Pittsburgh, PA

I’ve always wanted to go to Pittsburgh (everyone always asks why) so I was excited about this stop. We stayed about 30 minutes outside of the city and used it as a home base to do a few things other than just going into the city. 

Our first day out we went to the Frank Lloyd Wright house called Fallingwater. It is gorgeous! We've toured quite a few of his houses and other projects and this is my favorite. I would love to spend a weekend in the house, just listening to the waterfall all day. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go in but there were a lot of windows to view inside. Next we went to the Flight 93 Memorial, just outside of Shanksville, PA. It is a very somber place but it is beautifully done. They have marked the place of the crash but from that place a lot of wildflowers have grown. They added a 93 foot tall “Tower of Voices” which is a wind chime. It was dedicated in 2018 but still isn’t working. Hopefully they’ll get it up and running soon. 

The next couple of days we spent in the city. We drove up to Mt Washington to the lookout point of the city. From up there you can see where the three rivers converge and the skyline of the city. It was a very clear day and the scene was gorgeous. We have a brother in law from the city so he gave us a few suggestions for what to do. We went to the Fort Pitt museum which was excellent for learning how Pittsburgh came to be. We also did the Warhol museum (Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh) and the Heinz History Museum. The Heinz museum is excellent. We learned so much about the citizens that made up Pittsburgh and western PA. Many famous and familiar names spanning from entertainment to (of course) sports to food. Speaking of food, if you’re ever in the city, you need to go the The Strip District to get your Steelers gear and eat at Primanti’s. They have many sandwiches and all come with cole slaw and fries in the sandwich. Definitely worth checking out! 

Our last day was spent driving to Moundsville, W VA. We had heard of an old penitentiary there that operated from 1886-1995. They offer a lot of different tours, from overnight stays to paranormal overnight tours. No thank you! We just took a daytime 90 minute tour which was very entertaining. 

On to Cincinnati! 

Watkins Glen, NY

I have always been interested in visiting the finger lakes region of upstate New York. I knew the lakes were impressive, but I had no idea the area was also renowned for their wineries. The climate matches closely to that of Germany so they specialize in the same grapes. We visited many of the tasting rooms in our area and had some surprisingly good white wines. I'm typically not a fan of white wines for anything other than the mornings of Christmas and Thanksgiving, but the Rieslings were good and we left with several bottles. We also took a drive over to Ithaca to see the Cornell campus and hiked the gorge at the Watkins Glen state park. The highlight of the stop was our Drive the Glen tour were they let us take the Jeep out on the Watkins Glen track for 3 laps. Sadly, or maybe fortunately, it was behind a pace car, so I did not get a chance to see what the Jeep could really do. Danelle got a couple of good videos of us going through the esses. We had a very relaxing stop and have added the area to the list for a return visit.

Alexandria Bay, NY

Danelle has always wanted to visit the thousand island region of the St. Lawerence river in upstate New York. We added it to the list for this year and it did not disappoint. There really are over a thousand islands with most of them privately owned and accessible only by boat. The area is popular with people in the northeast to have or rent a summer cottage on one of the islands or along the shore of the river. We stayed at a park right on the river and now appreciate the allure of the area. We went on a boat tour which highlighted the huge houses of the rich and famous. We also visited Boldt castle at the end of our tour. Boldt was the owner and manager of several hotels in the northeast including the Waldorf-Astoria in NYC. He bought an island to build a house for he and his wife to enjoy. Unfortunately his wife died before the construction was completed and he abandoned the property and it sat vacant for over 70 years. It is now being restored with the first two floors nearly complete. We also had the good fortune to meet up with friends from the Philly area who were here on vacation. They took us out on their boat to show us the sights. We loved the area and are already planning to return.

Swan Bay Resort, Alexandria Bay, NY

The resort is located right on the banks of the St. Lawerence river and it is beautiful. The sites are a concrete pad with a paver patio area and grass. The sites are long enough to easily park a tow vehicle and they have plenty of additional parking for guests around the park. They offer two pools, a tiki bar, large play area, dog park and a huge grass area for events or other activities. The marina has multiple docks, rentals for the various water activities and the boat launch. Access from I-81 is an easy mile away and the wifi worked for us during our stay. We give this park a 4 out of 5 and will be back.

Plattsburgh RV Park, Plattsburgh, NY

Convenient location in Plattsburgh just a short distance off I-87. The park is mostly long term and permanent residents with many of the trailers and park model homes in poor repair. The sites back in grass with a gravel area for the parking pad. Most sites have a picnic table in the grass area. The sites are 30A and our site had a very weak power supply. We had trouble with our power even when pulling 15-20A. The park has a nice pool area, big grass area for events and activities and a small putt putt course. The wifi worked for us, which is a big bonus. We give this park a 2 out of 5 and would stay at a different location when we come back to the area.

