Watkins Glen - NY Day 1

This last weekend was a whirlwind adventure that involved two state parks and three church sites and about 1,122 miles of driving.  The kids and the car all held up beautifully, although at one point the a/c gave up (we think it was just tired because the next day it was fine) and on the trip home, both Michael and Ben slept for about 3 hours (unprecedented).

Our plans for today: do nothing.

But, back to Friday when our grand adventure began.  The main purpose of this adventure was to see the Hill Cumorah pageant near Palmyra, NY.  I mentioned to Diane a few months ago that we should all go up to see the pageant this year.  We had gone to the pageant two years ago and it was a nice trip.  Now that Ben was older, I assumed it could only be even better.  The idea spread and so we all, at various times, headed up to NY Friday morning.  

The drive is about 7-8 hours, so I also started to look for places to stop on the way to break the trip up.  After a glance at Google maps, I began to come up with an idea.  The finger lakes were between us and Palmyra so I started looking for activities to do at the lakes.  And that is when I found Watkins Glen State Park with its gorge hike.  Boasting over 19 waterfalls on a 1.5 mile hike and a swimming pool (admission for the whole place $8 a car), it seemed like a great pit stop on the trip up. 

We got to the park at roughly the same time as the Wellings and the Lattins, so we all prepared to head up the gorge path together.  The hike was uphill the entire way and comprised of several sets of stairs, including a set at the end called Jacob's Ladder because it is quite the struggle.  But entirely worth it.  It was gorgeous.  Lovely.  Of course, it helped that we were in western New York and it was a high of 80 that day.

I always worry when I pick a destination sight unseen and then convince others to go with me.  Will it be a bust?  Will I have dragged a bunch of people to a lame place?   And I don't have the best track record when it comes to picking races (or hikes for Mom).  This place did not disappoint.  We didn't make it to the pool because we spent so much time on the hike, but we loved it.

And then I called mom to tell her that I thought about her several times on the way up and how relieved she should be that she wasn't with us this time.