New York, Toronto & Connecticut

Monday, November 16th, Mom, Dad, Cindy and I arose early and drove to the San Francisco Airport. We had all used frequent flyer miles to book our flights so we were on two different airlines. Cindy and I had a 7:30 AM flight on American Airlines, while Mom & Dad took a 9:00 AM flight on Delta. Arriving in New York early gave us a chance to complete the car rental before picking them up at the Delta terminal. We drove through rush-hour traffic, over the George Washington Bridge to New Jersey where we continued up the Palisades Parkway, then west to Matamorus, Pennsylvania. Our first stop was at the home of my cousin, Nancy Peters and her husband Keith where we planned to spend two nights. Nancy and Keith live in a 14-room farmhouse, which dates back more than 200 years. We visited for a while, ate some dinner, and then turned in as we had had a long day.

Nancy has a treasure trove of genealogical records stored in her barn, which Keith had pulled out for me to look at on Tuesday. I spent most of the day sorting through five banker boxes of information and found many records that have been missing from my ancestry project. I borrowed several files containing records, which I will add to the family tree when I return to California. We took a tour of the farm, including the huge barn, which Keith built to store his toys, which include a half dozen vehicles. Dad collected some black walnuts that he took back to the house to eat. The rest of the Peters' family, son Zach and daughter Amanda joined us for dinner Tuesday night. Zach just got his Civil Engineering degree and is working with a local firm and currently living at home. Amanda is a junior at college in Strasbourg, PA, about an hour south. Everyone exchanged email addresses and we promised to invite them to California as soon as we find a house.

Wednesday morning, Keith cooked breakfast, and then we packed and left for a two-hour drive up north to Delmar, NY. My mother's brother, John Cameron Brown and his wife Patty, who are Nancy's parents, reside at an assisted living community in the town where they lived for forty years. Delmar Place is a new facility and we visited them at their apartment for a bit before going downstairs and having lunch in a private dining room which Patty had arranged. Both my Aunt and Uncle seemed in good spirits as he and my mom reminisced about growing up in Rensselaer, just across the river. After lunch, we drove over to the Comfort Inn where we planned to spend the night. We rested for a couple hours, and then returned at dinnertime when we shared another meal and then said our goodbyes.

Thursday, we drove four hours west to Rochester where we planned to visit my father's sister, Jen Eddy and her husband Cliff. They live in the suburb of Webster and we arrived about 1:00 PM after lunch. Cliff was playing tennis, so Jen took us over to see a friend of hers who has a hobby of decorating eggs. She has a collection of about twenty Faberge type eggs of various sizes, which she has made over the years. Cliff has just bought a new Apple computer so we spent some time showing them some of the slideshows Cindy has created on her computer. Dinner was served around 6:00 PM and then Cindy and I left to continue our trip. Mom and Dad will stay with Jen and Cliff through the weekend and then fly back to California on Monday.

We stayed at a little motel on Route 104 in Brockport, NY on Thursday night. Route 104 is also known as The Ridge Road and runs along a ridge that forms the southern boundary of Lake Ontario. Almost two hundred years ago, my Great-great-great grandfather Elias Bacon moved from Connecticut to upstate New York with his two brothers where he took an article of 200 acres from the Holland Land Company and worked clearing trees along the ridge so the road to open the area could be built. Generations of Bacon ancestors have farmed this land, and 2009 is the bi-Centennial celebration in Albion, the county seat of Orleans County.

We checked out of the Econolodge in Brockport Friday morning and drove west on Ridge Road until we reached Gaines. Turning left on Oak Orchard Road, we drove down to Five Corners, the site of The Bacon Homestead. Just past the original homestead, on what is currently the Watts Farm is Union Cemetery. We located and photographed the headstones of eleven Bacon ancestors buried at this site, including Elias, Moses & Hosea, and the original settlers of this area. We drove down Bacon Road to Brown Road where we found Greystone Farm, one of the original cobblestone houses in the area. There was nobody home at Greystone Farm, so we returned to Oak Orchard Road and The Bacon Homestead Farm, with a cobblestone farmhouse originally built by Elias Bacon and added to by his descendents. The farm remains in the family and is now home to Mary Neilans. I spoke with Mary who told me a little about the community and the Watts Farm next door. Elias Earl Harding whose grandfather married Hanna Vienna Bacon and lived in the Moses Bacon home back in 1820 originally owned Watts Farm. There is a gift shop connected with the Watts Farm where we browsed for a few minutes. The manager had a brochure titled "The Bacon Family at Five Corners, a History of Farming and Community" which she gave me and is reproduced here.

Two miles south of Gaines is Albion, the Orleans County Seat. The Erie Canal splits the city, which is full of historical buildings and churches. I had hoped to get into the Swan Library as they have a good historical section about the area, however, they did not open until 11:00 AM, and I did not want to wait that long.

