Letchworth State Park

When we left off yesterday we were heading to 

find a forest to sleep in.  We ended up at 

Letchworth State Park.  One of Wonderful's

co-workers had suggested it but he didn't know 

where it was.  As I was reading off local camp

sites, when I said Letchworth, he said, yes, that's

the one we need to go to.

We got there late in the day and set up camp, had

some dinner and sat around the campfire.  We had

no idea about what was special about the park since

we had only seen the campground.  In the morning,

Wonderful was about to cook some eggs and bacon

when I said, "you know, I'm not really the let's eat

breakfast at the campsite kind of girl ~ I'd much 

rather eat out".  With that, Wonderful put every-

thing away and said let's go!  

In reading the park brochure, I saw there was an

inn and said let's go there for breakfast.  The

brochure described the park as the Grand Canyon

of the East.  It wasn't until we left the camping area

that we could really see the splendor of the park.

As we rounded a bend in the road we could see

a beautiful building through the trees.

We parked and started walking through the

garden to the front of the building.  If you look

closely, it looks like fog in the distance.

Coming round to the front of the house, this is

what we saw.  This had been Mr. Letchworth's

home when it was a private estate.

And the fog in the previous photo, well, no, it was

mist from this spectacular waterfall.  Now that's

quite a unique thing to have in your front yard.

The interior is filled with beautiful carvings.

I wonder what the bells are for?

We had a lovely breakfast and chatted with the

other diners as if we were all guests of the house.

The we set out for a hike to walk off the big

breakfast.  Then it was time to start our journey 

West.

We ended up that night at Malabar Farm.

Hale Farm and Village

...and the beginning of an adventure.

Last week we took a little vacation but since we

were staying in the woods there was no phone,

no internet, no service.  I thought I'd blog this

week about everything we did last week.

First of all, we had not been camping in over a

decade,  I completely gave it up after Cub Scouts.

It was just like my Mommy job at home, only harder.

We left at the crack of dawn since we had a long

drive ahead of us, we were camping on the most

northwestern part of New York State right on 

Lake Ontario.  It was about a 9 hour drive with

a stop along the way and then we had to set up

our campsite.

In order to break up the trip, stretch our legs and

because I'm a nut for living history museums, we

stopped in Bath, Ohio at the Hale Farm and Village.

We were not the only ones!  This little village

that is run by the local historical society was

hopping with people.  It was the annual Civil

War Reenactment.  There were reenactors, 

horses, encampments and an entire vendor 

area selling merchandise and equipment from

the time period of the Civil War.

It certainly is a family affair for these

history lovers.  Entire families were decked 

out in full costume and I felt for them.  It was

a hot day and if I had to wear a uniform or a 

hoop skirt, well, I would have been a bit cranky,

to say the least.  This group is enjoying lunch and

of course, all the foods are appropriate to the time.

The village has a glass making demo.  

Generally you do not see this is a village 

this size, it was very interesting.

The potter was hard at work,  I can

watch this for hours.  I think I need to

find a place so I can take pottery classes

again.

The village had many nice examples of

local buildings such as a church, a general 

store, log cabins and a variety of houses

showing different economic levels.  This 

house was spectacular, inside it had such 

gorgeous natural light and great cross

ventilation that made it comfortable to 

be inside even on a very hot day.

I always end up liking the kitchen the most.

The garden was spectacular.

I want this variety of cosmos in my

garden next year.

This was a sewing machine style I had

never seen before.

Isn't that a beauty of a quilt!

One of the houses even had an old crib 

which is something we rarely see.  I

wonder what the age is?

Then it was back in the car for another 4+

hours of driving until we hit Lake Ontario.

We set up our campsite, this was to be home

for the next three days.

We had appetizers as we watched the sun

go down over the lake.  We could see the

skyline of Toronto across the lake.

After sunset we had dinner and then into 

the tent to finally sleep.  It had been a long day...