Palmyra et al Family Vacation

Hi all:

Some friends have asked for details about our Church Sites trip on Nov. 6 to 8, so here's a little travelogue that may help in your planning, along with our highlights.

We left on Thursday night around 5 p.m. as the kids had Friday off for a school conference. I was surprised that the mapping systems said it was fastest to go on I-80 through NJ and Penn. to Scranton and then up through Binghamton and Syracuse, and then on to Rochester.

Driving at night definitely has its perks and its drawbacks. It was great the kids all fell asleep at some point. But I had some heavy rain in NJ, and then snow going over a peak outside of Syracuse, and all that in the dark wasn't fun. But the new Honda van drives smoothly and that was part of the reason for the trip.

We arrived at the Homewood Suites in Victor, NY around 11:30 p.m. -- it took us about 6.5 hours with stops, snow, and rain. I'm a big fan of Homewood Suites as it has sleeping for 6. This unit had one big bedroom with two doubles, then a small pullout couch for the little boys in another room -- along with full fridge, microwave and oven. The rate was $150, but we knew of a promotion that got it down to $135. We felt it was the perfect location as it was just off the Thruway and perfectly situated between Rochester and Palmyra, which was convenient. We liked the free hot breakfast each morning, the pool was the right size (and actually warm) for the kids, and low hassle.

On Friday, we got in the van again and drove to Niagara Falls. I had never seen it and I was actually very impressed. It's about a 1.5 hour drive, I believe. We arrived around 9:30 or so. The Maiden of the Mist boats close in late October, so we couldn't do that. But the state park was free except $10 to park (which allows you to park at the welcome center and then over on Goat Island....I never mind paying a little into the system to keep it up and running).

I knew that the view is more impressive from the Canada side, but I also knew that all U.S. citizens need a passport when driving into Canada now. Unfortunately, I didn't look closer to see that kids with a birth certificate can go sans passport so we could have driven across as Kathryn and I have passports, but alas, we didn't. Something for next time.

But the view from where we were was amazing. I'm surprised we could get so close to the edge at the top of falls. It's not really very fancy but I like that it's just kinda simple and I like that the safety experts haven't shut down such close access. All in all, we spent about 1.5 hours there.

(For the record, the towns on the NY and Canada side look very cheezy and dated...yet again, kind of refreshing to not see everything all "Disney-fied". It is what it is)

We then drove back to Rochester to the National Museum of Play (and Toy Hall of Fame). We felt this is the best kids museum we've been to. We arrived around 2 p.m. and stayed until about 5:30. Lots of open space, no crowds (as it was a weekday), and fun things for everyone, including a well stocked arcade of video games familiar to me (Asteroids, Tapper, Defender, Q-Bert, Popeye, Ultra Bowl, Berzerk). From a career perspective, it was fun to walk through the Toys Hall of Fame and identify the Hasbro stuff.

We returned to the hotel (about a 20 minute drive) and tried to go to Chilis, but a 45 minute wait at 5:15 at night. Well, what else do you do in Victor? So we went to Denny's which was surprisingly fun and good. The highlight was Sammy making a biscuit snowman. Then a visit to the pool and everyone collapsed into bed.

Sat and Sun. to be covered in my next post....