We left the area, continuing our trip west to Niagara Falls on The Ridge Road. We arrived at the American side of Niagara Falls about 11:00 AM, where we parked and walked over to the falls. Being almost winter, there were not too many people visiting the falls. We took some photos from the observation tower, and then walked across the pedestrian bridge to the Horseshoe Falls where we took the elevator down to the base of the falls. Tourists used to be able to walk behind the falls on a wooden staircase, which led to the Cave of the Winds, but the cave collapsed several years ago. The staircase remains and in summer you can walk out over the rubble of stones at the base of the falls, but in winter they remove the entire wooden staircase, as the ice would destroy it anyway. We observed the falls from a wooden platform that has not yet been removed for the season.

We ate lunch at a Hard Rock Cafe and then drove over the boarder where we checked into the Hilton Towers hotel. We have a fantastic view of the falls from the top floor of the hotel. Cindy relaxed inn the room while I went down to the casino for a few hours before returning with some dinner. At 9:00 PM there was a fireworks show over the falls.

Saturday we ate a delicious breakfast at the Hilton, and then walked down to the river where we could observe the falls up close from the Canadian side. Then we walked over to see an IMAX movie about the history of the falls and some of the daredevils who have made it their theater. Returning to the hotel, we checked out before noon and continued our trip up to Toronto.

The drive over to Toronto was about 90 minutes. We checked into The Intercontinental Hotel in Yorkville around 2:00 PM and after getting settled, went out for a walk. Yorkville is an older section of Toronto, located a couple miles north of the lake. It is now a shopping district with many popular residential neighborhoods nearby. We walked the length of Bloor Street and then returned and ate a leisurely dinner in a second floor Chinese restaurant overlooking the street.

Sunday morning I went to the gym for a half hour before getting dressed to meet Cindy's classmate Kim Dickey for breakfast. Kim and Cindy met each other in France where they were in school together for a year. Kim now works for CB Richard Ellis in Toronto. We had a 2 1/2 hour breakfast with the girls catching up on old times and planning new adventures together. In the afternoon we took a bus tour of the city. The tour covered most of the city's downtown sites, but judging from previous experience, this tour was pretty boring.

Monday we checked out of the Intercontinental Hotel and drove three hours east to Kingston, Ontario. Kingston is home to Ft. Henry, which played a prominent role in the war of 1812, and has a number of stately homes on the shore of Lake Ontario. Cindy walked around the town while I caught up on some correspondence. Cindy's friend from Hangzhou, whose name is also Cindy, and her husband Tom, came from Ottawa Monday night to meet us for dinner. They brought their nine-month old son, Lincoln, but left their 2-year old at home. Tom and Cindy were married in China about five years ago and have been living in Western Canada until just recently when Tom went back to work for the Canadian Diplomatic Corps and they moved to the capital. We had a great dinner and arranged for them to visit us in California as soon as we get settled in our new house.

The next day we left Canada and drove seven hours south to Connecticut. Along the way we stopped for lunch in Liberty, NY where I had one of the best Italian meals I have ever had. We arrived at Denny & Nancy LeClerc's home just after 5:00 PM. Both Lindsey and Will were home from college for the weekend. We had a great dinner and spent the night at their home.

I had planned to spend Wednesday organizing and packing the household goods I have stored at Trish Gartons home in Fairfield for the last eight years to prepare them for shipment to California. I went down to Norwalk with Denny at 6:00 AM where he gave me a stack of moving boxes. I also picked up additional boxes at a local moving company, then returned to pick up Cindy and move over to Trish's house where we will spend the next two days packing. I had much more stuff than I remembered and had to go out to buy even move boxes at mid-day. We took a break in the afternoon and drove down to Rye, NY where we met with Cindy's friend, James Bradley in his new waterfront home. He has just published his third book, The Imperial Cruise, and is on a nationwide book tour. We'll see him again next Tuesday when he speaks at the Marine Memorial in San Francisco. Wednesday night, we took Trish & Rachel to Boston Market for dinner.

I finished packing about 2:00 PM on Thanksgiving. We were going to Bethel for dinner and Trish had prepared lamb, vegetables and pie to add to the table. We arrived at Melody's home at 4:00 PM and I discovered that I was the only male among nine women, all of whom had brought wonderful dishes. We all had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner.

Friday morning we packed and left Trish's home early and drove up to Foxwoods where we will spend the next three days. As usual, Dominic had arranged a beautiful corner suite for our stay. Cindy�s favorite restaurant is the private club that caters to the large number of Asians who frequent Foxwoods, and where she can get authentic Chinese food day and night. We attended two concerts, one on Friday night with John Fogerty and the other on Sunday with Wynonna. Our stay was enjoyable and we left Monday morning to catch our 3:30 PM flight back to California.

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