A Break from Dyeing -- Visitors to Rochester!!

We had visitors from Florida up for a few days to fulfill some items on their bucket list -- the biggest of which was a visit to Niagara Falls.  We filled their days pretty well and we were all pretty exhausted by the end of the visit!!

This is an activity we did the first day which was a ride down the Erie Canal and experiencing one of the locks.  Even though it looks like the water in front is filling up the locks, it is really coming up from below and this is just a "leak".  Where that white line is on the wall is how high the water eventually gets!  We also took the up to visit a local Webster place -- where the Irondequoit Bay joins Lake Ontario.  There is a nice stone pier and lots of boat traffic.  

The next day we headed down to Corning NY to visit the Corning Museum of Glass (CMOG).  Warren and I frequently would visit when we were up here in the winters.  This was the first time we have gone during the tourist season!  (A side note is that our daughter works for Corning down in NC.)  What a difference to be there in the tourist season!!!  Lots and lots of demonstrations and a whole new wing with contemporary glass art.  It was fantastic!  This is the ongoing glass show in the big auditorium.  Here a glass blower is adding a dragonfiy to the handle of a pitcher he has just completed.  I wouldn't mind having this pitcher!!  We also saw shows on glass fibers used for telecommunication and on breaking the different kinds of glass as well as the more traditional flame glass.  The contemporary art was a wonderful addition.  Of course the shops at CMOG are to die for!!  It is like an exhibit of contemporary glass as well!!

 This was entitled Leaves and was different from all the different angles of looking at it.

The black piece is actually a mile of black beads made into a large vessel like structure.

We took the long way home from Corning and stopped at one of my favorite places -- Montour Falls.  You can see how big this is from seeing the person at the fence level.  I get such a kick out of this falls as it seeming sits between two houses and the noise must be something when there is more water falling.  In fact it falls into a river that is behind these structures.

The next (very very hot and humid) day, we headed west to Niagara Falls USA and then Canada.  This is of course the view from the US side.  You can see the Canadian falls in the distance.  

Our first order of business was to take a ride on the Maid of the Mist -- an absolute must do for any visitor to Niagara Falls.  Here you can see it below  under the rainbow created by the falls.  It gets amazingly close to the falls and you get VERY wet!

This is a closeup of the boat.  We stood on the bottom deck at the front.  The pictures I took on the boat have too many water spots to show!!

Here are friends with hair slightly the worst for the trip on the Maid!!  They were great guests!!

 This is the view of the American Falls from the boat.

We next went over to the Canadian side.  As there was no parking available anywhere there (unlike many of our other visits), we let off our guests to see the view from this side and we headed to a side street to wait before picking them up and heading to our next destination which was the scenic overlook of the whirlpool in the Niagara Gorge.  It is the southern end of where the Jet Boat that my dh and my friend took later.  I was surprised by how blue/aqua the water was.  There is a gondola that rides over this but we didn't take that as it was from the American side.

This shows the gondola.

We then headed to Niagara-on-the-Lake where we ate lunch and then headed to the Jet Boat ride which Vicki and Warren were going to take. I had no desire to get soaking wet and it had somewhat scared me the only time I have taken it!!  This was the boat they went out on.  Confused the heck out of me when they came back on a lavender boat!!!  I was wildly checking my pictures to make sure they had been on an orange boat!!

They were posing here for the obligatory tourist pictures.

This was a great picture of my husband with my friend Vicki sitting next to him as they headed out on the boat!!

We were exhausted after the day and arrived home about 12 hours after we left.  The next day we just declared a day of rest before they headed to the second half of their trip!!

And now back to dyeing and getting ready for my upcoming trip to Hawaii!!
I have the fabric sitting in the soda ash solution.  I had tested some mystery fabric strips in a recent batch (pictures later) and found they were all pfd so have a BIG pile of ironed and folded fabric sitting in that solution!!  Now to start coming up with some design ideas!!  Hopefully I will get with Julie this week or the next to put some images on fabric -- something I have been meaning to do for some time -- more on that in subsequent blogs as well!!!!