our evening to splurge.  It takes approximately 1 hour for the restaurant to make a complete revolution.  We actually made 2 revolutions.  Maybe it was because there were 18 of us to serve, maybe not.  No matter what, it was great.  The views from there were awesome! The food was good too.

You can buy a ticket at the tower to go up to their observation deck.  When you eat at their restaurant, the observation deck is included.  So, after dinner, we made our way up to the observation deck.  It was cold and windy, so we ran outside, took our pictures, and got back inside as quick as we could. What a great night.  It will be something we remember and talk about for a long time.

Bridal Veil Falls

Horseshoe Falls

Our group (2 tables)

Horseshoe Falls lit up at night to look like the Canadian flag

Bridal Veil Falls lit up at night to look like the American flag

THE WHOLE REASON FOR THE TRIP

When we left Watkins Glen, we headed for Niagara Falls.  This destination may be our last, but it was the whole reason for the trip.  Seeing Niagara Falls was on our bucket list.

We arrived in Niagara Falls on a Monday and we checked into the Cinderella Motel and RV Park.  Catchy name, huh.  One of our friends said that it sounded like a w***e house! Haha!  Well, the motel does look like one of those motels that has been around since the 1960's and the RV spots are very close together.  The sites are gravel on top of clay so there are big ruts in a lot of the sites that the owners don't really try to fix.  The sites have full hook-ups and we got a weekly rate of $265.00.  That is about $37 a night, which is about $30 a night cheaper than any other RV park in the area.
We met up with other couples so we have 18 people total travelling in our caravan right now.

Tuesday morning we went downtown and got our first glimpse of the falls.  Wow!  That's all I can say.  I've seen lots of pictures through my life, but nothing comes close to seeing the falls in real life.  Amazing.  Such force and such beauty.  The weather Tuesday was perfect for a ride on Maid of the Mist.  This boat takes you right up to Bridal Veil Falls (the falls on the American side) and also Horseshoe Falls (the falls on the Canadian side).  They were recognizing Breast Cancer Awareness month so the rain ponchos they were passing out were pink.  We put those on, tied the hood around our neck to keep it on, and walked on the boat.  I had read to stand in the middle part of the boat if you wanted to stay semi-dry.  So, that's where we stood.  We stayed semi-dry.  There is such force from the falls that water and mist are everywhere.  It was hard to get good pictures because of the people but also because my camera and lens were staying constantly wet.

When we got off the boat, we got on the trolley and went over to the Cave of the Winds.  Cave of the Winds is not a cave.  There use to be a ledge that stuck out about 100 feet in front of the falls.  The ledge fell off and now there are wooden steps and platforms that take you from the bottom of the falls up to a point where you are about 5 feet from the front of the falls.  The wind and the water are crazy.  You get these lovely yellow rain panchos to wear here.  The only problem was that the hood had nothing to tie to keep it on your head and the wind is much worse here, so it is NOT going to stay on your head.  They also provide sandals to wear.  Wait, what?  Sandals?  Yes, sandals.  You don't have to wear them, but they strongly suggest that you do.  They tell you that your shoes will get wet.  Mr. W decided to wear his hiking boots and not wear the sandals.  His shoes were a little damp when we first walked away, but not wet and his feet were not cold from wearing the sandals in that cold weather in that cold water.

When we finished Cave of the Winds, we had lunch in the park, caught the trolley back to the Visitor's Center, and called it a day.  Pretty awesome day.

WATKINS GLEN STATE PARK

Yesterday we decided to do the Gorge Trail hike in Watkins Glen State Park.  We had passed by the park on the day we arrived and it was CROWDED.  So, Mr. W decided we needed to get up early and get started, especially since this was a holiday weekend.  We didn't get there as early as he had hoped, but we still got there before the parking lot got full and before the bus tours got there.

It costs $8 to park all day and there is no entry fee to the park. We went to the visitor's center and talked with one of the Rangers about the best trails to take going up and coming back down. (That is one of Mr. W's favorite things to do.) We got our map and were off.

The Gorge Trail  is a mile straight up and a mile of steps.  The steps were mostly wet and had lots of leaves, but were mostly level and in most places, had room for you to step aside and let others pass if you needed a break.  Watkins Glenn SP is known for being the home of 19 waterfalls.  Believe me, this place did not disappoint.  You walked through a tunnel at the start and when  you came out the other side, you were already seeing waterfalls.

There were lots of different languages being spoken around us. There were a lot of photos being taken. So, you had to work your way to the photo area, get your shot and get out.  But, it was so beautiful.  Even though I love to take pictures and feel like I do a fairly good job,  photos cannot truly capture the beauty of what nature produces.

OK, I'm going to get on a rant for a minute.  When you are doing photos, get your photo and move on. Mr. W had read a lot of reviews of this park and the biggest gripe and reason people rated it down was because of the people taking pictures and not being considerate of others.  I cannot tell you how many times I had to stand and wait while a Millenial had to take a selfie alone, then take one with 4 other friends, who were not standing anywhere near them.  They then had to take a picture on their camera.  Then, I'm sure no trip would be complete (she said sarcastically) without a panoramic shot and then a video.  Oh, and let's keep standing right there while I post it all on Instagram, Snap Chat, and Twitter! Geez! My time is just as important as yours.  Not to mention foreign visitors who push to get ahead others to get photos and have to take 20 of the same shot.  People - be ready to take your picture, take  1 or 2, if you are including others, have them ready to jump into the photo, and move out of the way.  Ok, rant over.

We walked down on the Indian Trail and it was not crowded and it was very peaceful.  It was just a wooded trail with a couple of camera lookouts.  But, after being in the crowds on the Gorge Trail, it was nice to leisurely walk this trail.

We had lunch and decided to try to see a couple more waterfalls in the area.  I mean really, can you ever see too many waterfalls?  The last one we went to is the tallest waterfall east of the Rockies.  It was pretty awesome.  I didn't get very good pics of it because we got there in the afternoon and all of the pictures were right in the sun.  We wanted to walk to the bottom of it just to say we did, but we ran out of time.  It was a 1/2 mile walk on a easy, level walking path according to their literature.  I never know whether to trust that or not!

We are leaving today and headed over to Niagara Falls.  This is the reason the whole trip was planned. We are meeting up with more friends and we will be there for 1 week and then headed back home.  I can't wait!