New England Trip

Today was a short travel day from Grand Island, NY (Niagara Falls area) to Cayuga State Park on Lake Cayuga, east of Seneca Falls, NY.

Lake Cayuga and Seneca Lake are among the “Finger Lakes” of New York. They are both about 40 miles long (north to south) and about 2 miles wide. They are separated by a strip of land about 6 miles wide. There are 12 wineries on the western shore of Lake Cayuga.

After we parked the motor home in the state park, we drove down the western shore of Lake Cayuga with the Acura and stopped at three wineries for tasting – Lakeshore, Goose Watch, and Buttonwood. We only tasted one wine at Goose Watch because it was so crowded with tour buses. Some of the tasters seemed very “experienced” that day and the few staff were overwhelmed.. The tasting experience cost $1 to $2 per person and involved 6 – 8 sips of different wines. Although the tastes poured are very small, they add up quickly, and it is interesting how quickly one can get tipsy from a few sips of wine at two or three tastings.

Steve found the white wines pretty good but the red wines seemed a little “rough.” Understand that Steve knows little about what wine should taste like. We liked several of the wines, but were interested to discover at dinner later in the motor home that an Oregon Cloudline Pinot Noir we’ve enjoyed recently was much better than anything we’d tasted during the afternoon.

We returned to the campsite by a route along the shore of Seneca Lake, and stopped to take some pictures of the lake and of some wildflowers we wanted to identify. Along the way, we enjoyed seeing more of the huge weeping willow trees that grow here, and some interesting farm houses that have a New England look very different from southern farm houses: high pitched roofs, and a gothic shape, but without the gingerbread.

As extravagant as this kind of traveling seems, with gas prices so high, it is really wonderful to see the country up close, and meet the people. When we think of what we could be spending on airfares and hotels, it sure seems good to come home to our own moveable place with the dog and the cat and a candle on the dinner table.