It's a Wonderful Time

Seneca Falls is thought to be the inspiration for the classic movie It's a Wonderful Life. They even have celebrations at Christmas Time related to the movie. However, even more interesting is the history of this town, especially involving women's rights. The first Women's Rights Convention was held in 1848 though it would take another 72 years before we got the right to vote. We spent a day in this historic town. First up was to visit the Women's Rights National Historic Park.

There they presented a Declaration of Sentiments, based on the language and content of the Declaration of Independence. Stating that "all men and women are created equal," they demanded equal rights for women, including - a radical idea - the right to vote. An estimate 300 people attended the Convention; the document was ratified and was signed by 68 women and 32 men.

The Declaration of Sentiments  is written on the waterfall wall shown in the pictures above with all the signatures of the women and men who signed it. Only one woman would live to actually vote in 1920.

Inside were lots of interesting exhibitions and an inspirational film. 

Next door from the Museum is the Wesleyan Chapel where the first Women's Rights Convention was held.

We walked through a little of the town and down to the Cayuga-Seneca Canal area.

We then walked part of the Cayuga-Seneca trail called the Frank J. Ludovico Sculpture Trail that has a number of sculptures, inspired by the women's rights movement, and created mostly by women artists.
The trail, used by bikers and hikers, was created on an old rail trail and right next to the canal.

It was another lovely walk on a lovely day.

We have had a great time in New York, but time to explore a few more new states, first New Hampshire for a few days and then onto Maine.

More Adventures in Finger Lakes - Sampson State Park

Sampson State Park is a 300+ sites on the shores of Lake Seneca. This was one time a Naval Training station and there is now a military museum there that you pass before getting to the campsites. This caused us a little confusion as we first didn't go down the right road as we thought it was just the military site. We headed down a road that didn't really have any easy place to turn around and ended up unhooking but finally made it. We are here for the fourth of July weekend and I had actually made reservations. There were only spots in the big open area with no hooks ups left. The map showed three rows and we thought it would be a zoo with people camped everywhere on the grass. However, we were in the third row and the first two rows were near the water but then there was a large area in between those rows and ours. There was no one in our row when we got there and even when it filled up for the weekend, it never got crazy and was quite pleasant.

Here is our view when we first got there

Museum that is in back of the campground

After more people arrived

We road our bikes a little though there was some hill riding involved.

Love those sunsets.

On the fourth we drove back to Watkins Glen for another hike with Savannah. Beautiful scenery on the way.

We went to a different entrance point at Watkins Glen and passed a lovely pond.

We passed some no longer used tables. Look at all the moss on the one below.

We had another nice walk along the quiet trail. Most people were on the Gorge Trail that was very busy.

There is a campground here as well as a large day area that was very busy on this holiday.

On our way back we stopped at a lovely waterfall that was just on the side of the road and even took a selfie.

We had been to a few wineries and so decided to do something different and went to a distillery. Finger Lakes Distillery which overlooks Seneca Lake used locally grown fruit to product their vodka, gins, whiskey, brand and liqueurs. We both had tastes picking different liquors. There was an interesting reisiling grappa but decided to buy the berry vodka and Joe picked out a honey whiskey which we don't usually drink but he liked the taste and so something new and different.

We had a quiet 4th evening. We had hoped there might have been fireworks set off across the lake that we could watch. There was but it was on the other side of the hills and there was only a little bit that went up high enough to see.