Travel Stories

[Spooky]

Marty and I took a day drip to Watkins Glen State Park (NY State) today and had a great time. It's near Seneca lake in the Finger Lakes region, so we hit about 8 or 9 wine tastings on the way there. Watkins Glen is a huge gorge with waterfalls and about 10 million stairs as you climb your way to the top. We didnt actually make ot to the top lol. We got to the one mile point and decided to go back down, as we were exhausted from walking a mile up stairs after stairs after stairs, dripping with sweat, which was gross, and out of breath. I wore an olive green skirt and a tank top, which was perfect, and Marty dressed up for some unknown reason. He wore nice shorts and an olive green silk shirt.  :oook He was dying to say the least.

We took another trail back down, which was a stairless decline. We both thought that, while it was strenuous to climb the stairs, it was more difficult and harder on our muscles to walk back down. Anyway, it was a beautiful, warm sunny day. We hit several wineries on the way home, too, lol

 

[Spooky]

and a view from behind that waterfall

 

[Spooky]

and another one farther up

 

[Tien Wood]

wow that looks amazing, especially that last picture, very lord of the ringsy actually

[Spooky]

it is, isnt it? I can almost see Elrond wandering by lol.

It really was a great place to visit. I'm usually more interested in architecture than nature, but this was a bit of both with the stone bridges, slate rock walls and endless man-made stairs cut into the stone. There was even a spiral staircase that went through a small cave. Too bad I couldnt take real pics, not just blurry, far-away looking ones with my phone.  :sad

I would prefer to go back in the autumn when it isnt so hot. Sweating to death is nasty.

[Tien Wood]

absolutely it would be Rivendell...sigh...  i bet it would look incredible with all the autumn colours.  it reminds me of this amazing gorge in New Zealand that had all waterfalls, huge cliffs, 30 ft tree ferns and a glowworm cave...

[Spooky]

So Sara and I are heading out on the charter bus to New York City tomorrow morning at 6am. We should arrive in Manahttan around 11am and I'm soooo excited! I havent gone to NYC in a year and a half and Sara has never even been there at all!

We havent made many plans except my usual Chinatown for knockoffs and Little Italy for dinner, then Times Square before leaving. I will make sure she walks down 5th avenue, goes to Rockafeller center, boring as it is, rides the subway numerous times, sees Grand Central Terminal and all that nonsense.

I plan to start off our day by hopefully passing through St Patrick's Cathedral on the way to Grand Central where we will take the subway to the end of central park. There we will see the Dakota Building, in front of which John Lennon was shot. Across the street is the "Imagine" mosaic in the sidewalk going into the part of central park called Strawberry Fields.

We will walk through the park for a bit and then Sara wants to see FAO Schwartz (the world famous toy store, which houses the giant piano keys made famous by the Tom Hanks movie "Big") and I want to see it, too, since I have never been there.

The rest of the day is a mystery. Making a bunch of plans is usually a bad idea and it's not like we cant go back again. Lets see how much of this stuff we actually did when I get back and post again lol

[Tien Wood]

Sounds like fun!  Nice summer weather too i hope!

Guess what?  I quit my job and am off to NZ in a month - hooray!  I should still be able to read the book while i am gone as well :grin  

[Spooky]

Hey thats great!   Wish I could go too.  :sad What's the plan this time? How long do you plan to stay?

As for NYC, "nice summer weather" almost made me laugh. It was 95 degrees and humid. Our 95 degrees (F) is probably similar to that of a tropical climate, like Florida. The air is so thick you can cut it with a knife, everyone is sweating to death and your clothes stick to you. The sun beats down super hot but it isnt much cooler in the shade. This made for sucky walking - and we did a hell of a lot of walking. We paida guy on a bike with a rikshaw to take us thru central park, we missed trhe Imagine mosaic, and then couldnt find the Dakota Bldg (where john lennon was shot and where several movies have filmed) and so I told Sara we would walk one more block and if it wasnt the right street we were giving up. It wasnt and we did.

