Maid of the Mist– 4 Mile State Park, Niagara Falls, NY 6/19

We had an early start this morning knowing that it would be a bit hectic at Niagara Falls and getting a campsite on Sat. night without reservations a challenge. We pulled into the campground at noon, secured a site right on the bluffs of Lake Ontario, then high tailed it for the falls. To say it was hectic is an understatement! The place was so thick with people that you could hardly walk thru the crowds. It seemed everyone was either Chinese, East Indian or Middle Eastern. The wind was blowing mightily, over 30 mph, and it was quite a scene seeing all the colorful saris and head coverings of the Muslim women blowing in the wind. We decided to embrace our inner tourist and headed for the Maid of the Mist. It was insane!! The sky had clouded up and was threatening rain while the wind had whipped up to quite a bluster. I don’t know what we laughed harder at, trying to put on our bright blue plastic ponchos or seeing how silly we looked once they were on! The ride was much better than we expected. The beauty of the falls, the force of the water pouring over the cliffs and being drenched in the mist all added to the thrill. We tried to take pictures when next to the falls, but between mist on the lens and getting drenched everything just looked pure white. As we disembarked from the boat, the skies cleared up and the day turned out to be crisp and blue, albeit still incredibly windy. The warm gusty breeze felt much like the Santa Ana winds from home. We had a great time walking along the river path and watching the torrent of water gush over the cliffs. (See today’s pic). Once back at the campsite we did a quick tour of the area on our bikes and then settled down to a lazy summer evening enjoying the vibe of the campground. On the huge grass expanse, with mature trees, overlooking Lake Ontario boys are playing catch with their lacrosse sticks and throwing footballs, kids are sitting in circles playing duck-duck-goose, and a father is playing soccer with his little girl. At the onset of the sun going down, Ned and I walked the few feet from our campsite to a perfectly situated bench and watched the sun slowly dissent over Lake Ontario for about 45 minutes. It was a spectacular show. When I turned around to look behind us, entire families, with their kids and dogs, were all sitting on the grass watching the sunset. The entire place was quiet just soaking in the magic of the moment. Now, as dusk has settled over the campground, there’s a sea of campfires and kids are playing flashlight tag on the grass and trying to catch fireflies. You can smell smoke and s’mores in the air. Ahh - the epitome of summer in America.

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.

On The Road - Clarksburg State Park, North Adams, MA 6/17

We took a quick spin on our bikes this morning, around the gargantuan beach campground that had at least 600 sites with more than half of them filled with big mama trailers. We couldn’t wait to pack up and make a dash for the western part of the state. Our big stop of the day was the town of Lowell, famous for Jack Kerouac and in its heyday being one of America’s most successful mill towns. It was so interesting driving into the town and seeing the enormous old brick warehouses and block after block of earthen red brick houses. We had a devil of a time trying to locate the Lowell National Historic Site and Visitor’s Center. The town is built around canals and rivers that twist and turn and hardly any of the streets are named. We stopped and asked a policewoman, who was in the process of writing up a parking ticket, for directions, but she was not very clear or sure where to send us. Through trial and error we finally found the Visitor’s Center. Apparently we weren’t the only ones befuddled. While waiting for a movie on the history of Lowell we struck up a conversation with some folks from Missouri. They asked us if we had a hard time finding the place. They had asked a local policeman for directions. He too was unsure where to send them. (Ironically, after waiting several min. pasted the posted start time we finally inquired and was told the movie was broken. Would it have hurt to hang up a sign?!) Several others in the Visitor’s Center were complaining to the Park Ranger about the lack of signage directing people to the Center. Interestingly enough, no one in charge really seemed to care. We have two thoughts on this; the local townspeople are really clueless on the great gem of this national park or they are purposely trying to discourage the “beatnik” types from getting too comfortable in town. Regardless, this place was well worth the digging. The history of the mills and the part they played in America’s history is well documented. One can also take a driving tour of Jack Kerouac’s early years, visiting the mills, hang-outs and home that was so descriptively featured in his novels. We walked through town and visited the commemorative park that had some passages of his work etched on huge granite slabs. Even though we now had a park issued map, it still took us awhile to find the cemetery where Jack was buried. (The map is completely out of date and the roads have changed.) We finally located the correct cemetery and found his headstone. It’s very modest and innocuously located. The fans that have visited this site have honored Jack by placing empty beer bottles, cigarettes and such on his marker. We added to the collection by placing our own memento of a Route 66 wooden nickel. (See today’s pic). We thought this was quite appropriate and Jack would approve. We continued across Massachusetts, finally leaving the busy highways surrounding Boston, and connected to highway 2. It was a gorgeous drive through thickly wooded forests hugging a river for most of the drive. This area is dotted with maple sugar stands, understandable since we are so close to the Vermont border. We stopped in Shelburne Falls to see the famous Flower Bridge. It used to be a trolley bridge bringing cotton from the mills and was last used in the 1920’s. About 70 years ago it was turned into an absolute gorgeous walking garden bridge! We enjoyed taking our time walking over the bridge and seeing the hundreds of flowers, shrubs and trees in full bloom. I kept thinking of my friend Patti and how much she would just love this! We took tons of pictures and left a small donation for the team of volunteers who work so hard to keep this sweet, picturesque little jewel alive. Tonight, we are camped in the hills of Mass. right next to the Appalachian Trail. Our campground is very thickly wooded and is situated around a small pond. At this point it seems as if we are the only ones here. Seems like a good time to pour a glass of wine and play some cards. I think somewhere Jack is smiling.

