In Erie Our first destination was Presque Isle State Park, where we drove around the peninsula. We saw Canada Geese, ducks and a Great Blue Heron.
Canada Geese in the Air
Two Female Mallards on a Log
Great Blue Heron
We ate lunch at Underground BBQ. Bob had a chopped brisket sandwich; I had a pulled pork sandwich. As a side dish, we both got macaroni and cheese. Lunch was good.
After lunch we drove to the nearby Giant Eagle, where Bob got his first shingles vaccine. Bob’s health insurance pays 100% of the vaccine cost. He will need a second vaccine in 2-6 months. I want to get a shingles vaccine as well. My health insurance doesn’t cover the vaccine shot. It appears that my prescription plan will cover a small percentage of the cost. I checked the vaccine cost at Good RX. It is the least expensive option. I will get my first Shingles vaccine this week or early next week.
Our next stop was Sam’s Club, where we filled up our fuel tank and added to our pantry. We paid $3.64/gallon for fuel, which was less expensive than $3.75 at Sheetz. I checked fuel prices today online. Sam’s Club is now charging $3.69/gallon, and Sheetz is charging $3.89/gallon. Imam glad that our car is fuel efficient.
Our next stop was at PetSmart to buy cat litter.
We left Erie from PetSmart, en route home. We stopped at Save a Lot in Corry to buy a few more groceries. Then we stopped at Tim Hortons for dessert – tea for me and coffee for Bob with a Boston Creme donut for me and an oatmeal raisin cookie for Bob.
We ate lunch at Fisher’s Cafe & Pubin Peninsula. We ate at Fisher’s earlier in the week. The food and service was good, so we made a return trip. We weren’t disappointed eating here again.
After lunch we drove to Viaduct Park, located in Cuyahoga Valley National Park’s Bedford Reservation. In Viaduct Park is a waterfall–the Great Falls of Tinkers Creek. Going to the waterfall was the reason for the drive to Viaduct Park.
Back at the Airbnb later in the day we once again saw two Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks. I took a close-up picture of one of the ducks.
Black-Bellied Whistling Duck
It is rare to see these ducks so far north. Our Airbnb hosts said it was the first time they had seen a Black-Bellied Whistling Duck in their pond. We were thrilled to see these ducks and to have the opportunity to photograph them!
The next day (July 2nd) Bob got up at 5:00 am. I got up an hour later. We packed, got showered and dressed, and said goodbye to Deborah (John was on a grocery run). We were on our way home at 7:20 am. By the way we didn’t see any Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks before our departure.
Our first stop was for breakfast at Bob Evans Restaurant in nearby Streetsboro, OH. After a filling breakfast, we were back on the road at 8:15 am.
We returned home around 11:40 am.
We had a wonderful vacation! We look forward to visiting Hudson, OH again and staying (hopefully) at the same Airbnb.
This past Saturday (June 19th) Bob suggested that we drive to Pymatuning State Park. A change of scenery appealed to me.
The highlight of our visit to Pymatuning was seeing the Pymatuning Dam and the area near the dam.
Pymatuning State Park Dam and its Environ
Pymatuning Dam is located at the southern end of Pymatuning Reservoir. We have visited Pymatuning several times. This was our first visit to the dam and its surrounding area.
Our first stop was at Shenango River. We crossed over Pymatuning Dam via Dam Road. We turned right onto Water Trail Drive, which led us to the Shenango River.
Pymatuning State Park – Shenango River
We saw this great blue heron on the opposite side of the river. We noticed a trail that appeared close to where the heron was located.
We walked over the pedestrian bridge to reach Sugar Creek Run Trail. It was a short walk to where the great blue heron was perched.
I managed to capture this picture, through the foliage, before the great blue heron took off.
Our second stop was on the reservoir side of the dam. We backtracked and drove back over the dam. We pulled into the parking lot for pavilion shelter #3.
Pymatuning State Park the Dam Gatehouse, as seen from Pavilion Shelter #3 grounds
We, then, drove back across the dam but only half way. We parked across from the Dam Gatehouse.
Pymatuning State Park – Dam Gatehouse
According to signage at the site, the “castle-like stone gatehouse allows water flow through the dam. Water enters the gatehouse through a 20-foot-wide diversion channel and travels 280 feet to the outflow conduits.”
