- October 1 - Mason City > Ames, Iowa - Toured the Stockman House, a 1908 Frank Lloyd Wright house of the Prairie School style in Mason City. Several immaculate Wright-inspired houses designed by his students are nearby, as well as a bank and small hotel which are under renovation. Mason City's other (and more heavily promoted) claim to fame is that it's the birthplace of Meridith Willson, the author of the novel on which "The Music Man" was based. Friends in the city of Ames gave us an excellent dinner and an evening tour of artwork around the campus of Iowa State University (22,000 students and lots of rabbits).
The Stockman House, circa 1908.
- October 2 - Ames > Postville, Iowa - Toured the Hotel Patee, a renovated 1918 hotel in Perry, Iowa. Its rooms are decorated individually in diverse themes such as Russian, needlework, and a Louis Armstrong suite with Satchmo memoribilia on the walls. Crossing Iowa, we arrived in Postville, a small farm town with a large Jewish population to support the production of kosher beef. A market full of kosher food and a house full of boys in yarmulkes confirmed to us that we were not in a typical Iowa town. More typical, perhaps, was the cow right outside our motel window.
- October 3 - Postville > Appleton, Wisconsin - Started the day with a picnic breakfast along the banks of the Mississippi River. Toured Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural school at Taliesin North, a complex encompassing one of Wright's homes, his school, a barn he designed and even a Wright windmill. Warm shirts were found at the Land's End outlet in Dodgeville, Wisconsin before passing through Ripon, where Jennifer's father went to school. Continued past Oshkosh and arrived in Appleton.
Jennifer at her dad's alma mater.
- October 4 - Appleton > Manistique, Michigan - Visited a fine museum of Harry Houdini's memoribilia in Appleton, Wisconsin, where Houdini spent his childhood. Cheesehead hats and a cheese making video were seen at a cheese shop in northern Wisconsin, but the 5-year old cheddar was the real star. Crossed over into Michigan's Upper Peninsula (slogan seen on a bumper sticker: "You betcha by golly dere, eh?") - stunning foliage colors.
At the Houdini Historical Center in Appleton, Wisconsin.
- October 5 - Manistique > Little Current, Ontario, Canada - Crossed the US/Canada border at Sault St. Marie. More incredible foliage, enhanced by dramatic rock formations and views of Lake Michigan.
These images from our cheap digital camera only hint at the intense colors we saw.
- October 6 - Little Current > Niagra Falls, Ontario - Took the ferry from South Baymouth on Manitoulin Island (the largest island in a body of fresh water in the world) to Tobermory on Ontario's Bruce Peninsula. There's a Wilcox Road on the Bruce Peninsula, as well as the Vishno Devi Temple just down the road from a Portuguese Catholic Church. We even saw an Amish horse-drawn buggy making its way down the road. Spent the night in Niagra Falls, ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and strolled along the bank across from the falls which were beautifully lit for night viewing.
The M.V. Chi-Cheemaun ferry.
Bruce Mines, Ontario, on the Bruce Peninsula.
If our digital camera was more capable, you'd see Niagra Falls here.
- October 7 - Niagra Falls > Rochester, New York - Drove by two Frank Lloyd Wright houses in Buffalo before continuing to Rochester. Bruce gave Jennifer a tour of the Rochester Institute of Technology (his alma mater) and other Rochester landmarks:
- Sal's Birdland - Forget the so-called "Buffalo Wings" found outside of western New York - Sal's has the real thing, with a sweet-hot sauce Bruce had been missing for seventeen years.
- the Record Archive - The source of most of Bruce's 1980-ish avant-garde music.
- three of Bruce's former apartments - Including one over what used to be a pizza parlor (they delivered upstairs).
- Kodak Park - A mammoth, fortress-like complex with sinister, high walls containing Kodak manufacturing facilities.
- St. Bernard's - A former monestary Bruce had photographed while at R.I.T., now senior citizen housing.
- the amusement park on Lake Ontario - Rode the 1905 carosel and strolled the pier out over the lake.
- the House of Guitars - A huge maze of a house filled with SERIOUS guitars and a back room with chaotic stacks of thousands of CDs.
The famed "wind tunnel" on the R.I.T. campus, reportedly designed for a desert climate. Rochester's severe winters produce severe drafts through this space, as Bruce used to experience as he carried in armloads of photographic equipment.
- October 8 - Rochester > Utica, New York - Viewed beautiful work at a regional quilt show before going on to the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House. The museum resides in the former residence of the founder of Eastman Kodak and was a favorite of Bruce's when he lived in Rochester. After living in the house a few years in the early part of the 20th Century, Eastman decided that the square room in the center of the house should be rectangular and had the house divided and part of it pulled back ten feet to accomplish this.
Photographing the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House.
- October 9 - Utica > Quincy, Massachusetts - Lots of Columbus Day traffic, but otherwise had a pleasant day driving across New York and Massachusetts to the Boston area. Arrived at Debbie's home in Quincy to find a mad cake-baking extravaganza in progress. We were the lucky winners of tasting privledges!
Cake tasting at Debbie's.
- October 10-14 - Quincy/Boston - Spent time with friends and former co-workers, played tourist and visited attractions we didn't make it to when we lived here, ran errands and rested. The penguins at the New England Acquarium are massively cute and as noisy as are the sharks silent. Rather than simply presenting historic material, the JFK Museum suceeds admirably in placing visitors in the context of Kennedy's time and administration.
October 13 - addendum - Walking near Massachusetts General Hospital with our friend Margaret, witnessed police van running down and arresting at gunpoint a man on a bicycle. Not an everyday occurance, but making it especially interesting was the fact that the man arrested was naked.
Penguins at the New England Aquarium.
A giant turtle at the New England Aquarium.
At the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.
- October 15 - Boston > South Portland, Maine - Left Margaret's Fabulous Beacon Hill apartment in Boston and drove to Lexington to visit with Bruce's cousins Glenda & Dick, then on to southern Maine for the night. Passed a park in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, known to most of our friends - a retired submarine is found there, the U.S.S. Albacore. "ALBACORE? Why, it's a...TUNA SUB!" [Explanatory note: In the northeast, sandwiches made baguette-style bread are often referred to as "subs" or "submarines", and "albacore" is a type of tuna, hence this pun, a lasting favorite of our protagonists and bane of those close to them.]