Thursday, May 28

After the wonderful dinner at Cracker Barrel, we plunged on through to upstate New York. We got there somewhere between two and three in the morning, and Brooke Tevlin was there at the door to welcome us in. We weren't staying at their house actually. They had been invited to this place owned by a friend of theirs, the Wilks, and they had invited us to stay with them also. The town it was in was called Ellicottville, NY and there was a ski area there, not that it was open or anything. The next day we had a rather slow start to the day, but once everyone was up, we went to Rock City. It was a place in the woods, it was a lot like some places in the mountains of Maine and New Hampshire. There were Huge boulders there that were in all sorts of fascinating positions. One was balanced on top of another boulder, and one was made into a cave. It was a very cool place, but nothing compared to what we'd seen out west. That was MUCH more impressive. Then we went home and did some homework. Kiley had to study for her finals, and we had to do a lot of catching up since we'd be home in a couple days. The next day, we were going to go to Niagara Falls, but we decided against it. It would be just as easy for us Sulloways to go on our way back home, and Kiley needed to be studying rather than going to Niagara and taking all day doing it. So instead, we went to Sculpture Park. That place was very interesting! We drove up into this field in what seemed like nowhere, and there were suddenly these huge iron sculptures everywhere! They were all throughout the field, in the woods, in a man-made pond... everywhere! The ones in the field were taller, and many of them were of women. My favorite was this abstract square shaped one that had a neat pattern to it. Then we went to the other section of the park, where there were all sorts of different types of sculptures. One was another pond, but this pond had women in and around it, all in positions as if they were about to dive into the pond. We picnicked out there, and Cronin (the Wilks' kid), he fell off one of the sculptures and he thought he broke his arm. They took him to get a splint, but didn't do any x-rays since my dad convinced them it was better to do two days after. The morning after, we got ready to leave, and took pictures in front of the wooden ski bear that was in front of the Wilks' house. When pictures were over, we said our good buys and headed to Niagara Falls. When we got there you could see the American Falls, but it really wasn't a good view. There was an observation tower that jutted out into the gorge, and we decided to check it out. It only cost a dollar a piece, so we did it. The view from there was a little better, but not a whole lot better. There was an elevator to the bottom of the gorge, and when we took that, you got a totally different prospective. You looked up at the falls, and it was really quite amazing. We then went back to the car to eat, and then headed to the power dam to do a self guided tour. We didn't have much time before it closed, so we didn't really get through much of it, but we learned about how the dam was built, and how the water was diverted from the Niagara River. Then we decided it was time to go to the Canadian side. Of course, like everyone says, it was much better. From there you could see Horseshoe Falls, and they were so much better than the American Falls! We didn't stay long, because we had a long drive ahead of us. We drove almost to west the end of Lake Ontario (it wasn't very far) before we decided to get a campsite there, rather than drive all the way to the other side of Toronto since it'd be dark by then. The next day we did another long drive. Through Toronto we drove, and to the US border at Ogdensburg, NY. Once we crossed there, we drove to Vermont, where we stayed at a campground north of Burlington. We decided to get a cabin this time, since there was supposed to be rain in the morning, and we really didn't want to pack up the camper in the rain. The next day, we went to the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, just south of Burlington. It was a really fascinating place, where they have all these old buildings that they've flown in there from various places. They have an old luxury rail car , and a station to boot! There was also the Ticonderoga, a passenger ship that used to ferry people across Lake Champlain from Burlington to Plattsburgh, NY. There was supposed to be furniture and rugs from my mother's ancestry, but they weren't on display that day. My dad saw some Monet paintings, but I didn't see them. After the museum we visited my great uncle and my dad's cousin, and then headed home. Driving home seemed like it took five minutes, when really it took three hours! Compared to a 15 hour drive, that was nothing. It was great to get home, and Mingus and the cats were so happy to see us.