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Published: March 24th 2013
The Finger Lakes In Winter
We were reminded of how beautiful the Finger Lakes of New York are even in winter!Most of February was taken up with a 3 week road trip from upstate NY to Florida stopping to see friends and family and giving Bob a much needed boat show fix in Miami.
As a result of taking photos for the blog we have started to look at things differently. Our long absences from the United States give us an opportunity to see it much the way we do when visiting new countries. Things that we have passed a 1,000 times and barely noticed now amaze us with their beauty. The Adirondack Mountains, Blue Ridge and those incredible sunrises and sunsets make us think of places we have visited in the Caribbean and in Europe.
We first started out by heading west to Syracuse to meet with our financial planner to be sure we are still on track and found that everything seems to be doing well with our accounts so we can rest easy for another year! We went on to visit with friends back in the Trumansburg, Ithaca and Ovid area where we last lived. It was great to connect with those that we knew from our old neighborhood, our sailing friends and coworkers at both
The Amish in Upstate NY
The Amish still ply the roads out in the area where we used to live near Ovid NY. South Seneca and Cornell. We would have loved to connect with more, but we had decided to limit our trip to 3 weeks therefore only had a chance to stay in the area a few days. Even with the time constraint we were able to set up time to see a few of our friends and as a bonus we went to one of the local restaurants and ran into a few more people that we hadn’t planned on seeing – that is the nice thing about a small community! Thanks everyone for squeezing in some time to see us – even though it was on super bowl weekend! We especially would like to thank Mary and Henry for opening their incredibly beautiful home to us, and for being such understanding hosts. While in the area we had a snowstorm which reminded us of the reason we decided that when we “swallow the hook” and move back to land it will not be in snow country! We have been spoiled by the warmer climates!
Our trip took us south from Ithaca NY toward South Carolina where Uncle Bob (Bob’s namesake), Maggie, David, Ben, Megan and Virginia live.
Winter Is still Beautiful
The winter welcomed us back while in the US. Lock 14 on the Erie Canal looked quite different when we left in August 2010! On the way down we took a couple of days to explore a couple of towns in both Virginia and South Carolina to see where we might want to settle when we return to the US. Fortunately we discovered that there are definitely several places we could easily call home. Luckily we don’t need to make the decision right now, we are still very happy with living on Tsamaya and exploring the world!
It was great to have a chance to catch up with some of Bob’s family in South Carolina, we hadn’t spent much time with them before – thanks again for your hospitality Uncle Bob, Maggie and Dave and kids – we really enjoyed our time with you. Bob especially liked having a chance to do some woodworking, but was sorry he didn’t get the project finished for you. Be sure to keep us posted on how it turns out!
We continued our trek southward and made it to Pensacola, FL. This gave us a chance to catch up with our friends JoAnne and Jim that we met in Annapolis when we first started our trip south. They gave us a great tour of the area,
Always Viewing the Sky
Even while on land we always have our eye on the sky and what weather it will bring. were great hosts complete with a valentine chocolate treat on our pillow and took us to see the fabulous National Navy Aviation Museum on the base located there. The number and variety of aircraft in pristine condition at this museum is amazing. What is additionally astonishing is that all the work at the museum including the restoration of the aircraft is done by volunteers. Bob could have spent days exploring the exhibits, but unfortunately we will have to save it for our next visit.
We made a few more stops while in Florida – down the west side of the state to Rotonda West to visit close friends, Peg & Dave for a couple of nights. We were met with two freshly made gin and tonics and immediately escorted to their new pool where we sat outside with our feet in the 80 degree water. Now, that is the perfect antidote for eight hours of driving. We got a great tour and sales pitch for the area – it sure is tempting, they are so close to the beautiful Gulf coast and prices are definitely right. Peg, sorry we didn’t get a chance to use those beautiful robes but
Water Everywhere
No matter where we travel we always seem to gravitate to the water as seen here in Florida, South Carolina & Maryland. we will definitely be back next year.
Unfortunately our time was tight and we had to push on to see Jim and Judy, sailing friends from Cayuga Lake who now live in Ft. Myers. We appreciated them meeting us for lunch, we only had a few hours to visit but as always we had fun catching up.
Our next stop was the Miami boat show which took us across the Everglades with its miles of canals and swamp land. We were able to spot a few alligators and numerous birds of prey through this area. There was even a warning sign for panther, but unfortunately we didn’t cross paths with one as it would have been quite a sighting! We spent a couple of days in Miami attending the Miami Boat Show with the intention of talking to quite a few vendors. The people at Furuno were extremely helpful in solving our electronic problems and we were able to pick up some much-needed hardware and advice from other vendors. Being long term Annapolis boat show fans the Miami boat show is such a culture shift for us. The Annapolis show is entirely sailboats while the Miami show is
Taughannock Falls in Winter
Taughannock Falls is beautiful in all seasons 75% power with a little bit of sailing thrown in for good measure. It’s easy to tell the difference between the sailors and the power boaters. Sailors are dressed comfortably in slightly threadbare shorts and T-shirts while the power boaters are all new and shiny (not that we’re biased). The other thing we picked up on here is the amount of Spanish spoken. It’s almost as common as English. It was wonderful spending time in a bilingual culture as part of the United States. It reminded us of Europe and how easy people are with multiple languages.
Once we left Miami we turned north for the return trip. We hated the thought of having to give up our shorts and sandals for jeans and snow boots! The good part was that we still had a few more friends to visit.
Next we stopped in Hilton Head to see our dear friends, Joe & Meredith. As always they were lovely hosts and enjoyed walking the beach and catching up on what has been happening since we last saw them. While there we were able to attend an excellent concert with Brandon Marsalis which was a real bonus.
We
Everglades
Our road trip took us across the Everglades in Florida giving us a view of some of the wildlife on our way. had a couple of places to check out in Virginia and then headed to Maryland by way of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. It is quite an impressive structure to say the least. The span from shore to shore is 17.6 miles and is crossed by a combination of bridges and tunnels under the Chesapeake. The reason this was done was to ensure that the Navy ships at Norfolk would never be caught should disaster strike the bridge. It is well worth the $12 charge to use it – it is something to see as well as it shortens the trip to Maryland when coming from Norfolk.
Last but not least we made it to visit John and Linda in Maryland. We were treated to John (always the history teacher) giving us an excellent historical tour of the area. We definitely think he should buy himself an open top yellow bus and give historical tours of the area – everyone would learn lots! We also visited the Asseteague Island National Seashore with a chance to see many of their 109 wild ponies and even saw a Sitka deer. Hurricane Sandy did a great deal of damage to the park but
A few of the animals we saw
Just a few of the examples of wildlife viewed while on our visit to the US this year. The fox was in my sister’s backyard and the others seen in Maryland at the Asseteague Island National Seashore.
it’s amazing how much the rangers have already repaired. The visitor center is an excellent one and if you have time you should put this on your list of places to visit.
In three weeks we traveled 4,125 miles and spent numerous hours in the car, but it was all worth it as we thoroughly enjoyed catching up with friends and family. What always amazes us when visiting friends and family is how comfortable it is to pick up where you left off with your friendship. We guess that’s what the meaning of friends really is. Thank you to all for your kindness and friendship. There are other friends that we know we missed seeing this time - hopefully the next time we are back in the US we will be able to catch up with you! We miss you all and look forward to the next time we have a chance to visit.
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