One If by Land & Two If by Sea, Salisbury Beach State Park, MA 6/16

Ned here again. Our big focus for today was to walk Boston’s Freedom Trail. Knowing this would be a long day, we shoved out of our campground by 8:20 to find our way into downtown Boston. Despite the fact that my trusty Navigator, Debi, was armed with 3 different maps for reference materials, and I was calling off every road name and landmark as we cruised past it, we became completely befuddled in our assault of the heart of Boston. Between the circuitous nature of the roads that approach the city, and the consistent lack of road signs on many roads and highways, it took us a while before we finally had our van parked in a downtown high rise parking garage. Once we were on foot, however, everything changed for the better. Starting from the Boston Common, we followed the red brick path throughout the town for 2.5 miles past fifteen historic sites from the Colonial and Revolutionary era. At first we groaned as we realized that we were among a sea of school children, possibly all on their end-of-the year field trips. Soon, though, we saw that most groups of kids were led by very informed and entertaining guides, dressed in full Colonial or Revolutionary garb. We learned several interesting facts while eaves dropping on those tours. Some places we saw were the State House, the graves of John Hancock & Samuel Adams, Paul Revere’s House, and the Old North Church, from whose steeple were hung the two lanterns to signal the beginning of Paul Revere’s famous ride. The grand finale was our tour inside the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides), the 1797 fully commissioned US warship, which still floats in Boston’s harbor. I was amazed by the elegant beauty of the ship, but also the huge number of crew required to man her, and the exceedingly cramped quarters below deck. (See today’s pic of me next to one of the “guns” below deck and the limited headroom) Our tour guide, Seaman Gonzalez, was a very engaging young Navy recruit from San Diego. Our trip back to our van was via a fun water taxi ride across Boston Harbor, and a walk through the elegant Beacon Hill area. We left Boston and wound our way up Highway 1 to Gloucester, seeing the famous Gorton’s Fisherman statue, then headed to Rocky Neck Artist Colony, and from there we drove to the very tip of Cape Anne to Rockport for dinner at a funky little place called the “Lobster Pool”. We’re now settled down in a huge beachside campground a the very top of Massachusetts, ready to start our official trek back toward the west.

