We will leave soon for Austin, so it seemed to be the time to go up and have a birthday visit with Dad. I had a great, but strange time. First of all, a pair of Aunties and one Uncle were in residence. I hadn't seen them for a long time. One Aunt was in the hospital, having barely survived an East Asian 2-day wedding ceremony with strange foods. The other Aunt was fit and cheerful, an example at 78 years old. The Uncle was concerned about his wife, but able to relate a bit more of his history which I had not yet heard. His father was a consular officer in Lithuania during the 20's, and in Germany in the run-up of Nazism (late 20s and up through 1939). There is a published diary from the Lithuanian years that I will try to procure in the next few weeks. The German part has not yet been published, though others have recounted stories of the family.
Visiting Dad is about trips to little known central New York towns like Hector, Lodi, Ovid, Trumansburg, and some better known ones like Ithaca and Watkins Glen. We walk and talk and have meals in small restaurants. Things are much different than when I was a child in this tip of Appalachia.
Along the way back from Watkins we were passing Hector Falls. I spotted a beaver on the side of the road. I had never seen one before, so I stopped to take a look. Unfortunately it had had an altercation with a car, and was deceased. This was the first of two animal suicides I saw over the holiday.
We got in a couple of good walks. The first was up to Taughannock Falls. That is a walk that is not too long, but never disappoints. This is a beautiful spot with cliffs reflected in the puddles in the slate bedrock where the creek rolls along. The cliffs seep water all winter, with chunks freezing along the walls at many levels. We saw this iceberg chunk at the bottom of a slide trail coming down from about 150 feet higher. It sat right along the side of the trail. It must have been a bit scary when it came down.
The piece was about 8 feet long and had some beautiful blue tints showing through in spots.
The sides were sculpted into beautiful hollows. This hollow had some stones embedded. I would guess that they absorbed some heat, helping to create the hollow.
We had a nice Indian birthday dinner in Ithaca's Collegetown (next to the Cornell campus). The restaurant was right across from the former Maurie's Tavern, an old stomping ground. We were a table of mainly geezers (I was one of them). Dad is the 88 year old geezer to the front right. He is remarkably solid and fit for someone of that age. When I give him a hug he feels strong. He is lively and entertaining, for sure.
One of my bros made me a cheesecake, celebrating my 21,900 days of existence.
It was so beautiful on Thursday that we wanted another walk. We revisited the former Boy Scout camp Seneca over on Seneca Lake, now owned by the US Forest Service. They keep the road closed, but it is quite passable to walkers. It is kind of a beautiful scene, looking over the neighboring Badwein Vineyard to Seneca Lake.
We then had a couple of hours of porch-sitting with a friend from early in my life. Clay and I were in nursery school together, and have been friends since. He is a former US Forest Service honcho, with expertise in forestry and bird life, among other things. There is no relaxation as good as chatting with an old friend while sitting on a porch in the sun. He has a young dog (Wire-haired Griffon, I think) that required frequent scratching and rubbing. The dog has beautiful light-brown eyes that peer out from under all the hair.
The Trumansburg portion of our visit at an end, we started off to meet our daughter for lunch in Manhattan. Our trek took us down US 380, where we saw our second animal suicide for the week. A turkey vulture slowly rose and flew across the road, smashing into a tractor trailer going about 70 mph. Feathers flew across the road while we dodged the carcass. The tractor pulled to the side of the road with blood splattered across the side window, making it impossible to see into the cab. What a mess!
We picked our daughter up in Dominican Harlem and headed to Harlem's East Side to find a particular restaurant known for its chiles relleno. After navigating around Morningside Heights (in between East and West Sides) we finally found the restaurant, and proceeded to find parking. As we walked up to the restaurant we found it had been closed by the Commissioner of Public Health and Mental Hygiene. I imagine it was more of a health hazard than one to mental hygiene. We substituted another Mexican restaurant in the area. The food was good, and it was great to visit with Lauren. She looked terrific and was very upbeat. She is planning to move to Texas, too. After a short time with her, though, it was time to get back on the road.
After passing the Apollo Theater, we got back across the George Washington Bridge and onto the NJ Turnpike. Other than a 5 mile backup for rubber-necking our side of the 'pike was uneventful. The other side was backed up for at least 20 miles behind the accident, though.
(Photo by EB)
Absolutely whipped by a long day of driving, we reached oyster-catcher territory around 8:30PM. The fog was thick, hiding the new bridge from us as we traveled over it. Opened just that day, it was an anti-climax.
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