In which the payoff is collected
Weekends are the payoff for spending two weeks at a time away from home.
The last time I worked in upstate New York it was January. January is not an ideal time to visit Buffalo. Anticipating as much, I brought along plenty of sewing; we were preparing to go to Estrella and I was using all available time to insure that we were clothed at the War. It's been a while since I loaded up the sewing machine. I've resigned myself to doing what I've always really wanted to do - I'm seeing the county.
Of course, Saturdays are often a slow start. After a week of dealing with jet lag and the trials of training for 7 hours a day, I usually sleep late on Saturday morning. This morning was typical. I got up late and discovered that the "partly sunny" morning was less than "partly". In no hurry, I showered and dressed, and made it downstairs just in time to make myself a waffle for breakfast.
One of the cool things about "seeing the country" is bringing back pictures of my adventures. However, for as long as I've been working in this traveling job, I've been camera-less. Well, not exactly - I have bought a couple of 35mm cameras for traveling, but they both proved worth less than the purchase price, and I never got even one roll of film out of either of them. This weekend, I'm expecting to do some things that I really want to share with the folks back home, and so Chris and I had been discussing the possibility of getting me a camera. So, this morning I picked up a Kodak C533 from Best Buy. It was $149, which was a little higher than I wanted to pay, but it seems to be worth the money.
What I didn't buy was a SD memory card, since we've got a collection of those from the Olympus with the fried power card. Of course that means that I'm fairly limited in taking pictures. I can get 11 3.1 mp pictures on the internal memory - I'm going to have to take the laptop with me to dump pictures frequently this weekend. I just couldn't bring myself to spend $60 on a gig of memory, knowing that MicroCenter back home is selling a gig of memory for under $20.
With memory-recorder in pocket, I hit the highway. The Lake Ontario State Parkway. The Parkway is a four-lane highway that parallels the edge of the lake for most of the New York shoreline. Commercial vehicles are prohibited, probably as much for maintaining the character of the highway as for the low bridge clearance. Whether the low clearances are by chance or design, I don't know. I was struck by the extreme quiet of the lakeshore - the Parkway had very little traffic, and whenever I parked the car, the peace was absolute.
Of course, I never seem to have any cash on me, and so I had to bypass the Hamlin Beach State Park. I finally stopped at Point Breeze, where there is a park along the river that feeds into Lake Ontario. The park rests largely under the Parkway; the Parkway runs on bridges high above the river and park. The park rests on the east bank of Oak Orchard Creek, which is larger than most Colorado rivers. The creek runs fifty feet below the park, where a long line of docks host maybe 50 or 60 boats, both private and municipal. Steps connect the park with the docks at the edge of the creek.
This seems to be a point of entry into the US from Canada. A Customs office is located near the steps, and the official nature of the location is underscored by the presence of several police boats in the docks. Yet, the park seems dedicated to the people who would use it, and the docks are populated by boats of all sizes, descriptions, and values. Although the Saturday afternoon seemed remarkably quiet - few people were out and about - three boats cruised by as I stood on the dock. There were two small powerboats and one large yacht. The boats seem to run in a channel on the east side of the creek; the west side is shallow as evidenced by the sandhill crane fishing over there. Small streams tumble over the brink and splash into the creek. One opposite the steps down into the creek's gorge was particularly noisy.
After visiting the park, I turned south toward route 104. I wanted to see some upland landscape. I had suspected that I might find a bit of fresh produce out in the countryside, and I was not disappointed. Of course, without any cash on me, I didn't get to buy anything. I stopped at Hurd Orchards, on the county line just west of Rochester.
Hurd Orchards is a farm and market. I can only describe Hurd Orchards as enchanting. I expected a fruit stand. I was surprised to find home-made preserves, tea, dried flowers and baked goods. And a dozen or more varieties of apples. Peaches. Tomatoes. They serve a lunch menu in the barn, which opens out to the cherry orchard. The farm values conservation and sustainable practices, maintains sections of the property for wildlife habitat and forestry, uses very few chemicals, and favors physical barriers against animals who enjoy the same fruits that the people do. It's a beautiful slice of the county, and seems to be very livable.
I reflected on the beauty that was a part of Colorado's attraction for us. There are some very beautiful places in Colorado. The beauty of many of those places depends upon the fact that very few people have had an impact on the landscape. This means that the beautiful places where people do live are few - few enough that the demand is controlled by astronomical real estate prices. I find western New York to be beautiful, but it is a different sort of beauty than the majesty of the Rockies. The landscape here is what the mind's eye evokes when one thinks about the American countryside. There is a palpable connection to our cultural history as Americans. This is what the 19th century agricultural landscape looks like.
I have to admit that I can see myself living in upstate New York. Being here in September, I don't know what is in store for the summers or the winters, but I really love late summer here. I can imagine cozy Christmases - I would guess that the instance of a white Christmas is somewhat higher than in Denver - and sparkling autumns. Maybe I'm just getting old and nostalgic. Besides, the median house value is $140,000 less than Denver.
The afternoon was getting on, and I had decided that I was going to make a pot of soup for supper, and I wanted a nap. Of course, this made supper rather late, but after a trip to the super market, I put together a rather nice seafood bisque. I wasn't able to buy seafood in small enough quantities to make just a single batch. This of course means that I have soup for the next three nights. Par for the course.
Tomorrow, I have plans to go to Niagara Falls. We'll see how this goes, since I'm carrying neither
passport nor birth certificate. Hopefully US customs will be having a good day.
The last time I worked in upstate New York it was January. January is not an ideal time to visit Buffalo. Anticipating as much, I brought along plenty of sewing; we were preparing to go to Estrella and I was using all available time to insure that we were clothed at the War. It's been a while since I loaded up the sewing machine. I've resigned myself to doing what I've always really wanted to do - I'm seeing the county.
