Thursday afternoon, after I finished my morning physical therapy, we went up to Corning, NY where we were able to stay indoors while it was raining--often quite hard.
The Corning Museum of Glass is, perhaps the premier museum for the history of glass in the world. The exhibits are fantastic and educational. One thing that's always enjoyable to see is one of the "gaffers" (glass blowers) demonstrate his or her skills.There's a lot of new construction going on and the museum will be expanding in the next year or so.
New glassblower's demonstration stage.
Cameras and large screen TVs (upper right) give you
an excellent view of the details of the gaffer's work.
an excellent view of the details of the gaffer's work.
Today they made a flower vase.
We also visited the Rockwell Museum of Western Art. Their special exhibit at this time was of classic National Geographic photos. It was nice but I still like the art from Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell. (I did not take any photos at the Rockwell. I've done so in the past but just enjoyed walking around and looking at the paintings and bronzes this time out.)
Both museums required a lot of walking and I put my new knees through the wringer. But there was more to come....
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Friday the weather forecast was a bit better and we went west where the museums and state parks would have us outdoors much of the time. It was still overcast and cloudy with a few sprinkles but it was better than it had been on Thursday. The ride along Route 6 was enjoyable by itself, but our westernmost destination, the Lumbermen's Museum was under construction for a huge expansion. The main exhibit building was closed. It hosed a great exhibit about the CCCs and was the major reason for our visit. *Sigh*
New addition on the museum should be finished next spring.
The out buildings were (mostly--the mess hall was locked) open and we still got a chance to walk around to see some of the equipment used during the heyday of lumber activity in Pennsylvania.
Sue & Bruce at the Lumbermen's Museum.
Small shuttle engine at the Lumbermen's Museum.
Shay engine used to haul logs out of the woods at the Lumbermen's Museum.
Sue & Terry on the Shay engine.
CCC Cabin & statue at the Lumbermen's Museum.
Leaving the Lumbermen's Museum, we continued west to Coudersport to have lunch and then turned back east to visit Leonard Harrison State Park and the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. Even with the leaves still green, the view is magnificent. In about three weeks when the fall colors arrive, it will be even better.
View North from the view point.
View South from the view point.
View West from the view point.
Afterward we stopped at the Mansfield farmer's market and went back to the Aerie for dinner. As we were eating, the skies opened up and it poured--despite the earlier forecast that it wasn't supposed to rain again this weekend. It rained all Friday night and into the wee hours of Saturday. In all we got 0.25 inches of rain--that wasn't forecast or even recorded by weather.com. That was on top of the 1.15 inches we got Wednesday night and Thursday. We seem to have timed our touring pretty well.
Sue and Bruce left early Saturday to wend their way back east. The sky eventually cleared and the sun came out after noon.
