Hi All,
Well, you are probably wondering what we do when we are just hanging out. One of the things we like to do is just drive around and look at stuff. Around here we love to look at the architecture. The buildings in the center of the towns and small cities are mostly from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Lots of huge, beautiful Victorian houses. Most of them are very well kept, but some are falling into disrepair and could use some TLC. Beyond them are the much more modest mid-twentieth century houses, and then some non-descript ranch and split-levels from the late twentieth century. Our favorites are the big old “painted ladies.” Some of them look very feminine with dainty woodwork that looks almost like lace. Others have a more manly appearance with solid columns and bulky decorations under the soffets. There are cosy little porches with a chair or two and some bright flowers; there are decorated dormers; and there are stained glass windows. Just lovely. I took some pictures around Le Roy for you and put them in an album called 09 2007 Architecture at http://picasaweb.google.com/campory57104 .
I also like to take pictures of flowers. We found some nice ones at the Jell-O museum grounds. http://www.jellomuseum.com/ Bet you didn’t know that Le Roy was the birthplace of Jell-O. I didn’t. The museum has lots of original art work for the magazine ads; and a video tape of television ads. The Jell-O plant here was closed in 1964 and the factory moved elsewhere. You will find pictures I took of the flowers in the Flora Dora album.
I hiked up to the top of the ski run at our campground http://www.leiti.com/cg_leiti_too_gallery1.htm one morning. There were lots of wildflowers on the hillside. Once I got to the top, I found a meadow filled with white blossoms and white butterflies. Those pictures are in the album called 08 2007 Le Roy. I took a shot looking back down the hill, and if you look close you can see our RV.
One day we drove to Old Fort Niagara, which is located at the mouth of the Niagara River where it empties into Lake Ontario. It was originally built by the French in the 1700s. https://oldfortniagara.org/ The main building was called the French Castle. You can see the shutters on the top story had musket slots in them. All of the woodwork is hand hewn and you can see the axe strokes. And there were plenty of cannons. A gentleman in period costume demonstrated firing a musket for us. He was very entertaining as he described what he was dong. His musket didn’t fire the first three times he pulled the trigger and he had to clean his firing pin and try again each time. You can imagine the frustration that would be in mid battle! When it finally fired, it gave a satisfying little boom and a big puff of smoke. There is also a lighthouse there, just outside of the old fort’s enclosure. We also stopped at Olcott on our way over to Ft. Niagara and I grabbed a couple of pictures of the rebuilt little lighthouse there. It is the smallest lighthouse I’ve ever seen. You’ll find all those pictures in the 09 2007 Ft. Niagara album.<
On another drive we saw Lake Canandaigua. There was a small steamboat there, but it wasn’t running that day, so we didn’t ride it. We drove down the shore past fancy houses and we could practically see the fancy price tags tied to the chimneys and fluttering in the breeze. There were vineyards on the hills and little wineries tucked here and there along the highway. Album: 08 2007 Lake Canandaigua
Saturday we went to the Western New York Gas and Steam Engine Show. Big name; in fact the name is more impressive than the show was. It was a flea market with tractors. More flea market than tractors. But I did get some pictures of steam tractors. Album: 09 2007 Steam Tractors.
Well, that’s what we’ve been up to, what’s up with you?
mj
Dining note: Don’t order Mexican food north of I-40. They just don’t know how to fix it right.
Cween mj in CyberSpace 