Of course, Saturdays are often a slow start. After a week of dealing with jet lag and the trials of training for 7 hours a day, I usually sleep late on Saturday morning. This morning was typical. I got up late and discovered that the "partly sunny" morning was less than "partly". In no hurry, I showered and dressed, and made it downstairs just in time to make myself a waffle for breakfast.
One of the cool things about "seeing the country" is bringing back pictures of my adventures. However, for as long as I've been working in this traveling job, I've been camera-less. Well, not exactly - I have bought a couple of 35mm cameras for traveling, but they both proved worth less than the purchase price, and I never got even one roll of film out of either of them. This weekend, I'm expecting to do some things that I really want to share with the folks back home, and so Chris and I had been discussing the possibility of getting me a camera. So, this morning I picked up a Kodak C533 from Best Buy. It was $149, which was a little higher than I wanted to pay, but it seems to be worth the money.
What I didn't buy was a SD memory card, since we've got a collection of those from the Olympus with the fried power card. Of course that means that I'm fairly limited in taking pictures. I can get 11 3.1 mp pictures on the internal memory - I'm going to have to take the laptop with me to dump pictures frequently this weekend. I just couldn't bring myself to spend $60 on a gig of memory, knowing that MicroCenter back home is selling a gig of memory for under $20.
With memory-recorder in pocket, I hit the highway. The Lake Ontario State Parkway. The Parkway is a four-lane highway that parallels the edge of the lake for most of the New York shoreline. Commercial vehicles are prohibited, probably as much for maintaining the character of the highway as for the low bridge clearance. Whether the low clearances are by chance or design, I don't know. I was struck by the extreme quiet of the lakeshore - the Parkway had very little traffic, and whenever I parked the car, the peace was absolute.
Of course, I never seem to have any cash on me, and so I had to bypass the Hamlin Beach State Park. I finally stopped at Point Breeze, where there is a park along the river that feeds into Lake Ontario. The park rests largely under the Parkway; the Parkway runs on bridges high above the river and park. The park rests on the east bank of Oak Orchard Creek, which is larger than most Colorado rivers. The creek runs fifty feet below the park, where a long line of docks host maybe 50 or 60 boats, both private and municipal. Steps connect the park with the docks at the edge of the creek.
This seems to be a point of entry into the US from Canada. A Customs office is located near the steps, and the official nature of the location is underscored by the presence of several police boats in the docks. Yet, the park seems dedicated to the people who would use it, and the docks are populated by boats of all sizes, descriptions, and values. Although the Saturday afternoon seemed remarkably quiet - few people were out and about - three boats cruised by as I stood on the dock. There were two small powerboats and one large yacht. The boats seem to run in a channel on the east side of the creek; the west side is shallow as evidenced by the sandhill crane fishing over there. Small streams tumble over the brink and splash into the creek. One opposite the steps down into the creek's gorge was particularly noisy.
After visiting the park, I turned south toward route 104. I wanted to see some upland landscape. I had suspected that I might find a bit of fresh produce out in the countryside, and I was not disappointed. Of course, without any cash on me, I didn't get to buy anything. I stopped at Hurd Orchards, on the county line just west of Rochester.
Hurd Orchards is a farm and market. I can only describe Hurd Orchards as enchanting. I expected a fruit stand. I was surprised to find home-made preserves, tea, dried flowers and baked goods. And a dozen or more varieties of apples. Peaches. Tomatoes. They serve a lunch menu in the barn, which opens out to the cherry orchard. The farm values conservation and sustainable practices, maintains sections of the property for wildlife habitat and forestry, uses very few chemicals, and favors physical barriers against animals who enjoy the same fruits that the people do. It's a beautiful slice of the county, and seems to be very livable.
I reflected on the beauty that was a part of Colorado's attraction for us. There are some very beautiful places in Colorado. The beauty of many of those places depends upon the fact that very few people have had an impact on the landscape. This means that the beautiful places where people do live are few - few enough that the demand is controlled by astronomical real estate prices. I find western New York to be beautiful, but it is a different sort of beauty than the majesty of the Rockies. The landscape here is what the mind's eye evokes when one thinks about the American countryside. There is a palpable connection to our cultural history as Americans. This is what the 19th century agricultural landscape looks like.
I have to admit that I can see myself living in upstate New York. Being here in September, I don't know what is in store for the summers or the winters, but I really love late summer here. I can imagine cozy Christmases - I would guess that the instance of a white Christmas is somewhat higher than in Denver - and sparkling autumns. Maybe I'm just getting old and nostalgic. Besides, the median house value is $140,000 less than Denver.
The afternoon was getting on, and I had decided that I was going to make a pot of soup for supper, and I wanted a nap. Of course, this made supper rather late, but after a trip to the super market, I put together a rather nice seafood bisque. I wasn't able to buy seafood in small enough quantities to make just a single batch. This of course means that I have soup for the next three nights. Par for the course.
Tomorrow, I have plans to go to Niagara Falls. We'll see how this goes, since I'm carrying neither
passport nor birth certificate. Hopefully US customs will be having a good day.
posted by Melanie Unruh-Bays at
6:37 PM
1 Comments:
If you want to know about Rochester winters, you should talk to Guillaume ... he lived there until he was about 12. :)
We went through Rochester on our way back from Toronto year before last (yes, I know it's not exactly on the way, but he wanted to go, so we did). It was about this time of year, and it did seem very pretty and homelike. And on a recent survey of affordable places to live, the median home price in Rochester is supposed to be something in the neighborhood of $65,000.
Sounds like you are having a good trip this time!
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Anonymous, at 10:37 AM
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