Escape to the Cape, Wompatuck State Park, Boston, MA 6/15

We go an early start this morning knowing we had a long day with a lot of things planned. Our first stop was Newport, RI to check out Ocean Drive and all the mansions. Jimeny Crickets, I’ve never ever seen such HUGE houses before. Seriously. Of all the places we’ve traveled nothing has ever compared to these mansions. Most of them are situated on the ocean and look like the White House or even Versailles, complete with gilded gates. I’ve always heard that Newport, RI was the playground of the rich, but this was over the top. I can’t wait to get an internet connection to found out the history of this area. We then made our way over to Cape Cod starting our tour with the southern arm of the peninsula. We had a grand time driving along the roads checking out all the little towns. Our lunch stop was the little town of Centerville for a visit to the Four Seas Ice Cream shop. It was touted as being the oldest ice cream on the cape and the 3^rd oldest in New England so we had to give it a try. Besides, I had read that Caroline Kennedy had this peach ice cream served at her wedding. It was delish and definitely ties with second place. We continued our drive to Hyanis Port looking for the Kennedy compound, but never did stumble upon it. We had a blast driving down all these backgrounds, sometimes coming to a dead end at the ocean, but always rewarded with gorgeous views. Our next stop was the Visitor’s Center of the Cape Cod National Seashore. The 22 mile rails to trails bike path starts here and we both vowed to come back sometime and spend several days camping and biking it. We eventually made it to the furthermost tip of the cape to Provincetown, or as the locals call it – Ptown. What an eclectic, busy, campy place it was. The center street in town has colorful flags strung across every which way and there are umpteen shops and B&B’s crammed everywhere. It’s almost like a Berkeley-Castro beach town. Deciding that this place was too interesting to just cruise through we got on our bikes and pedaled around town. Up close it felt more like Bourbon Street in New Orleans with so much going on. (See today’s pic). At some point we could barely bike with all the foot traffic, tour trolleys, and general craziness of the place. I liked it! On the way back we decided to explore the northern area backgrounds as well. This section was much less touristy. The road (6A) was predominantly covered with trees arched over the roadway and dotted with saltbox houses and tidy yards. Compared to Long Island this area is much more to our liking. The entire cape is so much less pretentious and understated. The vibe was also much more laid back and people not trying so hard to impress each other. We did visit Nickerson State Park to check out the campgrounds. I’m already planning our next trip here so we can have time to bike the rail to trails. We (sadly) left the cape, stopping off in the town of Plymouth for a bite to eat. We spotted a seafood market that looked pretty local and low key. I had a cup of lobster chowder with a lobster roll and Ned had haddock fish and chips. Yum!! Tonight we are camped just outside of Boston in a heavily wooded state park. We didn’t arrive til late, about 7ish, but did manage did get in a quick 5 mile bike ride. The young kids checking us in were all excited about the Celtics – Lakers game tonight. I assured them that we were Warrior fans, not Lakers! (So much for my California loyalty). The game starts at 9ish tonight, I guess we’ll find out what happened when we enter Boston tomorrow.

15 Miles and 3 Manhattans–Fishermen’s Memorial State Park, Narragansett, RI 6/14

It took us about 45 minutes to drive from our campsite to Orient Point at the very tip of the North Fork of Long Island. We caught the 10:00 ferry to New London, CT and thoroughly enjoyed the hour and a half ferry ride. Some of the highlights were seeing the impressive homes along the Connecticut Shore and Trumbull Fort built as a Civil War fortress, which was greeting us from the harbor. We took a short trip along the Connecticut coast with a stopover in Mystic – famous for the movie Mystic Pizza. By this time it was high noon and a great time to try out our own “slice of heaven.” It was great fun to see all the movie memorabilia in the restaurant. In addition, they were playing the movie Mystic Pizza on tv screens through-out the restaurant. (For those of you who don’t know, this movie was Julie Roberts debut. It’s a great, camp coming of age movie and one of my faves.) After leaving the restaurant, we took a stroll through the town enjoying the great views of Mystic River, the drawbridge, shops and great gardens. We continued our drive north on highway 1, eventually entering Rhode Island. We took a couple of side trips down some inlets and finally reached our destination for today at Fishermen’s Memorial State Park in Narragansett. It was still fairly early in the afternoon with a cool breeze so we decided to do some exploring on our bikes. We rode down the point to Judith Point Lighthouse and then rode around several neighborhoods with cute little cottages. This part of the coast reminded both of us of Mendocino. (See today’s pic). We then rode up highway 1 past some amazing, jaw-dropping mansions in the historical district finally ending up at the main beach near the 1885 Romanesque arches. Turns out this was the original Coast Guard station, later turned into a casino and now housing the visitor’s center. We stopped to watch some of the local surfers, but really it was just too sad. The waves they were surfing were just swells and no self-respecting Californian would even attempt to paddle these. We had a nice long bike ride back to the campsite (about 15 miles in all), but within about 1 mile of the campground Ned spotted a tavern and suggested we quench our thirst. Ned opted for a draft beer but I ordered a Manhattan. And, oh baby what a Manhattan it was! Talk about a work of art – served chilled on ice in a small carafe. It filled my glass 3 times – yikes. I had a very tipsy final mile home on my bike. Well, needless to say, after a short nap later we decided to ride our bikes to a roadside restaurant called Aunt Carrie’s. It’s been around since 1920 and still remains a popular spot today. We both had the lobster dinners and for dessert were given coupons to an ice cream parlor across the street. The ice cream was made by a company called “The Ice Cream Machine” out of Cumberland, RI. I think we have a pretty close contender to Farr’s Ice Cream. In all fairness I only tasted Ned’s so I’m thinking we need to do further research. As I’m writing this fire works are going off nearby. Kinda sums up the day perfectly.

