Museum of the Earth: Fossilized Finger Lakes

The museum is located between Trumansburg and Ithaca

If you grew up in the Finger Lakes area, you have probably seen fossils  in cliff walls or on the bottom of a lake. The Finger Lakes area was once part of a much larger warm shallow sea. Visiting this area for the first time? Get your hands on some wonderful fossils at the Museum of the Earth, just outside of Ithaca, NY.

The museum has over 3 million fossils, making it one of the largest collections in the U.S.

There is a long mural (544 separate paintings), that stretches along a walkway between the main floor and the displays below. Each painting equals one million years with life-size fossils, displayed in order, representing 550 million years. The reign of man does not even make a single panel. ULP!

I discovered something new on my visit:  We have lovely round rocks on Skaneatleles Lake that can be found in cliff walls with sedimentary layers. Some of them have geodes inside, if split open.

Growing up, we thought they must be fossilized dinosaur eggs. Turns out they are more like pearls – concretions formed around pieces of crystalized calcite (sand). (See photo above)

The Paleontological Research Institution & Museum of the Earth

1259 Trumansburg Road
Ithaca, NY 14850

Ph: (607) 273-6623

Hours:
Summer (Memorial Day – Labor Day):
Mon – Sat: 10am – 5pm; Sun: 11am – 5pm
Winter (Labor Day – Memorial Day):
Same as Summer, EXCEPT closed Tues & Wed

Armory Square, Syracuse

Walking around Armory Square you can find interesting shops and LOTs of places to eat

The Armory Square district in Syracuse was originally settled in 1804. The Erie Canal and later the railroad helped to put Syracuse on the map as a center for industry and manufacturing. Most of the area buildings were constructed between 1860 and 1890 as factories or warehouses.

Walking toward Armory Square on Jefferson

Part of  the Armory Square district consists of a circular street, West Jefferson, with Armory Square Park at the 12:00 spot (N) on the circle. The Jefferson St Armory was actually three buildings used to house both the cavalry and the infantry.

Today the area is bustling with hotels, restaurants, businesses, loft apartments as well as cultural elements such as the Museum of Science and Technology (MOST), the Red House Musical Theater on Fayette, and the Landmark Theater on S. Salina St.

We enjoyed a nice quiet lunch at Lemon Grass.

Well-known area restaurants include Pastabilities, and Lemon Grass and bc. We ate at Lemon Grass enjoying great service and a nice view onto the Circle.

Intrepid reporter working the square

This area is best known for its night life as it has a many bars close together, The Empire Brewing Company, Blue Tusk and The Syracuse Suds Factory, which in the summer open onto the square and street. It is fun to hop from one spot to another to listen to live music and sample local brews.

Map

Skiing at Highland Forest

At the furthest eastern side of the Finger Lakes is a little slice of the Adirondacks. The oldest county park, Highland Forest is a mini mountain, featuring 20 miles of trails, 11 of which are groomed and track set daily, offering a variety of challenges for many different levels of skiing ability.

Park maps are available at Skyline Lodge. During ski season the Adirondack-Style Skyline Lodge serves food and drink on weekends. Trail Map

Ski lessons are available, weather permitting, Saturdays & Sundays, mid December – mid March and daily during school breaks.

What else can you do at Highland Forest?

Snow Shoe
Highland Forest trails offers all levels of snowshoers a chance to enjoy the forest on 5 trails; a 1 mile loop, 2 mile loop, 3.6 mile loop, 7.75 and a 9 mile loop.

Mountain Biking
In the summer there is no better place to get  a great workout than Highland Forest’s mix of country road, mountain trail and backwoods trails. Mountain Biking trails are open May 1 – October 31.

Visit the Pioneer Museum
One of the park’s most famous attractions is the Pioneer Museum. The museum is run by the Fabius Historical Society and focuses on the historic Skaneateles Turnpike, a tollroad that once brought travelers and settlers from Plainville, in the east near the Cherry Valley Turnpike to Skaneateles.

Open Daily
April – November: 8:30 am – 5:30 pm
December – March: 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
(closed Christmas Day)

Celebrate Christmas in the Finger Lakes

Christmas in the Finger Lakes has many places and faces. I took a day to explore what each town is doing and celebrate the season. I shopped for gifts, found the perfect Christmas Tree, enjoyed a hot meal and supported local business.

Live music, bare knees

Skaneateles is celebrating their traditional Dickens Christmas. Each year from Thanksgiving to the 24^th of December the town welcomes Charles Dickens and his cast of characters, to interact with residents and visitors in the streets, stores and restaurants.

Visit Finger Lakes has a great deal for Christmas. Stay two nights at any of the participating hotels during Christmas and you will get a third night free, as long as one of those nights is actually ON Christmas.

