Upstate New York Travels

We had breakfast at the Dartmouth House downstairs in the dining room and then we went off to get a tour of the Susan B. Anthony house, only ten minutes away. An enthusiastic teacher guide led the tour, but he was long-winded and a bit loud in his exuberance, and it ended up being a 1½ hour tour instead of the 45-minutes as advertised. Her downstairs parlor is below. A review of this sight can be read, here.

We left the house close to 12:30 and headed north to the shore of Lake Ontario to see it in the daylight. The Great Lake is one humungous fat finger of water that historically brought trade to the region. Almost there, we stopped for lunch at the Windjammer’s Café. A dozen or so men in the front were watching a football game, so we asked for a table in the back. A review of what we ate and the unusual conversation I had with the waitress can be found here.

Back on the road, and it looked like the weather was clearing. Sure enough, we got to Fort Niagara and the sun was shining. We managed to get in and walked the entire circle of buildings and towers. In the large walking circuit there was plenty to see, including the powder magazine, the French Castle, and several readouts (towers). Here is a diorama of what it once looked like, and how it looks today.

Halfway through the circuit, a young man gave us a musket demonstration. He was dressed as a tracker that traveled along the river between Canada and New York. He talked about his costume being a combination uniform. He had the red hat of a French Canadian, and the clothes of a native Indian, enabling him to enact trade with both. Then he talked all about the musket, which he loaded and shot. There was so much more about this fascinating place and we have a lot more pictures, all of which can be found here.

After this long and interesting trek, we headed back to the car and drove on to nearby Niagara Falls, where our hotel was only ten minutes away. For the next two nights we are staying at the Red Coach Inn, and dining in their restaurant, as it is right across from the river and only 500 feet from the Falls, itself.

When we arrived, we realized our room was in the back of the hotel, off the parking lot. While this made it convenient to load and unload, we were not internally connected to the hotel and had to walk around the hotel block to get to the restaurant. We had booked the Portsmouth Room with a king size bed, a refrigerator, and the bonus was the large Jacuzzi jetted tub within the bedroom.

Once we had settled in, we were ready for dinner and walked around to find a very comfortable restaurant, looking like an old-world Tudor dining hall with high ceilings, decorative chimney masonry, and dark wood timbered beams against white walls. I won’t get into the wonderful food we had in their restaurant or details about the hotel now, but a review of this hotel and its restaurant can be found here.