New York

[Eastern Canada, continued]

The American Falls are in New York, but can best be seen from the Canadian side of the Niagara River.

Sarah always looks for the rainbow. There's one here almost every day.

We saw a lot more New York license plates in the first few minutes after we crossed the Rainbow Bridge than in the previous month. I guess that there's no surprise in that.

Rochester

We stopped off in Rochester to catch up with a college buddy, Sam, and to visit the Strong Museum. The Strong Museum has morphed from displaying the eclectic collections of Mrs. Strong (a rich guy's widow who seems to have collected every sort of item from art glass and toys to bathtubs) and socially relevant exhibits on topics such as 'Class in America' and 'Psychology' into 'The National Museum of Play.'

Sarah at the Strong Museum's 'National Museum of Play.'

I'm not happy with the change, but have hope for the future: A major building expansion is scheduled to open next year; I hope that they'll bring back exhibits similar to the ones that I have seen here in the past.

In any case (or in every case), there are lots of toys on display (The Strong Museum houses the 'National Toy Hall of Fame.') covering more that a century of playthings and an elaborate playground on the main floor. Young children will enjoy the main floor, older children (and nostalgic adults) will enjoy the second floor. Sarah enjoyed riding on the 1918 carousel.

We finished the day in Liverpool (near Syracuse) and spent a pleasant evening with our machetunim who live there. The next day I quickly had my defective E-Z Pass replaced in the Liverpool E-Z Pass office and headed to the zoo.

Syracuse's Rosamond Gifford Zoo claims to be one of the finest mid-size zoos in the U.S. and I am not about to dispute that claim. As with many new or newly redone zoos, there is a single circular path which makes it easy to make sure that you didn't miss anything and keeps one from getting lost. They don't have as many animals as larger zoos, but what they do have is presented well.

An interesting feature of this zoo is an indoor section which traces the evolution of vertebrate life using representative animals; no dinosaurs unless you count alligators or birds.

Niagara-Mohawk Power Company, Syracuse, NY.

We stopped in downtown Syracuse to take a look at the office of the Niagara-Mohawk Power Company. (Click to see more photos) I consider it to be THE finest example of Art Deco architecture that I have ever seen; Sarah thinks that it's just too much. What do you think?

Binghamton

Binghamton is at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers. There are lots of bridges around town. Even Binghamtonians often find themselves on the wrong side of a river as they drive; either they miss going over a bridge or they are forced, by traffic flow, to go over a bridge that they wanted to avoid. It happened to us several times.

Binghamton is the county seat of Broome County. There is a nifty 19^th century courthouse in town. Broome County's is the 'Carousel Capital of the World.' Its claim to fame is having more antique wooden carousels (six) than any other county in America, they're free to ride, and we did.

Ross Park Carousel. You don't need a ticket to ride.

We rode the park model carousel in Ross Park. A 'park model' is one with four horses abreast and is designed to be in a fixed location. Carnival models, such as the one in the Strong Museum, are smaller.

Ibis in the morning.

Ross Park is also the home of the Binghamton Zoo. This zoo, the fifth oldest in the U.S., has fewer animals per foot of travel than any other zoo that we have ever visited. The return half of the circular path has no exhibits; just the back of the wolf enclosure. I guess that one has the opportunity to see a wolf from the other side if it weren't moving: sleeping or dead. The AZA recently revoked the Binghamton Zoo's accreditation because of its antiquated enclosures. As an example, the fish pond only had about five fish each of a size that would best be call 'bait.' The zoo, we were told, has obtained funds and is working to regain its AZA status.

In town, we visited the Roberson Museum and Science Center. It is a combination art , history, science, and culture museum and is attached to the Roberson Mansion which visitors can tour. Some museum exhibits are in the mansion which was built by lumber magnate Alonzo Roberson. The featured exhibits this summer were art used to introduce Anne Frank's diary to children; 'Daniel's Story,' a fictional story that chronicles the Holocaust through the eyes of a young boy who survived; and 'Transfigurations,' rusty metal sculptures which portray Holocaust themes. “Daniel's Story' was created by the U.S. Holocaust Museum and is based on the experiences of real children.