Enjoy free admission, holiday music and shopping at the Corning Museum of Glass. Make  your own glass ornament and see the Giant Glass Ornament Tree.

A trip to Corning is worth the drive because the museum’s permanent collection and a glass blowing demonstration are wonderful any day of the year. While you are in the area, visit the Christmas House in Elmira. They have events every day in November and December.

If you are looking for ideas on how to decorate your home for the holidays, drive down the eastern side of Cayuga Lake to the little town of Aurora, and visit the MacKenzie Childs Store.

For unusual gifting try visiting some of the great antique stores along Rts 5 & 20.  You can find depression glass, cookie jars, cookie cutters, period clothing and hand-made gifts.

If you get hungry, grab a warm bowl of soup at the American Hotel in Lima. This will be an easy hop after the antique stores. They feature several different homemade soups every day.

I passed by several Christmas Tree Farms on my journey. I love a fresh tree to bring the smell of the season into my home for the holidays.

This holiday doesn’t have to be about malls and crowded parking lots and slush and traffic. It can be filled with great adventures and fond memories. Enjoy!

NOTA: Rochester’s Neighborhood of the Arts

At the western edge of downtown Rochester there is a neighborhood full of turn-of-the century homes, restaurants, cafes and a bakery, gift shops, and dance and artists studios, referred to as the Neighborhood of the Arts (NOTA). It is only 15 city blocks long and three blocks wide, with boundaries reach north to Main Street, south to East Avenue, west to the Inner Loop that surrounds the center of the city, and east to Culver Road (East Avenue to Atlantic Avenue).

The Corning Glass Works Museum: Hot Glass

The Museum has hot glass and the coolest collection of glass art

What kind of Finger Lakes adventures can be enjoyed any time of year — even when it’s yucky outside?

Visit the Corning Museum of Glass CMOG. The Museum provides many fascinating facets that I never knew about glass. There is the art sand crafts side of glass as well as the science and technology side.

The Glass Museum features ancient glass artifacts as well as modern art

The museum has an incredible collection with sophisticated glasswork on display spanning thousands of years, with beads crafted by the Egyptians, through today, where we see glasswork by famous artists like Dale Chihuly.

One of the most interesting aspects of glass is how it reacts with light. In the Innovation Center you can learn (and see) how glass changes our world.

There are Hot Glass demonstrations that take place several times a day.  This is the BEST part of the museum, because the glassmakers or “Gaffers” are tremendously talented craftsmen and they do a great job of teaching you as they create.

See Demo 

There is a new 275 seat hot glass studio under construction, that will be ready in 1014. The intent of the new glassmaking space is to create the ultimate venue for glassmaking demonstrations.

Make sure you make time to see it for yourself. Check out their blog.

Information on the museum:

Open Every Day

9:00 am – 5:00 pm 
September 4 through May 24
9:00 am – 8:00 pm 
May 25 through September 3
Closed only 4 days per year: January 1, Thanksgiving Day, December 24, December 25.

The Corning Museum of Glass – One Museum Way – Corning, NY 14830 800.732.6845

The George Eastman House — A Picture of Innovation

The George Eastman House is located at 900 East Avenue

To learn about the roots of Rochester New York, you have to visit the George Eastman House. George Eastman is called the father of Rochester. Eastman, a lover of photography, did not invent it, but his inventions made it possible for every family to afford to take their own pictures for the first time.

Front hall way, where thousands of guests were greeted during many parties

Eastman invented the Brownie Camera — pretty much a box — with a lens, with film inside, ready for instant use, with no special training, for only $1.00 — and that included printing the pictures! Once you took the pictures, you had to mail the entire camera back to get your pictures — and another roll of film inside your camera. This camera business became known  to the world as the Eastman Kodak Company.

Care for an elephant on the wall of your conservatory?

The George Eastman Museum contains over 400,000 photographs, and 28,000 films.

Even ash trays have become extinct

Just beyond the main entrance is the photography gallery, which hosts changing shows through out the year. You can enjoy classic films at the Dryden Theater, also part of the museum. There is also a café and gift shop between the gallery and the house.

View of the mysterious third floor

The museum generously allows photography anywhere inside the house, and once the tour is over you can explore the second floor yourself. I strongly suggest arriving in time for a docent-led tour. I enjoyed the wonderful stories describing Mr Eastman’s constant innovation.

View of the north side gardens

Eastman’s father died when he was very young. To make ends meet his mother operated a boarding house and taking in renters, which included, cooking for them and doing their laundry. As soon as he could, George quit school very young, and took a job to help out.