We walked all the way from Little Italy to the Brooklyn Bridge but were too hot and tired to walk across it. We took pics of it from a little park and then took the subway uptown.

After getting off the bus on 34th st, we were walking to Grand Central Terminal on 42nd street, somehow missed it and didnt notice until we had walked down 5th ave all the way to 57th st LOL. Funny, because we walked another half block and there was FAO Schwarz, which was on our list of places to go. I have a video of people playing the big piano and also took pics of the Harry Potter dolls that cost $80-150 and the giant lego Potter characters. There I found a Cho Chang figurine that was marked down from $55 to $5.99.

We breezed right thru Chinatown. It was too hot, too smelly and too crowded. Our dinner in Little Italy was, as usual, one of the highlights of the trip. The food is always excellent and I got myself a little half caraf (sp?) of wine to go with my chicken francaise and linguini.

Ihave to go pick up some prescriptions and then later I'll tell you about my feet lol.

[Spooky]

ok so, to finish the story...

Sara and I did manage to see some of what we set out to see:

Grand Central
5th avenue
St. Patrick's Cathedral
FAO Schwarz
Little Italy
Times Square

we half saw or breezed by:

Chinatown
Brooklyn Bridge
Central Park

We even had a very expensive drink in a restaurant on Lexington where they'd filmed part of the Sex and the City movie. I think it was called Lumi. I grabbed a card before we left but I do think thats it.

Anyway, the story about my feet. Well... they started to hurt not long after we started that long trek up 5th ave when we missed grand central. They continued to hurt all day. They would feel better if I sat down for a few minutes, but it was weird because my feet had never given me a problem before.

On the bus home, I thought I'd sunburned my feet because the skin felt really tight and they were still very uncomfortable. It started to feel like I had something - like a bandaid - wrapped around my toes. So we finally get back to my house and Sara says "OMG! Look at your feet!" and they were so swollen they looked like sausages. Not just the ankles but the feet, too, and I realized my toes felt strange because they were completely numb. You couldnt even see my ankles. As this has never happened to me before, not even mildly, I about freaked out and slept all night on the couch with my feet up on big pillows. I was terrified they'd have to cut off my toes and called my mother 1st thing in the morning.

I went to the doctor today because they are still mildly swollen after spending all of sunday with them elevated as well. One of the toes on each foot is still numb. (They said my feet must have been so swollen that it put a lot of pressure on the toes' nerves.) He immediately asked me if my mother had vericose veins, which she does. He gave me water pills and potassium and ordered some tests. He thinks it may tie in with the strange occurrance of me gaining about 60 lbs in a little over a year with no explaination. No amount of exercise or dieting helps. I'll eat better, eat less, walk more and gain 10 lbs. Around the same time this started I also suddenly stopped absorbing vitamins. We'll see.

At least I know now that they arent going to have to cut off my toes.  :grin  

[Tien Wood]

Geez, how baffling is that about your feet?  So they think varicose veins are responsible?  At least they are removable... yowch... When will you know for sure?

I told Sara we would walk one more block and if it wasnt the right street we were giving up. It wasnt and we did.

That made me laugh!  It is definately something i would do!

Also how funny is the Cho Chang doll!  Her popularity must have plummetted!

Ah as for New Zealand, i am hoping to leave at the end of August and be back by the start of December - so not very long!  It will be nice just to do something different.  They have this advert for NZ on TV at the moment - it always makes me cry!!!  Yikes...

[Spooky]

Well... I wrote this big long thing about going to see Oasis in Toronto last night and my attachments were too big. I copied my post and then set to altering the pics so they wouldnt be too big and somehow both lost my post and overwrote my clipboard.  So... here are some pics and I'll write it up again later. 

[Spooky]

holy shit i just found out the concert stopped because a fan leapt onto the stage and attacked noel gallagher. LOL!! We thought they had an equipment malfunction!

[Fictionista]

coldplay on a tiny stage on the lawn, Saratoga Springs, NY