August 26-27, 2015 - Montreal CA

When doing the loop, you cannot see everything in one year, or even in three like we are trying to do. If we were to take the boat to Montreal and Quebec City, it would be about a 900 mile trip and at least a month of time. When our friends Gene and Linda Auville planned to visit, we all agreed on a little driving vacation to these two cities and the 1000 Islands area. We'll cover each of these areas with separate posts.

Gene and Linda - ready to go!

Montreal: Churches are Big in Montreal, and everywhere! They are old and beautiful - especially the inside. Two were visible from our hotel room - the first was St. George Anglican Church, seems like  the token non-Catholic church that we saw in Canada. Smaller than most, but very ornate woodwork.

St. Georges'

Peaceful interior.

Just opposite St. Georges' is The "Basilique-Cathedrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde et Saint-Jacques-le-Majeur". Yes, it is both a cathedral and a basilica and the "Mary Queen of the world" part was added years after it was first built as St. James the Greater. Construction took from 1870 until 1894. It is a scaled-down version of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Mary Queen of the World

The Baldacchino over the alter is not actually at a angle; tired camera operator!

The Dome!

It is a big place!

Limited view of the front of the church with statues of the saints that local parishes are named for.

This is the "Saint-Joseph's Oratory", a place of healing and described on the bus tour as being similar to "Lordes-the Village of St. Bernadette" in France - a pilgrimage/healing place. There are 99 steps up to the Oratory, so we decided to skip the visit.

Saint-Joseph's Oratory

Last, and certainly not least, is the "Cathedral of Notre-Dame". The main church is absolutely gorgeous, and then you experience a more modern and totally different chapel behind the main alter and you get totally blown away!

A simple exterior.

The main alter.

The organ and choir loft.

The pulpit for preaching/giving the sermon.

The Chapel! The artwork depicts man's progression thru the Arches of growth to heaven.

Secondary alter in the chapel.

 Old-town Montreal surrounds the Cathedral and has many buildings originally built in the 118th and 19th centuries. It feels a lot like Europe, or so we are told; we found it fairly quiet and peaceful with many art galleries, restaurants, quaint shops and flowers. It is the old financial district.

Judie took a picture a of a beautiful autumn scene and captured the building across the street in the reflection off the window. We love it!

Judie and Gerry after a long day touring!

Vive la France!

We visited "Underground Montreal". It is a collection of shopping areas in the lower level of buildings all connected by tunnels so as to appear seamless. It provides great access to many buildings in bad weather and has subway stops along the way. One new 5 story shopping mall/building ties it all together.

And finally, the Olympic Stadium from the 1976 games. We drove by this on our way out of town and it looks like new and there were many events and activities taking place.

August 14, 2015 - Herkimer NY

As you will see in some of the photos, there is more than one way to spell "Herkimer", but we will stick with the currently popular version.

Herkimer Home: Our day started about 2 hours of driving time east of Brewerton. The 18th Century home of General Herkimer, the hero of the "Battle of Oriskany" in 1777, has been carefully restored and preserved. One nice thing is that they have not loaded the home with furniture and items not original to the home, as most of what they have is original or at least original to the period. There was a large separate "root cellar"  (sorry, no picture) that served as storage for the 33 people who lived on the estate. Made entirely of stone with a barreled ceiling, it would make a great wine cellar. The kitchen  was in the basement with some of the slave quarters, and had a fireplace at least 8 feet wide. The estate is on both banks of the path of the Erie Canal/Mohawk River and made much of it's income from tolls to transport freight around the "Little Falls" just up river. Mr. Vanderbilt put his railroad thru the property near the house and they removed the wood roofing and replaced it with stone to avoid a fire from the trains smoke stack! The stone roof was later replace with wood after the train was re-routed. Gen. Herkimer and much of his extended family are buried in the cemetery on the property.

Kind if says it all....

The back door facing the river

The other side...

An obelisk in his honor (quite of few of these things in the northeast area and for different reasons).

He died from leg wounds 10 days after the battle.

