Fort Plains, NY

The morning of Friday, October 5 was as cold as predicted with tempatures in the low forties! Fortunately we were able to run the generator to warm up the cabin. We got a nice early start at 7 a.m. and locked through the first lock in New London immediately since we were docked at the lock wall. The day was cold enough that Lynn spent most of it in the saloon and Jonny spent a good part of it with her except when it was time to enter or exit a lock. We continued to cruise through attractive, mostly rural countryside but it was not as pastoral as the western end of the Erie Canal. 

It was to be a long day of cruising because we wanted to make time and get south of Albany a day before we were due to fly to Miami.  We went through seven locks in all and each time bundled up in coats to go on deck for the locking.

During this long day of cruising we went through the highest level in the canal at which point we started to lock down rather than lock up.  For several of the locks we traveled with another boat that was headed to Islamorada having come from Alexandria Bay in the Thousand Islands which we had visited earlier in the summer.

At one of the locks we  had to tie up outside of the lock and wait for about 45 minutes because the lock door was jammed shut with a log and other debris.  A westbound cruiser was stuck inside the lock and was unable to exit due to the stuck door.  Several workman were trying to dislodge the debris and after several thwarted attempts they were finally able to fix the situation and we all locked through. We have been encountering quite a lot of floating logs and similar debris in the last couple of days. 

Little Falls was home to Lock 17 which at 40 feet is the highest vertical lock in the canal system. Rather than opening with large swinging gates, this one looks like a guillotine and moves up and down.  It is quite impressive.

We considered staying in Little Falls which the guidebook touted as a charming village but decided to push on and dock at a lock wall further along. 

Lock 16 looked like an attractive place to stop in a pretty, park-like setting.

When we learned from a lock tender that the pedestal there didn’t work and the lock 10 miles beyond it had a working pedestal, we decided to go there instead.  If it was as cold as the previous night, it would be nice to have power!

We arrived at Lock 15 in Fort Plains, NY which was not nearly as pretty as the earlier lock.  It was within sight and sound of a highway but it had power and it was too cold to be outside so we were OK.  We were toasty warm with the heat on and had a cozy dinner and evening on board watching one of the movies that Andy had supplied for us.

New London, NY

We left our Air B&B bright and early on Thursday, October 4 to drive the four hours back to Brewerton to resume our cruise.  Bloomfield, NJ was a nice town with attractive houses and a great location for commuters to New York. Unfortunately, we missed talking any photos there except this cute one which was actually a private home (and must have been a station at one time).

It turned out to be a very rainy day and Jonny even let Lynn drive for the worst of it which is kind of amazing.  The Enterprise people dropped us off at Zendo and we rushed to get going so as to make it across so Lake Oneida before sunset.  We only have three days to make it to Albany so we can fly to Fort Lauderdale on Monday.  That meant that we had to travel the final 150 miles of Lake Erie going through xx locks along the way. We thanked the marina owners for their hospitality and for taking good care of Georgio and we took off for a show trip cruise to New London, NY.

The weather had cleared (unpredictably) so we had a very smooth crossing.

Once across we arrived at a lock wall with no services in very remote area and tied up for the night.  The temperature was predicted to go down to the 40’s that night so we put an extra blanket on the bed.  Obviously, this is another reason to start heading south!

We spent the evening doing route planning and working on the blog though we had no connectivity for publishing. Dinner consisted of a satisfying dish of sausage, peppers, and mushrooms and we went to bed early so we could leave at dawn.

Brewerton, NY (New York City)

The second part of our time docked in Brewerton was a car trip to New York City.  We had tickets for two Broadway shows, Springsteen on Broadway on Tuesday night and The Band’s Visit on Wednesday night.  Originally we thought we would have to take Georgio with us so Lynn had found a nice Air B&B in Bloomfield, NJ that allowed pets and was supposedly a 30 minute bus ride into Manhattan.  We discovered that the marina owner’s wife was only too happy to check in on Georgio while we were gone for two nights,  so we decided to spare him the long car ride which he hates.  The other advantage of staying in NJ was that we could avoid the exorbitant parking fees in the city.

We had an uneventful car ride to Bloomfield where we were delighted with the spacious one bedroom apartment in the raised basement of a nice house in pleasant Bloomfield.  The owners were very accommodating and they encouraged us to take the train instead of the more unreliable bus into the city.  We did so and easily found free parking at the train station since it was late in the day.  

We arrived in the city and walked through Times Square which is always a trip.