Scranton, PA

The Anthracite Heritage Museum explores the story of immigration and industry in the Anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania. From the photographs and literature, it appears that every race and religion had the opportunity to be exploited by the mine owners. Boys as young as nine were working in the coal industry (often 14-16 hours a day) while their sisters had jobs in the clothing industry as New York garment manufactures moved small factories to depressed areas to avoid urban unions.

There is also a coal mine tour, but Sarah said it's too dirty down in a mine; that's what she said.

Lackawanna Station

Lackawanna Station in Scranton is the most elegant station on the Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western line. From the Gilded Age of railroads; it was constructed using cathedral quality marble, ornate chandeliers, and stained glass. It was refurbished and has been operated by Raddison as a hotel for the past eight years. The historic waiting room is now an up-scale restaurant. We ate dinner there the last time that we were in Scranton more than a decade ago; this time we did lunch. Good food, reasonable price.

Steamtown National Historic Site displays the history and technology of steam locomotion. It has many locomotives, other items of rolling stock, and a working roundhouse. Things move around here, so one must look before crossing tracks. At least there's no 3^rd rail to avoid.

Locomotives are a lot biger in real life than they appear when model trains are running around on the floor in your den.

We rode a steam train through town, visited displays about railroads, and took a tour through the workshop and watched locomotives being refurbished. It takes a lot of time to fabricate parts for these ancient behemoths. One piece that we saw had taken about 1,000 man/hours to make and still hadn't been installed. There are several dozen rusting or rotting hulks in the yard waiting to be fixed up. When they leave the shop, they're better than new.

What makes Steamtown different from just reading about railroading or seeing pictures are the sounds, smells, and tastes of railroading. Yes, one can even taste the air.

We finished our trip with a visit to a friend who lives in the Poconos. We had made arrangements to call him from the clubhouse so that he could guide us through the maze of country roads from the state road to his home. At that location, our cell phone had no service, On Star had no connection, and the pay phone just ate money. Fortunately, someone directed us to another pay phone, which would have been locked in a little while, and things worked out well.

The End!

Now we're home!

Genevieve comes to visit us.

Now that we're home, the best trip is going to seeing Genevieve.
When the children were all away at college, I planned to sell the house, move away, and not give them the new address. Genevieve is our reward for not doing so.

Ontario, Canada

[Eastern Canada, continued]

Ottawa, Ontario

Canada's national Parliament Buliding.

Ottawa is Canada's national capital. We visited Parliament Hill and got a tour of the 1870s offices of the Prime Minister and the Privy Council Chamber and a tour of the grounds and some of its statues. We found it interesting that such a lot of respect is paid to the Loyalists that left the U.S. after the revolution and settled in Canada [Descendants of Loyalists in Canada can use the letters 'U.E.L.' (United Empire Loyalist) after their name identifying them as such; it is the only hereditary designation in Canada.], yet about 75 years after the American Revolution, Canada has its 'Rebellion' and shook of the yoke of British colonial rule.

As the weekend we were in Ottawa was the Civic Day Weekend, there were festivities and lots of people. We watched several street performers, known as 'buskers.' What a coincidence, it was also 'Buskers Day.' We also wandered the historic market area which is about 16 square blocks, but the actual market is only about two blocks. There are a lot of shops and restaurants. Just what we need; our trunk is pretty full.

A museum that is only open for the summer, can be seen in less that an hour, and is free: Canada and the World Pavilion. It displays the contributions of Canadians to the arts, culture, sciences, and sports. From here one can get a good look at Rideau Falls; it's not big either.

The building which houses the Canadian Museum of Nature

is the first structure built in Canada to house a major museum. It is large, but half closed due to ongoing renovations. Maybe they do it every century. The dinosaurs room is being redone, so there is only one skeleton is on display. They have more. The exhibit that opened this month is about Ice Age Mammals. I think that they've designed it to travel, so it may some day come to a museum near you. I enjoyed seeing it and learned a thing or two. Sarah enjoyed being here, too. That's more than I can say for the next two museums that we visited.

Alexander Graham Bell worked on aeroplanes at the same time as the Wright brothers, but somewhere else. Working independently with Glenn Curtis and others, they came up with a remarkably similar air craft, a few days too late to be first.

