A Couple Of Museums , A Hike, And A Winery

Road Tripping

Well, I am back in the saddle again, as Gene Autry used to sing, sitting here in the dark, drinking my coffee, having gotten up early at 5:30.  It's 59º, overcast and we are supposed to have rain and winds most of the day.   The blog is late but I had trouble downloading the photographs.

Yesterday we woke in Corning, finished the blog and were ready to continue our visit at the Corning Museum Of Glass at 9:00.  We started with the one gallery we missed yesterday, the Heineman Gallery of  Contemporary Art.  It's difficult to describe the unique designs of the objects, few if any functional, most imaginative and innovative.  The range and creativity of glass were spectacular and we enjoyed the colors, shapes, the whimsy of many of the pieces.

Cityscape at Sunset

Art Nouveau

Dove of Peace, Unrestrained By Borders

We then went back to the 35 Years of Glass Gallery which we had started on Tuesday afternoon but it was so vast that we decided to go come back on Wednesday. Again, the range, the imagination, and the creativity of artists over a couple of centuries was almost too much to take in.   We also learned much about Corning, NY, which became the center of glassmaking in the early 20th century. People came from all over to the Hawes Crystal Glass Company to buy their pieces, both functional like teapots or decorative.  It was overwhelming to walk through the rooms filled with the history of glassmaking.

Resurrection By Tiffany

We left the Museum by 11:00 and drove a half-hour to Watkins Glen State Park, stopping at a Burger King for a meal.  I had no idea of what to expect from the park, thinking we would be hiking alone in the woods.  How wrong I was.  Instead, we, along with many others, hiked a mile and a half along a gorge, starting at the base and climbing some 800 steps and 400 feet to the summit, the end of the Gorge.  We passed 19 waterfalls, 200-foot cliffs, bridges, passed pools,  the spray of Cascade Cavern, caves took photos, got wet but loved it even if the steps seemed neverending.  It was a spectacular hike, with grand vistas of the stream which leads to Seneca Lake.  Once on the summit, we hiked the Indian Trail back down to the entrance, along the rim of the gorge.  We were out for two hours and hiked three miles, a bit of a contrast to the Museums.

Indian Trail

Blooming Cairns

We left Watkins Glen around 2:00 and drove through the hills to Hammondsport, a town on Keuka Lake, to the Glen Curtiss Aviation Museum.  I had never heard of Curtiss like most Americans until I read Hammondsport and the Aviation Museum.  He was one of the great but little known industrialists of the 20th century and hung out with the likes of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison.

"Curtiss was an aviation pioneer and early motorcycle manufacturer as well as founder of the U.S. aircraft industry.  Curtiss made the first officially witnessed flight in North America, won a race at the world's first international air meet in France, and made the first long-distance flight in the United States. His contributions in designing and building aircraft led to the formation of the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, now part of Curtiss-Wright Corporation. His company built aircraft for the U.S. Army and Navy, and, during the years leading up to World War I, his experiments with seaplanes led to advances in naval aviation. Curtiss civil and military aircraft were predominant in the interwar and World War II eras."

We spent an hour walking around a vast warehouse looking building, filled with 22 airplanes, many replicas of Curtiss's early planes, motorcycles, bicycles, automobiles, wooden boats, fire engines, almost any form of motorized transportation. It was amazing to think that this small town on Keuka Lake was the center of the aviation industry in the early 20th century.

One For The Road

View Of Keuka Lake

After two museums and a hike, it was time to relax so we drove to the Bully Hill Winery, overlooking Keuka Lake and had a light lunch around 3:30.  We were the only ones in the restaurant and sat out on the terrace overlooking the lake.  We ordered a couple glasses of wine and the special, roasted garlic, with goat cheese and tomatoes, served on slices of a baguette, topped with olive oil.  It was a perfect lunch, with a great view as we ruminated over the past 36 hours.

Needless to say, it was good to get home even though we loved our trip.  We quickly unpacked and relaxed until dinner time,  Neither of us was that hungry so Evie made us BLT's, perfect for our evening dinner.  We watched a couple of Colberts, some news, then the first five innings of the World Series.  And like the previous night, I went to bed with the Nationals losing 2-0 only to wake up this morning to find out they were World Series Champions.  I think I bring them good luck by going to be early, giving up on them.