Finger Lakes Vacation: Day 1
The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes in New York in an area called the Finger Lakes Region. The eleven Finger Lakes, from west to east, are: Conesus Lake, Hemlock Lake, Canadice Lake, Honeoye Lake, Canandaigua Lake,
Keuka Lake, Seneca Lake, Cayuga Lake, Owasco Lake, Skaneateles Lake, and Otisco Lake.
We have visited the Finger Lakes Region often over the past 20+ years. We have seen four of the eleven Finger Lakes: Canandaigua Lake, Keuka Lake, Seneca Lake, and Cuyuga Lake. During the week of May 25 through June 1 we added Owasco Lake and Skaneateles Lake to our list of Finger Lakes that we have seen. This blog post and several that follow will provide photographs and details of our visit to these two eastern finger lakes.
We left home at 7:42 am on Wednesday, May 25, en route Scipo Center NY via the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge.
We arrived at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge around 11:42 am.
I got my National Park Passport cancelled with a rubber-stamp ink marking that recorded the name of the wildlife refuge and the date of our visit. We drove the Wildlife Drive two times. The highlight of our visit was a Sandhill Crane family, two adults and two babies.
Two Adults and a Baby
Two Adults and a Baby
It looks like the one adult is looking back for the second baby.
Two Adults and Two Babies
This was our first ever sighting of sandhill cranes. How exciting! We had hoped to see the sandhill cranes again on our second drive around Wildlife Loop. Unfortunately, we did not see them.
From Montezuma we drove to Auburn, to Emerson Park, where we ate a picnic lunch (tuna salad with crackers snack set, snack size fruit cup and cookies).
After lunch we went for a walk in Emerson Park. We spent an enjoyable few minutes watching Canada Geese at the water’s edge.
Emerson Park is about a 9 minute drive from our Airbnb. We arrived at Airbnb “Casa Esperanza on Wykoff Road” in Scipio Center NY at approximately 3:20 pm. Our host, Mickie, met us. She showed us around the house and gave us a dozen fresh eggs from her farm and a bottle of wine (how nice!). Mickie lives in the next house up the road from the Airbnb.
After we had unpacked the car and got settled in, we left to pick up groceries at Wegmans in Auburn. We did our shopping and returned to the Airbnb. We cooked dinner together — sloppy joes, macaroni & cheese, and green beans. For dessert we had Klondike ice cream bars.
After dinner Bob started a campfire.
The Beauty Around Us 
6 Responses to “Finger Lakes Vacation: Day 1”
I have lovely memories of the Finger Lakes! My Aunt and Uncle lived in Syracuse and when we visited them we got to explore them with our cousins. But we never saw any sandhill cranes! What a wonderful sighting for you! Your pictures of them are lovely.
The pictures of the Sandhill Cranes are awesome! Especially since there are babies! The video of the geese has a perfect ending. The AirBnb sounds very nice. Do you plan to see all eleven of the Finger Lakes?
I LOVE LOVE the ending of the goose video :). Yes, we do plan to see all eleven of the Finger Lakes. It has taken us 20+ years to see six of the lakes. I hope we can see the other five lakes in a shorter period of time!
I love this region of New York! I grew up in the Mohawk Valley, spent 21 years away, serving in the Navy; but then, after traveling the world over, decided to come back to the quiet countryside of this beautiful state! Enjoy your time here! 🌻
Hello,
The Airbnb looks nice. I love the views of the lake and the cute Sandhill Crane family. Hubby and I enjoyed our visits to the Finger Lakes, we’ve been a few times. Take care, enjoy your new week!
We have never traveled to this area, Linda, but it looks like your first day was off to a great start. I have only seen photos of sandhill cranes in other blogs so how nice that you captured a family (in phtos of course).