Mini Trip - Day 3

0700 - Alarm goes off.

0744 - Decide it's time to wake up and get moving.

0815 - Rouse the sleepy children who do not want to wake up. Could that possibly be because they were awake past 11 last night?!?

0830 - Off to breakfast.

0912 - Done with breakfast. Leaving for Watkins Glen State Park.

0945 - Arrive at the park. Once again my sense of balance and order between city and country is dealt a blow. The park is sandwiched between a house and a store. A state park, especially one located near a lake, with cool waterfalls should be out away from town, not smack dab in the middle of it! The ranger told us that the rain overnight has made the falls even fuller this morning and promises us a great hike. Once we get on the trail, the town all around disappears. There is nothing left but a creek with many cascading waterfalls and 800 steps to climb to the top! A one-mile hike with plenty of photo-ops and not a single complaint from the kids.

1133 - Done at the falls. I have sore feet (my new walking shoes may have to be retired to more casual wear and replacements procured before Big Trip 4!) and there were many steps but we all had a great time. Our reviews:

B - liked the waterfalls
R - liked everything, especially the water
F - liked going under (actually it was behind) the waterfalls
L - liked the gorge trail and the steps
S - liked taking pictures of the falls

12:01 p.m. - We're lost. We were looking for Penguin Bay Winery but it turns out we were on the wrong side of the lake. Which would explain why we couldn't find it! Turn around and head back to the hotel.

12:20 p.m. Miles Winery on the Lake - decide that we should stop at a winery after all since this one will also give us a chance to stop closer to the lake and get a better look at it.

1:05 p.m. - Stop at Burger King for lunch.

1:28 p.m. - Almost done with lunch - bright flash of lightning and a huge crack of thunder hurries us back to the car!

1:38 p.m. - Uh oh! Gas light is on! I thought I could make it back to town before the light came on but I guess not. We would have made it if we hadn't gone off on a Wild Penguin Chase.

1:45 p.m. - Stop at the first available gast station. $2.84/gallon

2:03 p.m. Dunkin' Donuts for iced coffee. My new GPS is pretty cool. I decided that some iced coffee before we get back to the hotel would be pretty tasty. So I asked for a list of nearby food. Found Dunkin' Donuts on the list. Selected it and voila - directions! As a bonus, the DD had a drive thru so I didn't have to get out in the rain!

2:12 p.m. The rain has let up so we decide to go ahead and stop at the Corning Glass Museum now instead of going back to the room first. Our review:
R- hot glass show
F - hot glass show
B - guessing the temperatures (though she might have liked the hot glass show if she hadn't slept through half of it... did I mention they were awake past 11 last night?!)
L - hot glass show
S - hot glass show and the yellow glass sculpture in the lobby (too bad we skipped the sculptures section of the museum but we were having trouble finding the starting point on the map and did everything out of order!)

4:15 p.m. - Back at the hotel. Kids watch TV and eat snacks while I check email and enjoy a bit of "down" time.

5:15 p.m. - Time to swim... What I want to know is why do hotel pools have to be so cold?

5:18 p.m. - Yikes! Out of nowhere a crazy windy thunderstorm! Just a couple minutes ago we thought we heard thunder and looked out the window. No signs of rain. Then - wham! The rain is pouring down. Looks like we'll be walking through the hotel instead of cutting through the courtyard!

6:28 p.m. - Back from the pool. Shower and change for dinner.

7:07 p.m. - Okay - very clean and very hungry! Time to go to dinner. We were going to go to Curly's Chicken House but the kids vetoed it. Looks like we'll head to Bob Evans instead.

8:30 p.m. - Back at the hotel. Hoping for an earlier night tonight...

9:30 p.m. - Felisa is hungry. Head out to the car to grab some snacks. Mmm... pretzels!