Getaway to the Fingerlakes

Dad and Agnes were SO kind as to take care of the kids for a overnight, freeing Jon and me to snatch some time away! We were celebrating our 7th anniversary, just a few months late.

We took the scenic way, route 31 through Palmyra (the birthplace of the Mormon church!) and then route 96 through Waterloo (birthplace of, ready? Memorial Day. *shrug*).

In Palmyra, there is a corner with four churches, one Episcopal, one Presbyterian, one Methodist, and one Lutheran. So who says religion is dead in the Northeast? :-)

Just another adorable WNYS town.

I LOVE all the Victorian houses in these little towns. 

We arrived in Seneca Falls and went immediately to the Women's Rights National Historic Park Visitor's Center.

The Declaration of Sentiments was engraved on this water wall. It was so gorgeous! If you haven't read it in a while, it deserves another look. What a great document.

Me, next to the wall.

We learned that Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott planned this whole event in about 2 weeks. Mott was in Seneca Falls and was re-introduced to Stanton, and the two of them began plotting a convention. Mott had a train ticket to return to Philadelphia two weeks later, so they had to rustle up a lot of participants with absolutely no internet to help them. They wrote a letter to Frederick Douglas, and he responded that he would certainly come. He did come out from his home in Rochester, he brought friends, and he took minutes diligently. His promotional efforts did a lot for the women's rights cause.

The museum, though slightly less well organized than we would have liked, was delightful.

Sojourner Truth

Demonstrating negative effects of corset use

Comparing average pay between sexes and ethnicities. Sobering. 

Following this, we had a delightful tour of the Wesleyan Chapel where the convention took place.

You don't need an encyclopedia of all that we learned. You should go take the tour yourself! The park ranger did a lovely job. A major thing we learned, however, was that we were visiting exactly 165 years to the DAY from the convention. I got goosebumps; we had no idea.

We took a stroll downtown, after the museum & tour.

Oh guess what. Seneca Falls is widely believed to be the inspiration for Bedford Falls in the movie, It's a Wonderful Life. They do have a case. There are a lot of similarities, and there are references to Rochester, Elmira, and Buffalo as being nearby cities. The town is so sure they're the real life Bedford Falls they've made a museum!

Cute boat on the canal.

More It's a Wonderful Life nods.

Our adorable bed and breakfast roasted their own coffee beans!

Saturday morning we took a walk along Cayuga Lake before returning the kids. It was a lovely morning. The intense heat had finally broken, but the water was still much warmer than usual. Great combination.

I got thoughtful, after all the history and all the scenery. We look at the details of peoples' lives from 150 years ago, and the distance makes them interesting. An ordinary day, or a boring day, or a vexing day for the subjects of our study, we look at them through this halo of History. It's almost the same as gazing across a body of water at the land beyond.

When you look at villages atop mountains, or the towns we can see from an airplane, or hazy land across the water, the sight has such a glamour. We think, oh how tranquil! I want to go there.

And for all we know, there is someone gazing up at the airplane, or down the mountain, or back at us across the water thinking, I want to go there! How delightful it looks.

So I don't know. Either neither place is really extraordinary, and nothing really is, or everything- everything- is extraordinary. Worthy of an audience.

This morning certainly was.

I hate how pregnant I look here. I assure you, we have nothing to announce.