The Canada Aviation Museum has a lot of historic airplanes. Sarah considers visiting an air museum to be as much fun as visiting a hardware store with the added chance of having something really heavy fall on her head. The Canada Science and Technology Museum was large enough to have many exhibits, all on one floor. Lots of old electric stuff, cars, locomotives. Also, a lot of new stuff: computers, rockets, recording devices.

On the way out of Ottawa, we visited the Canada Museum of Agriculture.

Sarah examines the dairy cows at the Agriculture museum. Some produce 10 gallons of milk per day.

It was very small, but it had all of the necessary parts: dairy barn, horse barn, sheep and goats in a small field, and some displays of farm machinery. We attended a demonstration and now know how to make cheese and butter.

Toronto

Of course we visited the Ontario Science Centre. It's still the best of its kind that we've seen. They've added a few things since our last visit about five years and taken some of the dated displays out of service. A section is currently closed for renovations. It's always fun to be here. It was very crowded. Summer camps and vacationers filled the place, but most were orderly.

Allen ignores the 'Nausea Alert' warning at this Ontario Science Centre contraption, but came out all right.

Kids often can't resist pushing lighted buttons. It's annoying when I'm in the middle of something and a kid runs up, pushed a reset button, and runs off. I've learned to keep my hands over the buttons. Then it's amusing to see the kids try to reset a display by pushing on the screen.

Markham

Markham is a suburb of Toronto. We're staying not far from there. We took the opportunity to visit The Markham Museum. It is a small village cobbled together from old homes, etc. from the area; some were old when we were young. Of particular interest was the railroad car 'Acadian' that was built in the 1920s for Canadian-Pacific executives to go on railroad business. The car was also used by two Canadian Prime Ministers and by Princess Anne on her 1958 tour across Canada.

Hamilton

The city of Hamilton is situated about half way between Toronto and Niagara Falls. We've stopped here before, but only to visit the Royal Botanical Garden. This trip, we discovered that there is a lot more to Hamilton than one can see at first glance. During the heyday of canal-building, the small lake here was connected to Lake Ontario and a city, Port Hamilton, developed. Later in the 19^th century, Hamilton, which was platted from a large farm after the War of 1812, and Port Hamilton merged. There is a surprisingly rich variety of 19^th century houses in the streets up from the bay; just driving the streets is a tour in itself.

On an escarpment above Burlington Bay overlooking Lake Ontario sits Dundurn Castle. Built in the 1800s for Allan MacNab, one of Canada's first premiers and a well known (in Canada) rich guy, it has 40 rooms on three floors. The costumed guides took us through the castle showing us how it looked when the MacNabs were in residence.

The Royal Botanical Garden is in separate units. One can drive or take their shuttle between sections. We wandered the main section with its formal, herb, and rose gardens and small exhibit rooms, then on to the rock garden where we got out of the hot, humid sunshine and into the hot, humid shade. As were several rock gardens that we have visited recently, this one, too, is a former quarry. The architect did a good job in hiding that fact and the park looked natural filled with bright summer flowers and reflective ponds.

Sarah at the Rock Garden of the RBG.

I was pleased to see that their medicinal herb garden had a disclaimer that not only should one get qualified advice for ailments, but that claims made for any herb is based on traditional use which has not been scientifically verified.

I know from visiting many areas where there are traditions of herbal healing; a plant that has been used for headaches by one tribe, may be used for stomach ailments by another tribe, and used to treat muscle cramps by a third. [There may be more than 100 tribes using the same herb to treat 100 different ailments; if medical research show that one of those treatments is valid, herbalists say, “See, the Indians were right,” and use that to push every unsubstantiated claim as equally valid.]

Between seasons in RBG's Perennial Graden: We're late for the field of irises (in the background) but otherwise nice, if somewhat small.

Hamilton has a weekend long Mardi Gras Celebration in August including a Caribbean-style parade. Lots of island people participate.

Sarah with a Carnival Queen.

