New York

We spent the first few days in NY at the Hunter's Hope Foundation conference. Hunter's Hope was started by Jim Kelly of the Buffalo Bills after his son was diagnosed with Krabbe disease. Mark was a speaker there, and we met several families and heard of the progress being made in this disease. After Hunter's Hope we went to Niagara Falls. We were able to cross over to the Canadian side even though I did not have my passport. However, getting back into the good ol' USA meant that we got chewed out by a Customs agent!

The Niagara River above the falls...

The top of the falls...

The view of the American falls from the Canadian side.

The Canadian falls.

We ate at a restaurant there at the falls and enjoyed our view. Just as we were about to leave the rain started, so we ordered another round of beers and enjoyed the view for awhile longer. The area was packed with people, but we managed to stay warm and dry!


Our next day's outing was to the Corning Museum in Corning, NY. Glass, glass and more glass!
Artistic glass...

Red glass is made from actual gold and is apparently rare and expensive. There were several displays where photography was not allowed, but this one had no such sign.

Historic glass....

Glass paperweights....

Extremely expensive glass! The globe was priced in the tens of thousands of dollars, and the lobster was Steuben glass which was way out of our price range as well.

And for the lab rat in us all, Pyrex glass labware...We also saw glass blowing and many other demonstrations of glass. We managed to find a microbrewery for lunch there and had a wonderful days visit to Corning.

The upstate area of NY has "cobblestone" houses. These were very unique, and made up of small round stones that were dug up during the digging of the Erie Canal. The houses are quite old and so quaint and beautiful! This one had been turned into a Starbucks, imagine that!

One afternoon we went for a picnic at a nearby park with our hosts, Mike and Allison. We were hoping to spot some bluebirds, but the bluebirds had a different plan.

Mark and I spent one morning wandering around the historic area of Pittsford, and walked along the Eric Canal.


Mike and Allison have encouraged flying squirrels to come feed on their deck. This was one of the cuties that came to visit while we were there. They are only active at night, and are incredibly quiet as they fly in.

For our last night there, Mark ordered in fresh lobsters from Bar Harbor. Here they are headed for the pot!

Mikel and Allison were very ready for the lobsters with an extravagant lobster party spread. Mark and I are ready to eat!

Somehow even after the lobsters we still managed to have a wonderful dessert. Mike is ready to enjoy his!

Upstate New York reminded me very much of North Georgia. It was a beautiful area.

Mark was very impressed with the windmill farms we saw along the way as we headed to Maine. Here are a couple of pictures, one where they are far off in the distrance so you can see the scale, and another picture were they are closer. They look huge!