Day 11 - Milford - Buffalo, NY

The whole reason for our last minute jaunt to the north on this trip was to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  It's something none of us have ever done, and considering where Cooperstown is located, it's not likely we'll get back any time soon.  It's beautiful countryside, but nowhere near anything else, so you'd have to be going to here on purpose.  Before we left on the trip, Jason joined the HoF as a member and boy were we happy he did.  When we arrived at the museum, we learned that today was about halfway through a 2 week or so baseball tournament that's held yearly in town.  This translates to hundreds of Little Leaguers and their families descending upon the Hall.  We got treated like royalty, however, as we were ushered to the members' only entrance gate, bypassing the already long ticket line.  The HoF is mostly a museum which encompasses the top two floors with the actual Hall on the first floor (near the gift shop).  We all agreed this was a really great museum and you can tell it's privately funded:  a lot more updated and newer exhibits using current technology and lighting.  The collection of artifacts is quite robust and presents baseball's story all the way from the beginning (Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, etc.) to the Cubs' win in October.  The temporary exhibits were fantastic as well:  women in baseball, Latinos in baseball, baseball art, broadcasters, to name a few.  We ended up spending more time here than we planned, but it was very well worth it!

After leaving Cooperstown, I had the opportunity to squeeze in two more history-based stops:  Harriet Tubman's grave and the Women's Rights National Historical Park.  Harriet Tubman lived out her final days in Auburn, NY, and although nearly penniless by the end, townsfolk made donations and she was buried with semi-military honors at the city cemetery.  I, for one, will be happy to see her face on the twenty-dollar bill soon.  A bonus find:  William Seward (Secretary of State under President Lincoln and the one who convinced President Johnson to purchase Alaska) and his family is buried in the same cemetery.

A few miles west of Auburn is Seneca Falls.  This was the location of the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 organized by local Quakers and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.  Lucretia Mott was a featured speaker, along with Stanton.  Frederick Douglass was even in attendance, being one of the few men there.  This two-day meeting played such an important role in this country and I'm glad it's being recognized with a National Park presence.  The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel where the meeting took place is still there (3 of the 4 walls are original) and there is a nice park next to it with a water feature which draws attention to the Declaration of Sentiments the participants drew up.  Our visit was brief, but moving.

We continued west and soon arrived at Batavia, NY.  Batavia is the hometown of Caroline's ancestors once they immigrated from Czechoslovakia.  Her great-grandparents on the Martaus side are buried in the Catholic cemetery and some of their children (Caroline's grand aunts & uncles) are in the adjoining city cemetery.  We always love to work in genealogy to our trips when possible and were thrilled to be able to do this.  We located the graves after a bit of searching and even saw two groundhogs running throughout the headstones before diving into their holes.  A major employer in Batavia before and during WWII was the Massey-Harris (Harvester) company.  In fact, Caroline's family worked at the factory back in the day.  It still stands, although the Massey company shuttered its operations there in the 50s.  Parts of the old factory have been converted into new office spaces, lofts, and warehouses.  Jason navigated the Durango into any space he could which gave us the opportunity to get some cool photos.  After stopping at another local diner (we avoid chains on vacation when possible), we headed west to our hotel near the Buffalo Airport.

After getting the car unpacked, Caroline took the kids to the pool and Jason and I headed northwest to Niagara Falls to see it at night.  After many detours due to road construction, we arrived and first noticed a strong scent of wastewater effluent in the air (Jason and I work for the utility company back home, so we know this smell).  Apparently they were dumping treated water into the river last night.  Pee-yew!  We soon parked the car and walked over to the Prospect Point park, a part of the Niagara Falls State Park.  Seeing the falls lit up and night was quite neat.  First impressions:  they weren't as big/tall as I thought; they weren't as loud as I thought.  We were able to walk up to the Maid of the Mist overlook for free (since it was after dark) and get some great shots of the falls and the river as the rapids pick up right beforehand.  We headed back to our hotel, quite tired, but happy and we'll return in the morning with everyone in tow.

Day 10 - Arlington, VA - Milford, NY

Today was a travel day, but before we left the Washington area, I wanted to see the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.  A quick drive from our hotel in Arlington across the Potomac and we arrived on a beautiful morning.  Dr. King has a great view of the Jefferson Memorial and Tidal Basin from his spot.  After a quick stop by the north side of the White House (the kids and Caroline didn't see it the day before), we loaded up and drove towards Dulles Airport so we could arrive at the secondary Air and Space Museum located nearby.  I had been once before, but this visit was even better.  They've opened a new section which allows you to overlook their preservation lab/hangar.  The Apollo 11 Lunar Module was currently there having some work done to it.  In the main museum are several early aviation gliders and planes, an Air France Concorde, the Enola Gay, the Blackbird, and, of course, the Space Shuttle Discovery.  We all agreed that what we liked about this museum is that it doesn't go overboard trying to educate you.  What I mean by that is, the planes and space ships are displayed for you to enjoy fairly up close.  Placards nearby tell you what you're looking at and some of the history, but you're free to just roam around and gawk at the artifacts.  Be sure to make a visit here if you're ever in the DC area.

After a quick bite for lunch in Leesburg, VA, we headed north with our first stop at Gettysburg, PA.  Lena and I were the only ones really looking forward to the stop; Yorktown left a bad taste in the others' mouths for battlefields.  Fortunately, Gettysburg is better as there is so much more to look at.  This was my second visit, but it was fun to see all that has changed in the 30 or so years since I was last here.  We stopped at the Visitors' Center to load up on maps and snacks and then off we went.  We didn't drive the entire auto tour, but hit the highlights:  Pennsylvania Monument, National Soldier's Cemetery where Lincoln gave his famous speech, Virginia Monument, and the Arkansas Monument.  It was a short visit, but well worth it!  We got lucky too as a guided tour came up while we were in the cemetery so we got to hear where the real spot Lincoln gave his address:  spoiler alert, it's not where it's marked!  Instead, recent technology has confirmed it's located near two trees and the road in the middle of the adjoining city cemetery.

The rest of our day was driving as we made our way to central New York.  We stopped for dinner in Hazelton, PA, at a great local diner.  We unfortunately drove through the mountains and valleys around Wilkes-Barre and Scranton in the dark and didn't get to see any of the south central views of New York state.  We pulled into the hotel in Milford at about 11:00 pm (our latest yet) and all crashed into bed immediately.  Our journey continues tomorrow at Cooperstown!