Saturday, May 31 – Our final full day dawned a bit grey and gloomy, but it wasn’t raining so I did get out for my morning jog in the mist.

The vote yesterday was to go back to thedonut shop/diner for breakfast — close, good prices and perfectly fine diner style breakfasts. Once again, there were some dogs at an adjoining table which made the men happy.

As we knew the rain was coming, today was museum day. First stop, the Glenn Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport. This was Erin catering to Dan by sending us to a museum full of airplanes. Pure, unadulterated pandering on her part. I am afraid I had never even heard of Glenn Curtiss, but it turns out he had a huge impact on the development of aviation at the start of the 20th century. Much to my surprises, I actually found the museum and the story of his life a lot more interesting than anticipated.

After a couple of hours there, we drove thirty minutes to Corning. Dom found an Asian place which turned out to be a perfect spot for a light lunch. As an extra bonus, we got 20% off our meal as they were having their grand opening! Can’t beat that luck!

After lunch, it was off to the Corning Museum of Glass. It was a little humbling to discover Dan and I qualified for a senior discount, even more so when the young woman at the counter didn”t even ask us to prove it. However, must admit, we weren”t too vain to take it!

The museum itself was excellent. Great exhibits, interesting demonstrations. We probably could have spent the entire day there, but, as with any large museum, my poor little brain was begin to get oversaturated with information, so a few hours was good. I definitely recommend a stop to anyone who might be visiting this area–I could even see myself going back if I am in this region again.

So, despite the weather being a bit of a downer for our last day, the content more than made up for it.

We returned to the hotel and had about an hour to relax before we headed out to dinner. We talked about checking into the the Roosterfish Pub to see what menu items weren’t available tonight 😀, but we had the crazy idea that we might go some place where we could actually get the food they advertised.

Since Erin has done such a fine job with travel arrangements, for our final dinner, we booked a reservation at the Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, famous for their vegetarian cookbooks and natural food menu.

Ithaca is about a half hour drive from Watkins Glen and when we arrived, there was some sort of street festival in progress. In practical terms, that meant no parking, lots of pedestrians and a band playing some sort of jazz/pop hybrid at a million decibels. How lucky! Finally got a space in a parking garage which involved slowly winding around seven levels of vehicles with that music reverberating on the cement walls and then waiting for the world’s slowest elevator. Nothing brings out familial love like that kind of atmosphere — pretty sure Dom was regretting his life choices by the time we reached the street.

However, equilibrium was restored once we could escape the worst of the band noise. Food at the restaurant was good, and Erin enjoyed having multiple menu choices, though I will say, the rather expensive ‘cheese board’ while tasty, would have left your average field mouse a bit peckish.

Getting out of the parking garage proved to be almost as much fun as entering. First, the band was still wailing away (emphasis on the wailing part). Then, multiple signs indicated that payment was required at the ‘pay station’ on the ground floor. Said pay station was filled with what appeared to be bark mulch which didn’t seem conducive to accepting a credit card. We finally decided to just take our chances at the exit, only to find that the gate was wide open, no payment necessary. Good thing they have all that payment signage. However, having had some food and drink, this seemed more amusing than annoying.

A fine final full day, now it is time to look at packing up and driving home. However, I shall think about all that tomorrow…

16,071 steps

8.3 miles