Niagara Falls

We spent a day and a night in Niagara Falls, Ontario before crossing the Rainbow Bridge into New York. The falls are still falling and still attracting a lot of visitors. The Niagara Parks, too, are enjoyable with bright summer flowers and well tended lawns. We watched the falls by day illuminated by the bright sunshine and at night illuminated by coloured lights. At ten p.m. we watched the fireworks. While not equal to NYC's 4^th of July spectacular, but it was as good as Coney Island's summer night shows.

The main street leading up the hill away from the falls has become Canada's 'midway.' Rides, arcades, wax museums, etc line both sides of the street which are ablaze with coloured lights and illuminated fantastical creatures. These sights are photographed as much as the falls.

Our border crossing didn't take too long, we reverted our speedometer back to MPH, and were on our way.

To see the next part of our trip, New York, click here----> New York

Quebec

[Eastern Canada, continued]

Province de Quebec

We followed the Acadian Trail along the coast of Chaleur Bay and crossed over the river from New Brunswick into Quebec just west of Campbellton.

Salmon was important in the development of Campbellton.

We were in Campbellton for Sarah's birthday and she got a present that she really likes...something free and tasty. As we were walking down the main street looking for a place for her birthday lunch, I spotted a marquee proclaiming “It's your birthday! Get a FREE pizza!” It was offered by Howard Johnson and it was a real deal: A 9” pizza with her choice of toppings (She chose 'veggie.') No strings attached! (Except, of course, for those cheesey strings that always seem to come with a good pizza.

We enjoyed our stay in New Brunswick. We drove in forested river valleys, along scenic coasts, and through interesting bogs. The people that we encountered were friendly and often very helpful. It was interesting to see so many lobster traps piled up alongside the homes of lobstermen and the lobster boats lined up in dry dock.

Boats in dry dock, Shippigan, NB

In order to prevent over-fishing (or, in this case, over-lobstering), the government only allows the lobstermen from one province to be out at any given month. July is not New Brunswick's month this year. When they're not out, lobstermen repair their boats and traps and work at other forms of employment.

Lobster traps awaiting next season.

Gaspe Peninsula

From Campbellton, we cut across the Gaspe to the northern side for the only road to Quebec City. For our first night in the province Quebec, we stayed at a 'gite' (B&B) on the Gaspe Peninsula. We had a good time. M. C, our host entertained us with the accordion; we sang along with the tunes that we knew. Although our host speaks no English, we were able to carry on a conversation with the participation of a man from the other couple staying here tonight. With his limited English and my limited French, we were able to have an exchange.

I thought about adding to the entertainment by telling some droll stories, but, with the amount of translation involved, thought better of it. Thing could get lost in the translation, or worse.

Breakfast turned out to be a very complete meal from cereal to eggs to crepes. We ate breakfast with the other two couples sharing the B&B while Madam C did the cooking. One couple was from another part of Quebec, the other was from Belgium. We were their first Americans of the season. Quebec is a very Catholic province, but the Quebecois guest was a Baptist. He started a conversation about religion (in French). When they learned that we were Jewish, out came the bibles and there were many questions for me to answer. Our hosts has been on a visit to Israel (We had seen the souvenir menorah in their showcase the night before.) but the Quebecer guest had never met a Jewish person before and said that he was very pleased to do so. From our discussion, he learned something about Jewish beliefs and that many of the things that he thought were stated in the bible were actually interpretations and that there were other interpretations than what he believed.

We took the slow (and only) road along the coast of the St. Laurence River from Mt. Joli in the Gaspe toward Quebec City. We stopped to see an art exhibit about the return of the Acadians to North America several years after the expulsion. www.centredart.net We had seen and photographed it before, but it is very interesting in its presentation.

Art depicting the Acadians returning from exile.

Work of art depicting the return of the Acadians.

About half way to Quebec, a highway begins, but we stayed on the slow and scenic road going through all of the small coastal villages. Every village (or so it seems) has a large, often elaborate, church in the center. One can see the steeple from far off.

Some of the Gaspe's churches are large and elaborate.

Another of the many churches of the Gaspe.