Learning nook

His rough beginnings explain his lifelong commitment to supporting education, the arts and cultural improvement. These include contributions to The University of Rochester, Hillside Children’s Center, The Rochester Friendly Home, The Memorial Art gallery, Rochester Institute of Technology, the Red Cross, and Durand Eastman Park.

Eastman is credited with creating The Center for Governmental Research, The United Way, The Eastman School of Music, The Rochester Philharmonic, The Eastman (KODAK) Theater, Strong Hospital and the Eastman Dental School.

Hat boxes from area retailers in an upstairs closet

There are many other universities and institutions outside of Rochester that he also supported. It is amazing that a man with so little education could contribute so generously to the education and improvement of life for so many others.

Doesn't everyone need an elephant foot trash can?

George Eastman so loved music that he had a full pipe organ installed in his house, and a giant conservatory built to enjoy it in. Originally the room intended to contain the organ was not big enough, so Mr. Eastman had his mansion cut in half. The north (rear) section was moved 9 ft. 4 in. north — to make a bigger room. The house was moved with horizontal hydraulic jacks on railroad ties with special wheels and tracks.

Location : 900 East Avenue, Rochester, NY 14607

Hours : Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat : 10am – 5pm · Thu 10am – 8pm · Sun : 1pm – 5pm

Admission : Adults $12, Seniors (65+) $10, Students (with ID) $5, Children 12 and Under Free · Members Free

Contact : Telephone (585) 271-3361

Auburn’s Historic National Treasure: The Seward House

The beautifully preserved Seward House is filled with hundreds of portraits beautiful furniture and china, which span his 40-year political career, as Governor, Senator and Secretary of State

Knowledgeable staff is on-hand to provide guided tours, throughout the day. They share intimate details about Seward’s family and the history of this beautiful home. Unfortunately, photographs are not allowed inside the house.

The Cayuga Museum: Capturing Auburn’s Legacy

Front of the Greek Revival Style museum

I bet you did not know that 20th Century Fox and IBM had their beginnings in Auburn New York. Neither did I until I took a trip to the Cayuga Museum.

The Cayuga Museum of history and art, is housed in a classic Greek Revival Mansion built in the mid 1800s, by Dr. Sylvester Willard, who made his fortune in corn starch. Willard Case inherited the mansion in 1916. He donated the property so that it could be preserved as a museum in 1930. It appears to have been relatively untouched for the last 85+ years.

Lion on the front door and on the gates

Outside a beautiful wrought iron gate still remains, and the original massive wood front doors still perform as entrance to the museum.

Ouch. I'll take my ergonomic saddle any day.

There is a suggested admission of $3 — perhaps this is their admission that this museum a work in progress, a bit of a hodge-podge, but completely charming. This is not a heavily curated museum, rather it is a genuine piece of local history that has been lovingly and gently preserved.

Tiffany window, east entrance

The front entrance way is lavish with marble floors, beautiful wood trim and a curved stairway winds up with a thick bannister and stained glass window at the top of the stairs.

There is also a business entrance on the east side which later had a Tiffany window added.

Children's room, sweet and creepy

Upstairs, one room has beautiful “crazy quilts” hanging on the walls, while next to that is the children’s bedroom, with samples of their clothing, a cradle and doll, plus a display of their toys in a glass case,

The adjacent room, in stark contrast, is a collection of items from the original Auburn prison, including artifacts from the electric chair and a carved stick from the executioner with the names of everyone he had executed.

Auburn was the first prison to contain individual cells, the first to institute the widely imitated “Auburn System,” the first to execute a prison by the electric chair. There was also an asylum in Auburn.

Close-up of the 3,000+piece clock. Impressive hobbies before the age of TV.

Nearby, in a tiny alcove there is an incredible 3,100-piece thousand-year clock built by Willard LeGrand Bundy, a local jeweler, in his spare time. He and his brother formed a manufacturing company in Binghamton in 1989, inventing the first employee time clock. This firm changed its name to International Business machines in 1924, now known today as IBM.

Wilard and his son Ted Case were the inventors of talking films. Their back yard laboratory still remains, in the same condition as when they with darkroom, and recording studio. This studio is the birthplace of Fox Films (now 20th Century Fox).

Restored Carriage House with awesome weathervane

Today the carriage house is being restored to house  a restored lab. The carriage house is beautifully painted and sports a ram weathervane that came from one of the woolen mills originally located along the Owasco Inlet.

Be inspired wimpy Ginkgos!

Most impressive in the grounds behind the museum is the largest Ginkgo Tree in New York State. we have a very tall and spindly Ginkgo in our front yard. I wanted to show it a picture of this massive specimen for inspiration.

The Cayuga Museum is located right next door to the Schweinfurth Gallery on Genesee St in Auburn. Hours are Tues-Sun, noon to 5.

East entrance used to be used for Doctor Willard to see patients