Plattsburgh, NY (Lake Champlain)

As we had not yet explored Vermont or the Lake Champlain areas, we decided to add a stop on the New York side of the Lake in order to see them both this year. We started off with a trip into Vermont. One of the highlights for us was the ferry ride across the lake. Lake Champlain is long but narrow and you can save a lot of driving time by taking the ferry out of Plattsburgh. We visited the mountain ski town of Stowe, Quechee Gorge, Burlington and stopped to check out the capitol building in Montpelier. Vermont has very few people living in the state and the majority of what we saw was dense forest and rolling hills with a few small mountains. While in Stowe we took the Toll Road drive up to the top of the ski mountain. The top of the ski hill is 3600 feet, but climate at that elevation in this area is arctic tundra. I hiked up to the top for some pictures and to watch the storm clouds move through the area. Our final activity was a drive around Lake Champlain. The views and scenery from the road was in general better from the Vermont side, for those who plan to do the same drive. The Canadian border intersects the north end of the lake, so we had to go see the closed border crossings. What we did not expect to find is a series of markers identifying the location of the border right along the edge of the road and a corn field. I visited Canada by stepping across and taking a couple of pictures.

Mystic KOA, North Stonington, CT

A very nice KOA with a great location just of I-95. The park has a very nice pool and hot tub area, large play area for the kids and for dogs, horseshoes, volleyball, basketball and fishing ponds. This wifi worked well even when the park was completely full. Our site was a back in with about average spacing to the adjacent sites. We enjoyed our stay here and will stop again when in the area. We rate this park a 4 out of 5.

Our trip so far.....

Hello!  It feels like it has been years since our last post!  It is definitely overdue and I apologize for the break but we have been feeling a bit discombobulated.  :)

We set out a bit delayed but finally got on the road June 8th.  Rather than trying to reschedule every stop and make way too much work for Gary, we decided to just drive with a few stops for one or two nights until we got to Outer Banks, NC.  We covered about 2,500 miles in 10 days.  A few of the highlights along the way though were discovering Grapevine, TX which is just outside Ft. Worth.  It is a cute little town and has a few wine tasting rooms.  We discovered a new yummy wine while visiting AND we got a chance to go to dinner with our good friend, Garrett.  It's always fun to see kids that our daughter grew up with and to see them doing so well. The other highlights were seeing  the campus of U of Alabama and the football field in Athens, GA.  One other thing we discovered was a little town in the Blue Ridge Mountains called Helen.  It is a very cute Bavarian town with a river running through it.  The big draw is to tube down the river.  Since it was an overcast day and we were new to the area, we did not float down the river but just walked around the little town and enjoyed the shops,

We arrived in Outer Banks on June 18th and finally felt like it was time to explore.  Our first night there we went to a restaurant called Miller's.  I usually don't name restaurants we visit but this place was exceptional.  It has 1,800 reviews but still maintains a 4.5 star rating.  That's how good it is.  If you visit, make sure you have their hush puppies!  Anyway, of course we had a beach day but we also explored the entire island.  One day we went north to try and find the wild horses that are such a draw there but we didn't see any.  One cool thing about that area though is all the houses that are built on the beach.  There are no roads there and you have to drive on the beach to get to your house.  Definitely need a 4 wheel drive for that area.  The next day we drove south, which seemed a little less populated.  There is a gorgeous light house there that is worth a stop.  And don't forget to stop at the Wright Brothers Memorial.  You can see where the first flight was taken and who was there.  Very fun!

Our next 4 stops were to see friends and family.  We visited the towns of Manassas, VA, York and Malvern, PA and Mystic CT.  While at the these places we took day trips into DC, Harper's Ferry, Trump Winery, Antietam Battlefield and Gettysburg.  We also visited a house called Gillette Castle and one of the famous "cottages" in Newport, RI.  The cottage/mansion was built and owned by the Vanderbilt family. Gillette Castle was designed by a stage actor from the early 1900's named William Gillette.  I would love to come back to be able to see the inside because the outside was so eccentric.

The battlefields were humbling.  We felt we were on sacred ground and at this time more than ever, we felt the greatness of our country.  The sacrifice of brother vs. brother and son vs. father is incomprehensible.  We would love for everyone at some point to visit these places to truly understand how great our country is.  Harper's Ferry was also an integral part of the civil war as it was right on the river and very valuable. 

This year has been fun but also a bit daunting. I find myself grateful to be able to visit so many friends and family.  It has been a good respite since it's so frustrating with many things being closed or something that should be easy like grocery shopping has now become a maze to navigate.  Just being able to relax and catch up with everyone has been a blessing. 

On to the next town!