Herkimer Diamond Mines: Just north of the city of Herkimer are open pit mines for Herkimer Diamonds - actually quartz. There is a nice museum, gift shop, and tool rental area to try your luck. We were going to try our luck, but it looked like rain and sure enough, 10 minutes later it started to pour. Judie had to settle for a Diamond dug by someone else and polished and set in sterling silver.

People digging for diamonds.

Fort Herkimer Church: In the days of the revolution and the French and Indian wars, gathering places such as churches also served as a Fort during fighting. This particular church is the last surviving example. Judie's sister-in-law, Martha Emmons, has relatives that died here during these battles including her 5th great grandfather (I hope I got that right)  who was killed getting his family into the church at the start of a battle. The church was closed and we could not see inside to see her family's name as a founder of the church.

Unrelated, but nice old monument. We could not find Martha's family.

Oriskany Battlefield; No other way to complete the day than to see where the battle took place and Gen. Herkimer was wounded. He is most known for continuing to direct his troops after being wounded and stopping the British from continuing on down the Mohawk River to join the forces advancing from NY City to split the colonies.

Another obelisk!

Gen Herkimer directing his troops with his wounded leg.

August 10, 2015 - Cooperstown NY

Cooperstown NY and the Baseball Hall of Fame! Neither of us are big baseball fans but we do enjoy Spring Training in Arizona, attending a few games during the season, and the playoffs. So it is a little surprising that we drove 2 hours SE of Brewerton to see the HOF, but it just seemed like the right thing to do! We had a great day at the HOF and spent most of our time learning about the early days of the sport along with it's development and growth during the early 1900's. They have great expeditions about the late 1800's, the Negro League, the Cuban League and the Women's league - we spent about 2 hours on these topics. They also do a nice job of showing the history in 20-30 year increments, so you can spend time on history that is important/interesting to you. We visited the great hall where all of the plaques are hung, but since Randy Johnson's was too new to be installed, we simply did not know most of the other players. Had a nice lunch at Doubleday's Diner, and drove around town looking at beautiful older homes. We took the local roads home and saw nice farms and countryside along with many small towns.

Look close and you can read "National Baseball Hall of Fame" over the door.

Judie and 3 guys whom we will never remember their names.

Young man at Doubleday Field.

We took photo's of all 10 teams we lived by over the years - but only included this one.

Randy went in as a Diamondback - Eat your heart out Seattle!

Look at design/pattern of stone!

Close up view and date of construction - 1804!

August 3, 2015 - Rome and Utica NY

We drove to Rome and Utica from our temporary base in Brewerton to take a break from chores and see some things we missed along the way as we did not stop at either city as we traveled the Erie Canal in July.

Rome: We had heard good things about a wooden fort and wanted to see how/if it differed from the many stone and brick forts that we had seen to date on our two years of travels. The fort was originally built by the British in 1758 to protect the area, and trade route from the Mohawk Valley to the Great Lakes, from the French and their Indian allies. The layout of the fort is the typical star design with pointed ramparts. the only real difference is the wooden structures  - especially with their 12-18 inch thick log walls. Also the extensive use of earth and sod to act as protection to the roofs from cannon fire and as insulation in the cold winter months. The original fort was actually abandoned and destroyed as early 19th century "progress" and the growth of downtown Rome sored and commercial  buildings were developed on the site. In the late 1900's the city, county, state and federal governments took down the commercial buildings, discovered the old foundations and rebuilt the fort to it's original design! It is a federal park today and well worth stopping to see.

built in defenses - with sharp points!

Thick timbers and earth insulation.

Typical officers "bed"

Officers quarters along side the parade grounds

One of many "original" American flags prior to Geo Washington and Betsey Ross.

Nearby stone church.

Utica: We had only one reason to visit Utica  - to see a beautiful train station. We were not disappointed! Interior grandeur like this is usually reserved for major cities like New York, Wash DC, or San Francisco; but in Utica they did it all on a smaller version. The marble is beautiful and the seating has these beautiful curved ends and internal air duct system. The balance of the town in typical to an older downtown, and "bully for them", few empty store fronts. Today there is still Amtrak service, Adirondack scenic tour trains, and it is the Bus Station, along with a local Dept. of Motor Vehicles office.

Central corridor and path to the train tracks.

Curved seating and built in grills for heating ductwork.

Beautiful columns.