Arriving in plenty of time for dinner, we found a great restaurant just a block from the theatre.  La Masseria catered to the theatre crowd and was very prompt in their service.  But more importantly, the place was charming, cozy - though deceivingly spacious,  and the food was excellent!  Lynn had been saving herself for this trip and had a wonderful dish of spaghetti with clam sauce and Jonny was thrilled with his grilled octopus and cuttlefish.  

Then it was on to the show.  It’s important to note that getting tickets to Springsteen on Broadway is not an easy task.  Several months ago Jonny entered a lottery three different times just to have a chance to purchase the tickets.  The third time was the charm and he had to pick a date that he thought we might be somewhere near NY and go for it.

We had good seats, not the best, but Broadway theatres are so small that no seat is bad.  The show was absolutely fabulous.  Springsteen was on stage for two and a half hours without a break.  He spoke from the heart with stories about his upbringing, coming of age, and career.  He interspersed the stories with his songs played either on the piano or acoustic guitar  and harmonica.  It’s no wonder that he was awarded a special Emmy this year.  His wife, Patty Scialfa came on to do two numbers with him but the rest he did on his own.  What a show!

Returning to our B&B was not so easy.  The train we planned to take was cancelled and we had to wait another hour for the next one.  We arrived tired but happy at 1:30 a.m. and fell into bed.

The next day we got up early to take the train once again into the city.  This time, parking proved to be a bigger problem and we missed the first train we were planning to take due to the lack of it.  Our host guided us to nearby street parking a few blocks from the train station in front of her sister’s home so we ignored the parking limits sign and parked there and made the next train.  Our plan for Wednesday was to tour Lincoln Center, have a nice lunch and catch our 7:00 show.  

We made it to Lincoln Center with time to spare and participated in an excellent two hour tour of several of its theaters.  Jonny was particularly interested because he volunteers as a docent at The Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami.  During this tour we were able to visit the various theatres that  held performances by the Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, the ballet and Broadway performances. It was most impressive.  And we hadn’t realized that you can buy same day discounted tickets at Lincoln Center for all the big shows in town.

We were dealing with some excitement related to our return to Miami.  We had decided to rent a condo for six months to see if we liked condo living before actually buying one and Lynn had been looking online for furnished rentals.  She was also getting daily reports on condos for sale from Realtor.com.  The day before she saw a listing for a condo that met most of our criteria and was priced at 25% less than anything else she had seen.  She called our realtor who was as surprised as she was and he immediately made an appointment to go see it.  This was the first day of its listing.  Tom then face-timed us to look at it and we all agreed that it was an exceptional value and worth pursuing.  So we bid on it and the seller accepted our offer (less than the asking price).  Now we were on the phone regularly with Tom to work out the details of the contract, sign it and arrange travel to Miami the following week to actually look at it and have the inspection before the sale is finalized!  We also need to move Zendo off of the Erie Canal by October 10 because it closes to boat traffic then.  Luckily we were able to juggle all these balls and we made the necessary arrangements.  Just a little excitement to keep us on our toes!

Fortunately, we were able to relax over one of our best meals ever at Bar Boulud.  This lovely restaurant, one of several of Daniel Boulud’s, had a fixed price luncheon that was quite reasonable.  We both had the the most exquisite and simply prepared pan seared daurade preceded  by a luscious chicken liver mousse terrine and autumn squash soup.  We split a sacher torte for dessert.  What an incredible treat to eat like this in a such a stylish and comfortable setting.

We strolled down to Times Square to catch our show but arrived early enough to have a drink at the bar directly across the street from the theatre.  As is everything in Manhattan, it was bustling with activity and a buzz of people, in this case, the after work crowd.

Our show that evening, The Band’s Visit, was also excellent.  We had seen the female lead  performing her signature number on the Emmys and were transfixed by her passionate performance.  So much so that when we were in NY on our way north on this trip, we went to the Barrymore theatre where it is performed to see if we could get tickets the day after our Springsteen show.  Lynn didn’t think it was feasible because it had just won best musical on the Emmys the night before.  But lo and behold there were good tickets available at a much lower price than if we had bought them through Ticketron.  Score!!  The show was wonderful; a unique storyline, great acting and a mesmerizing score.  We were very happy!

Our trains were right on time for our return trip to our comfortable little apartment.  We planned to leave first thing the next morning to drive the four hours back to Zendo and continue our cruise which due to recent events had a heightened sense of urgency.

Brewerton, NY (Finger Lakes)

We had a short three hour cruise to Brewerton on Sunday, Sept. 29 where we would keep Zendo for the next five or six days while we explored the Finger Lakes and traveled down to NYC.  We docked next to David and Barbara on Miss My Money.  We know them from Jacksonville and they had lent us several Canadian cruising guides which we faithfully used and will now return to them.  