Entry to the Dam Gatehouse was barred.
Dam Gatehouse
We walked back across Dam Road and visited the outflow area.
Pymatuning Dam Outflow
Pymatuning Dam Outflow. We walked down two staircases to get closer to the outflow.
The Pymatuning Dam Outflow forms the Shenango River.
Leaving Pymatuning Dam and its environ our next stop was at the Linesville Spillway, where we saw lots of carp, ducks and geese.
The Geese, Ducks and Carp are fed bread at the spillway.
Pymatuning State Park – the Spillway You can’t see the Spillway in this picture. We are walking toward the Spillway.
Geese, Ducks and Carp at Pymatuning Spillway
The Spillway, which you can’t see, is behind us. We are walking back to our car.
It is said that ducks walk on carp at the Spillway, but we didn’t see that.
Leaving Pymatuning State Park in our rearview mirror, our next stop was for lunch in Spartansburg. We ate lunch at the Dutch Treat Restaurant.
This is the Dutch Treat Restaurant.
Bob had an egg sandwich with French fries and coleslaw. I had a BLT sandwich with French fries and applesauce. Our meals were delicious. Service was OK. It would have been better, if Bob had gotten the lunch he ordered–a steak salad. Bob should have been tipped off, when the waitress asked if Bob wanted coleslaw. A salad has a coleslaw side??? I did notice that the waitress was hard of hearing AND she was tired–overworked from lack of help. Bob decided to let it go. He saved $8.00 on our lunch price. The egg salad sandwich was a lot less expensive than the steak salad.
After lunch, we walked across the parking lot to Clear Lake.
On our way to Clear Lake we saw a white goose.
We checked out Clear Lake from a small bridge that crosses over the lake.
We returned home, after lunch. It was a good day, even with the rain that came in the afternoon.
We went for a drive this past Sunday. We drove to Point Gratiot Park in Dunkirk, NY. From our home in Warren, PA it is an approximate 75-minute drive to the park. Upon arriving, we parked in the unpaved parking lot near the beach area. We went for a walk from the parking lot to the Dunkirk Light and back.
We walked a total of 1.33 miles round trip, making several stops along the way.This is the beach. I read that the beach is an excellent place to find beach glass. Before the beach is open for swimming I believe that the sand dunes will be raked onto the beach. Those sand dunes, at present, are covered in some snow, leftover from winter storms. We did not walk on the beach. Instead we walked along the tree line, on a cliff above the beach.In front of and below the benches is the beach. We passed by steps leading down to the beach (photo by Bob).The cliff was steep in places, especially as we got closer to the lighthouse.Dunkirk LighthouseThe lighthouse is closed for the season. It reopens on May 1st.
From Dunkirk we drove to Barcelona Harbor in Westfield, NY where I photographed bufflehead and merganser ducks and the moon.
Female Bufflehead Duck with FishMerganser Ducks Landing on the WaterThe moon sure was pretty!
Late in the morning we rode our bicycles in the neighborhood to Veteran’s Memorial Park.
Veteran’s Memorial Park sits along the Assateague Channel
Our round trip ride was 5 miles.
We ate lunch at McDonald’s and then drove onto the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, stopping for photo opportunities along Beach Access Road.We saw wild ponies in the marsh, closer than we have seen them in past years. There were wild ponies in the pony corral, too, near the Woodland Trail.
According to a delmava now news story, published on April 1st, “Chincoteague pony stallion Riptide and his band were penned in the south corral on Assateague Island after visitors to the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge disregarded warnings not to approach the wild ponies…The ponies will remain in the corral until the spring roundup April 12 and 13”.
We saw great blue herons, egrets and wood ducks.
Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron
Snowy Egret
Pair of Hooded Mergansers (Thanks EileeninMD for ID)
We spent a couple hours at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, before returning to our vacation home. We relaxed for a couple hours.
We returned to the Wildlife Refuge around 4:30 pm. We went for a drive around the Wildlife Loop.We saw birds, a fox, Sika deer, egrets, turtles, snapping turtles and a muskrat.