Quebec City

Fortified wall of Vieux Quebec

It was evening when we finally got to the City of Quebec. We found on-street parking for the night, put our belongings into our room at the B&B. We are staying about 500 yards from the rampart of the Old City on what was The Plains of Abraham where the 25 minute battle culminated in the transfer of French America to England. After a quick dinner we walked from our B&B through the Old City to the center of town and the Chateau Frontenac, www.fairmont.com the landmark building that towers above the city.

Initially, Vieux-Quebec reminded me of a cross between the French Quarter of New Orleans and the hills of San Francisco: colonial French homes and shops on steep hills. Since it is so cold here for much of the year, there are very few balconies overlooking the street as in southern New Orleans. In addition, Vieux-Quebec is surrounded by a cliff. As we got closer to the waterfront, we saw that Vieux-Quebec has a character all its own. From its fortified walls to the ancient stone buildings on winding streets, to the majestic cathedral and churches, we could see that Vieux-Quebec was different.

Narrow street.

Although we have been to Quebec City several times before, in the past we had stayed in campgrounds out of town and drove in and parked near the waterfront and the landmark Hotel Frontenac. Now that were staying in town we have gained a whole new perspective on this city. We enjoyed being here before, we are enjoying it even more now.

Sarah at the cannon port on the wall facing the St. Lawrence River.

After breakfast we headed up to the rampart and again walked into the heart of Vieux-Quebec. We examined shops, wandered down narrow winding streets, and visited a cathedral, some museums, and fortifications (which seem to be all around the city).

Notre-Dame de Quebec Cathedral is the first in Canada and dates to the 1600s. Although cathedrals in Europe may be older, larger, or more elaborate, it is impressive that the frontier city of Quebec was so advanced as to have constructed such a magnificent edifice.

Interior of Notre Dame de Quebec Cathedral.

La Citadelle de Quebec is still an active military base and the most important one built by the British in North America. However, it's sixteen-pounder muzzle-loading cannon are rather obsolete in today's age. It was 310 steps from the terrace along the cliff to La Citadelle. As we climbed many steps from the waterfront up to the terrace along the top of the cliff ( and before we climbed up, we walked down), all of our day's walking was not on flat land. Sight-seeing in Vieux-Quebec is like going to a gym that serves very rich foods.

Sarah checks out the menu on one of the oldest streets in North America.

Speaking of rich foods: We concluded our day of wandering the picturesque streets and alleys of the city with a buffet at the Chateau Frontenac. Although not really historic, the chateau is a landmark in the skyline of Quebec. Its image is what most people think of when they think of Quebec today. In the 1980s, when I told my father, who had driven to Quebec as a young man about 50 years earlier, that I had visited, he asked me if the hotel was still there. They charge up to $2,500 a night, but that's in Canadian, so it's not as expensive as it may seem. [FYI: $1.00US = $1.25CDN]

Sarah on the boardwalk terrace along the St. Lawrence River.

Quebec has some world-class museums; we didn't visit them. We're here for the ambiance, and we got lots of that.

Quebec Parliament. That's Sarah in front.

The Parliament Building is one of the tours that we took.

Montreal

Our hotel here was in an area called “The Village.” The night that we were here there was a 'Divers City' concert that we watched. Prior to that we had walked to Vieux-Montreal and wandered around a bit and had dinner. There were many churches, many shops and restaurants, and antique buildings that are not quite as old as those in Vieux-Quebec. Between the two old cities, Vieux-Quebec is the more interesting in history, architecture, and geography.

The Village is an interesting neighborhood that is similar to NYC's Greenwich Village having eclectic restaurants with eclectic patrons. It gave us a taste of Manhattan life. Montreal had a very ethnically diverse population which makes for diverse restaurants.

We left our hotel early and breakfasted on bread & cheese while overlooking the city from atop Mount Royal, then returned to Vieux-Montreal to visit something new, the Montreal Science Centre. As usual, most of he exhibits involved physics, but there was some biology. There was a display about climate change which was tri-lingual: French, English, & Aboriginal (the term that Canada uses for American Indians).

This contraption at the Montreal Science Center is Techno-Art. It goes through the motions, but doesn't accomplish anything. It must be symbolic of the government.

We finished the day with a good swim in the pool of our motel in Ottawa.

To see the next portion of this trip, Ontario, click here.