Soar-away success

Our adventures today began (after obligatory telly-watching and use of the indoor and outdoor hotel pools) at the National Museum of Soaring. Soaring being gliding by another name. At the top of a hill in Elmira there's a small air-strip, and we had fun watching the sail-planes (gliders) being launched. The Man and Boy investigated the small but apparently very interesting museum. They were the first visitors of the day (perhaps the week?) and the curator had to switch the lights on for them.

From there we went in search of more gorges and waterfalls. We found a lovely gorge in the Robert H. Treman State Park and had a good hike there through shady forest.

Then further down in the park we found a natural swimming pool at the foot of a beautiful waterfall. We were just ahead of its official summer opening, so there were several "No swimming" notices up which (in the usual fashion) everyone was ignoring. We spent a long time happily paddling in the cool stream and the kids shifted stones about and made their own small waterfall. Then a Park Ranger turned up and threw everyone out of the water.

Despite being in the Finger Lakes region, we barely caught a glimpse of any of the famous lakes - we only made a whistle-stop visit to Cayuga Lake in Ithaca before we began our homeward journey.

We may just have to go back...