The Beauty Around Us

Finger Lakes Weekend

By Linda G. on June 28, 2014

Bob and I spent the weekend of June 20th in Horseheads, NY and visited Watkins Glen, Watkins Glen State Park, and drove around Seneca Lake. 

On June 20th we made a spur-of-the-moment decision to take advantage of the great weather and embark on a weekend getaway. Early in the morning I sent Bob a text message that he would receive at his 9:30 am work break. I asked Bob if he wanted to go to either Wellsboro or Watkins Glen for the weekend, if I could reserve a hotel room. Bob said Watkins Glen would be nice. I made arrangements for our neighbor to take care of our cat.  Then, I searched for a hotel. I found a room available and made a reservation for two nights at the Rodeway Inn Marshall Manor in Horseheads, NY.

Bob came home from work at noon. We ate a quick lunch; Bob packed for the trip (I had packed earlier); and he mowed the yard. We were ready to roll at 2:00 pm. This was our first weekend trip on the Kawasaki Voyager.

We had a pleasant and uneventful ride from home to the hotel in Horseheads. We made a few stops on our way. Before leaving Warren, we fueled up at the Kwik Fill. We rode through Scandia to Interstate 86, which we followed most of the way to Horseheads. We stopped at M&M Junction, outside of Limestone NY, to get water and to stretch. Another stop was at a scenic overlook along Route 86. We could see what looked like a dam in the distance. This stop was to stretch. We stopped for dinner at Ponderosa in Bath NY. We arrived at our hotel around 6:45 pm. We checked into our room and settled in for the night.

The next morning we took a quick look at the breakfast selections and decided we wanted a full, hot breakfast, not the continental breakfast provided by the hotel. I searched the Internet and found a restaurant in Montour Falls that served breakfast, the Harvest Cafe. We rode into Montour Falls, intending to eat breakfast at the Harvest Cafe. The cafe was closed and would not open until 8:00 am, which was about an hour’s wait for us. We took pictures of  Montour Falls and headed for Watkins Glen, where we would no doubt find a restaurant that served breakfast. We found a place to eat breakfast before we arrived in Watkins Glen. In fact, we were still in Montour Falls when we came upon Classic Chef’s Restaurant.  The restaurant isn’t a fancy place. Breakfast, though, was great and reasonably priced. Service was quick too.

After breakfast, we rode into Watkins Glen. We arrived too early for admission to the gorge at Watkins Glen State Park (the park opens at 8:30 am), so we decided to ride around Seneca Lake and walk the gorge trail afterward. We took Route 14 to Geneva and parked along the lake shore. We took a short walk on the Hobart and William Smith Colleges Campus grounds. We had ridden by this college several times in the past but never took the time to stroll through the grounds. The college campus is lovely. We took several pictures of the buildings and grounds. From Geneva we followed Route 20 to Route 96A to East Lake Road to Kennedy Road to Route 96A again to route 414 into Watkins Glen. Along the way we stopped at Hector Falls and took pictures.

Upon arriving back in Watkins Glen, we entered Watkins Glen State Park. Admission was $8.00. We rode a shuttle bus to the upper gorge. The bus ride cost an additional $3.00 each. We ate lunch (chicken salad sandwiches) at the Upper Gorge Snack Bar and then followed the gorge trail to the bottom. The Gorge Trail is 1 ½ miles long. It is the trail closest to Glen Creek and runs over, under and along the park’s 19 waterfalls by way of stone bridges and more than 800 stone steps. We stopped often, while on our descent, for photo opportunities.

I am sure you have noticed the lack of photographs accompanying the preceding paragraphs.  After we completed our climb down the gorge, I sat down to review pictures I had taken that day. There were only 18 pictures on the memory card. I have no idea what happened. I was heartbroken and felt like crying. Bob saved the day. He suggested that we ride around Seneca Lake again so that I could retake the pictures I had taken in the morning. We rode around the lake in the opposite direction than the direction that we had ridden in the morning. I removed the memory card with lost pictures and inserted a new one. I had hoped to be able to recover the photographs on the other memory card once we returned home, with a photo recovery program.  Unfortunately, I was not able to restore the pictures, but all was not lost thanks to my wonderful husband!

Here are three photographs from our hike down the Watkins Glen gorge trail.

The next few photographs were taken during our second ride around Seneca Lake.

This fountain was “erected to the memory of Geneva patriots who served our nation in her wars that freedom might remain our most cherished heritage”.  The fountain was dedicated on May 30, 1939.

The statue is of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female physician in the United States.  St. Johns Chapel is in background in the photograph displayed above.

After returning to Watkins Glen from our second ride around Seneca Lake, we stopped at the Village Marina.

We ate dinner at the Village Marina Bar & Grill.

 Bob ordered a Reuben burger with onion rings. I ordered battered fish, fries and cole slaw. Dinner was excellent.

After dinner we returned to our hotel, where we spent rest of the evening.