We had a car reserved to use for our land excursions, the first of which was to explore the Finger Lakes which neither of us had ever been to. This post will cover that trip and a second post will cover our NYC trip.  So on Sunday we left Georgio with plenty of food and headed out to our first stop in Skaneateles.  What a very pretty town this is! Obviously affluent with very nice shops and restaurants on the Main Street which backs up to a little lake of the same name.  We stopped for coffee on the chilly overcast day with occasional rain showers and strolled the village streets which were lively and extremely attractive.

A short drive from there brought us to Seneca Falls where we visited the Women’s Rights National Historic Park.

Seneca Falls was the home of many of the leaders of the women’s rights movement and associated events took place in this now very historic place.  The museum was quite interesting as were several of the surrounding shops. 

We stopped for lunch at a local pub and Lynn talked Jonny into ordering the specialty of this part of the world, beef on weck, which is a roast beef sandwich on a special roll called  kummelweck with au jus and horseradish.  It was tasty and quite filling (we liked it better than Philly cheesesteak).

We continued our drive through stunning lakeside scenery and passed scores of vineyards finally stopping at Lamoreaux Landing Tasting Cellars.  What a beautiful setting and view of the lakefront vineyards from the tasting room!  We were able to see truckloads of grapes being unloaded.  We had a lot of fun sampling their very good wines from Rieslings to Cabernet Francs to Ice Wines.  Of course, we walked out with a couple of bottles - it wouldn’t be polite not to!

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That evening we stayed in a very well reviewed motel on the edge of Ithaca and drove into that small city for dinner.  We found a place called Coltivare which was part of Ithaca’s culinary institute.  We proceeded to have a surprising good dinner then took a short stroll through the center of town which was closing up after what looked like what had been an all day festival. 

The next day we drove through the campus of Cornell University which is located high on a hill in Ithaca with great views overlooking the surrounding area. The campus was quite attractive with mostly traditional architecture but one very beautiful contemporary building.

From Cornell we drove south to Corning to visit the Corning Glass Museum.  What an impressive museum!  The architecture is stunning and the collection is amazing.  We took advantage of one of the free tours which was conducted by a retiree of Corning, a major employer and benefactor in the area.  We spent several hours exploring the collections of very contemporary glassworks and their innovation center as well as the historical displays of glass beads and other artifacts dating back to 2000 B.C.  Our favorite section was the collection of contemporary glass sculptures but we also enjoyed finding some crystal pierces in the historical section that were reminiscent of pieces we have that were part of Jonny’s mother’s collection that she had given us. 

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From there as we headed back to Zendo driving through the cool town of Watkins Falls.  We passed many more vineyards on the western shore of Seneca Lake (which we were able to resist).  At the top of the lake we drove through the attractive town of Geneva and saw Hobart College where our friend Michael Bracken went to school. 

We had a light dinner and packed because we were heading to NYC the next day to spend two nights there.  Fortunately, the wife of the marina owner offered to check in on Georgio while we were gone so Lynn did not feel so guilty for leaving him alone for two days and two nights. Originally we were going to bring him with us and we even found an Air B&B that allowed animals.  We gave a Georgio a big break by not forcing him to ride in a car for a total of eight hours.  He would not have liked that at all!

Baldwinsville, NY

The first thing we did on Friday, September 28 was walk up to the nearby post office in the pretty village of Lyons to mail the items that some of our recent guests left on board.  But the post office hadn’t opened yet so we took the opportunity to walk around and explore this sleepy village.  At 9 a.m. very little was open and even the local school looked closed!

Before we took off for our day’s cruise,  Jonny took the TV antenna down because we’ll be going under the Erie Canal’s lowest bridge. The day was beautiful, sunny and cool but not uncomfortably so. The Erie Canal continues to impress us with its beauty.

When we got to the lowest bridge, Lynn climbed up on the roof of the aft deck as we slowly approached the bridge.  It was a little nerve-racking but we passed through with maybe four inches to spare!

By 3:30, we arrived in Baldwinsville and tied up on the town wall by Lock 24.

Right afterwards Greg and Reenie on Thistle tied up just ahead of us. We’ve run into them quite a few times on the canal.  We hung out on Zendo for awhile then walked around the town past a dam and some cute storefronts and as usual ended up at the local brew pub. 

We had a quiet night aboard Zendo planning our next week.  We finally decided how we could spend a couple of days in the Finger Lakes prior to our upcoming road trip to New York City so we are now doubly excited about this next adventure!