Leaving the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, after an approximately 45-minute visit, we drove to Food Lion and picked up dinners for three nights (through Thursday).Our purchases included three ready-made salads and three Culinevo ready-made dinner entrees–lasagna, beef stew and beef and noodles.All dinner entrees are microwaveable. We shared a Chef Salad and the beef stew for dinner. For dessert we had cheesecake.
We watched a few more episodes of NYPD Blue and went to bed.
On Sunday, March 10, Bob and I went for a drive along NYS Route 5, between the Daniel Reed Pier in Westfield to the Dunkirk City Pier in Dunkirk, and NYS Route 60 to McCrea Point Park in Jamestown. We saw a waterfall, seagulls and waterfowl.
I published two prior blog posts about our drive. The blog post was about Barcelona Falls at the Daniel Reed Pier. The second blog post was about seagulls and geese that we saw, while at Lake Erie. This third, and final, blog post is about the ducks, geese and seagull that we saw at McCrea Point Park.
McCrea Point Park was my favorite stop.We saw ducks, seagulls, and geese.I took a few pictures of geese flying away from me.The lighting was getting dim, so the ISO was higher than I desired.The bird-in-flight pictures did come out OK. A big HIGH-5 for my new camera!
We spent 3 days and 2 nights in the East Syracuse, NY area.
We checked out of the Best Western East Syracuse, after breakfast, on Monday July 3, and were on our way home shortly before 8:00 am.
On our way to East Syracuse on Saturday, we stopped at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. We stopped at the wildlife refuge once again on our way back home. I am so glad that we visited Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. I put my new camera lens to good use, as we drove around Wildlife Drive.
New camera lens, you ask? I just realized that I hadn’t shared on my blog that I purchased a new camera lens. I waited for well over 1-1/2 years to purchase this camera lens. At first the camera lens wasn’t in stock. Then I didn’t have the money available to purchase the lens. Finally, everything came together to make the purchase. I purchased an Olympus m.Zuiko ED 300mm f4.0 IS Pro lens, specifically for wildlife photography. Coupled with a 1.4x teleconverter, I have an effective focal length of 840mm! My new lens arrived on Friday, June 30, the day before we left on our weekend getaway. I need to use the lens more to increase my proficiency in its use, but I am very pleased with the images that I captured at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge.
Sandpiper
Osprey in Flight, with Seaweed Attached to its Claw
Are these birds American Coot?
The highlight of our visit to Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge was the sighting of two American Bald Eagles. One eagle flew off to parts unknown, but one eagle landed in a tree not far from where we were on Wildlife Drive.
Bob took this photograph of me, while photographing the eagle.
And to think I didn’t want a moon roof, when we were car shopping. I didn’t want to spend the extra money. The car on the lot that we liked came with a moon roof. I am glad that we got a moon roof, because it enabled me to capture a couple good photographs of the eagle!
American Bald Eagle
American Bald Eagle
My new camera lens is a keeper! These two eagle images are the best pictures I have ever taken of an eagle!
We sat and watched a group of Canada Geese farther along on Wildlife Drive.
Canada geese, quietly enjoying the pond
The quiet didn’t last for long!
Noisy Canada geese!
This duck had one of the Wildlife Drive ponds all to herself.
Great Blue Heron
We stopped once again to admire the newly installed eagle sculpture.
The eagle sculpture was built in honor of the 40th anniversary of New York State’s bald eagle reintroduction program, which largely happened at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge.
The eagle sculpture is visible from Interstate 90.
Leaving Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, we drove to Mt. Morris, NY. We ate lunch at Brian’s USA Diner. We selected this restaurant for lunch, based on its positive reviews. Yes, as stated by reviewers, the service was quick and friendly. Bob ordered a Reuben sandwich with Onion Rings. I ordered pulled chicken in a hoagie bun with potato salad. The restaurant reviews indicated that the portions were large. I agree. My pulled chicken hoagie sandwich was huge! My potato salad was heaped high in a small bowl. At first, Bob’s Reuben sandwich looked average size. He said, though, that there was lots of meat in his sandwich, so much meat that he could barely taste the dressing. Reviewers raved about the taste of the food. The food tasted okay, nothing really to boast about. Nothing to complain about either.
After lunch, we drove to nearby Letchworth State Park. I will share details and photographs of Letchworth State Park in the next (and final) blog post I write about our East Syracuse NY weekend getaway.
The Beauty Around Us 