A Day in the Hamptons–Wildwood State Park, Long Island NY 6/13

We loaded up the bikes and headed for the Hamptons! Our first sightseeing venture included driving along the Dunes, gawking at all the post-modern oversized mansions. This stretch of the spit featured mainly really ostentatious homes that looked more like hotels than individual dwellings. We continued along Montauk Highway driving through several villages eventually arriving in South Hampton. It looked a lot more like Rodeo Drive than a vacation hang-out spot that’s for sure! We really didn’t feel like riding our bikes through this village so we continued the drive East up the point. By this time it was about 1ish and we were getting hungry. We spotted a seafood shack and decided it was more our speed than the fancier restaurants. The lunch was to die for. We ordered Maryland crab cakes with coleslaw and onion rings. There were a few picnic tables outside and quite a few people already enjoying their lunches of clams, cod and shrimp. We asked if we could join them and we had the best time lunching together and chatting it up. Turns out they were from Ramsey, New Jersey and knew exactly where I used to live on Forest Avenue. How ironic is that! There were 8 of them and they had spent the weekend in the Hamptons at one of their family homes. They were impressed that we had chosen this place to eat since it’s supposed to be a great secret among the locals. We continued towards East Hampton swimming against the Sunday afternoon exodus. We passed miles and miles of BMWs, Mercedes, Land Rovers and Audis as they slowly streamed back to the city. Even though East Hampton village was just as posh, if not more than South Hampton, we decided it was as good a place as any to ride our bikes. We cracked up riding through the village. Every cross-walk has two white-gloved policeman directing traffic. Pretty much overkill if you ask me. We rode out of the village and took several side streets so we could check out all the homes. It was unbelievable seeing the gorgeous gardens and houses. We also enjoyed walking through the local cemetery reading all the headstones, some dating back to 1722. The most unusual being, “Peggy Negro Serving Cap. Somebody (sic) all her life.” We decided it was time to pack up the bikes and drive out to the farthest point of the island and view Montauk Lighthouse. (Today’s pic is Ned in front of the lighthouse). This lighthouse was commissioned by George Washington and was the first one built in the state of New York. Dang - some pretty good history there. Our next stop was Sag Harbor. I enjoyed this section of the South Fork most. Even though it was still pretty ritzy, it seemed more like old money and not trying as hard as the Hamptons. We took a bridge over to North Haven Island and then a short ferry ride to Shelter Island, checking out all the homes along the way. The little town of Dering Harbor really knocked our socks off. There are only a handful of houses, but each and every one of them look like something out of the Great Gatsby. It is very secluded and oriented toward the harbor. We eventually took the North Ferry off the island and headed into the town of Greenport. What do you know, an ice cream parlor serving Hershey’s ice cream, which is the same brand as Doumar’s?! (It’s not on the official tasting list since it would be scoring the same ice cream twice). We had fun walking around the town with our cones and discussing the day. We decided that we are definitely North Fork people. We like the low-key vibe of the North Fork with its wineries, flower and produce stands over the posh and glitz of the South Fork. When we arrived back at the campsite it was a far cry from last night. Almost everyone is gone and instead of campfires, bikes, balls, and the shouts of kids playing, it is incredibly quite and still. Sigh - the tip of Long Island at rest until the next weekend barrage of families and socialites.