Lazy Days– Cayuga Lake State Park, Seneca Falls, NY 6/18

We left the northwest tip of Massachusetts entering New York for the second time this trip. (Today’s pic is our campsite this morning in Mass. – not only was it a great mountain spot, but we had the entire campground to ourselves). Unlike her seashore Long Island side, this part of New York is mountainous and felt more like parts of Appalachia at times. We drove through dying hard scrapple manufacturing towns and eventually entered into the rolling hills of Cherry Valley. For the rest of the day we were in dairy country, passing – yes passing – mom and pop homemade ice cream stands. One of the more interesting towns we stopped in was Sharon Springs. About 100 years or so it was the place to vacation and soak in the springs. Now, the once mighty bathhouse has fallen to ruin and the town is about a block long with a couple of the old hotels lining Main Street with their rocking chairs on long porches. Apparently, it’s still the vacation spot for Hassidic Jews, but nearly forgotten by the rest of the world. We stopped in the early afternoon for a roadside picnic enjoying the lazy warm summer day, and then ventured on to the Finger Lakes region. It actually felt great for a change to not have some sightseeing or field trip planned. We arrived at Cayuga Lake State Park in mid afternoon glad to get a site before the weekend rush. This campground feels more like we are at a Catskill resort with the campsites spread amongst the cabins. Since it was so warm we decided to put on our suits and head for the beach across the road. I can’t tell you how disappointed we were to see that no swimming was allowed until Sat. morning at 11 when a lifeguard would be present. Bummer! Not to be deterred, Ned suggested we ride our bikes down the road for a stretch and see what we could find. We eventually settled on a tree covered spot next to someone’s boat dock, blew up our rafts, and floated around for awhile. It felt great! Tonight was pretty low key just hanging out watching the weekend family camping activity and Ned beating me at cards – sigh. We are looking forward to exploring Niagara Falls tomorrow.