We continued our tradition of making an East Coast trip each summer to visit family and friends. We missed the last two summers due to issues with our airplane and this year we sold the airplane. So we had to execute this trip through a combination of planes, trains, and automobiles as an homage to the movie.
This trip also supported my Sixty Sixties quest as I had several that were related to family, friends, colleagues, and nostalgia that could be accomplished as well.
Johnson City, TN
Nancy embarked first, heading to Johnson City, TN on Sunday July 27 to help care for her mom, Alma. Alma fell a couple of months before and was still in rehab for a broken arm and complications related to changes in the drug regimen. Nancy felt like she helped move the ball forward on a couple of medical coordination fronts and was also able to relieve her brother, Richard, who has been staying and helping Alma through the trials and tribulations.
I arrived a few days later and spent some quality time with Alma and her friends (check off of my first sixty-sixty item). We also had a nice dinner at the Portico Restaurant with Sloan classmate, Ray Hatch and his wife Cynthia. We also had an interesting dinner at the Johnson City Tupelo Honey restaurant (fresh, creative Southern food) located in the restored Clinchfield Train Depot.
My time in Johnson City was somewhat marred by an attack on my server (that hosts this site). We had about 40 viruses and my back-ups didn’t go far enough. So I had no choice but to rebuild parts of the server which took me about 8 hours. Not a fun way to spend a vacation day.
Easton, MD
On Monday Aug 3 we flew via USAir to DCA (Reagan National Airport) and got a rental car to transport ourselves to Easton, MD on the Eastern Shore. We were visiting Dave (my Princeton advisor) and Mary Ann Hazen. They had recently sold their house in Oxford, MD and had settled into Londonderry on the Tred Avon. As expected, Dave has been there about a year and is already completing a history for the facility. (He did one for his church, yacht club, trip to India, …).
We had a nice visit. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to salvage Mary Ann’s ancient Mac for her. She has subsequently told me that she is reluctantly getting a new one, which means she has to swap some software. We went to dinner at the Tidewater Inn and enjoyed old town Easton. So much so, the next morning Nancy came back and shopped it while I got some Seeq work done.
We rendezvoused for lunch with Art and Roselee Roberts. Art was my federal government relations consultant (“lobbyist”) while I was at ERAU. We accomplished a myriad of great things done together and it was great catching up with him. They have retired to St. Michaels, MD. Our lunch spot was Out of the Fire and we remembered this place from previous visits. It was excellent again.
We had dinner Tuesday night at the Londonderry and it was quite good and reasonably priced. The setting was comfortable and only a short walk from the Hazen’s apartment.
That evening we took the rental car back to DCA and checked in to the downtown Doubletree Hotel. The next morning we took the 8AM Acela Express to NYC in order to get our train portion of the trip accomplished. It was quite comfortable, allowed me to get more Seeq work done, and we were served an acceptable breakfast in first class.
NYC
We arrived in NYC and taxied to the Yale Club where we met Mort Feinberg for lunch. He has been my executive coach since 1992 and we have worked together on a multitude of business and organization issues. Even though Mort is in his 90’s he stays active and provides valuable consults with his colleagues. It was great to catch up with him.
Nancy and I did some shopping including visiting the NYC Apple Store and Bergdorf Goodman (I’ll let the reader decide who did which store). We had a lovely dinner the 21 Club. One of our major donors at ERAU introduced me to the restaurant and it was the favorite of Ambassador Crotty’s as well. I have been there several times since and even took Tabitha there when she lived in NYC.
The restaurant was actually a famous speakeasy during the prohibition era and had secret room for alcohol that was not found despite several inspections by the authorities. It turns out the secret room was actually under the building next door and had a hidden multi-ton door that required a special unlocking procedure. I’ve gotten the tour several times and we’ve even eaten in the cellar room as well.
Saratoga Springs, NY
That evening we taxied to La Guardia airport and picked up a rental car to trek to Albany NY for the night. The next morning we pressed the rest of the way to Saratoga Springs NY. We were rendezvousing with Lyman and Leslie Woods. Lyman was been a friend for many years after I met him at ERAU. His son went to ERAU and he was helping with the parent’s network. He became a member of the President’s Council and was a great resource to me as we worked to make changes at ERAU.
We went to the races at Saratoga Springs where Dick and Lyman reminded me how to place bets. My best winner was when I joined a bet with them, but I got an Exacta on the 9th race to enable me to nearly break even. That night we had dinner at the Gideon Putnam spa and resort. It was a nice meal, quiet, with good discussion.
Elmira | Corning | Big Flats | Horseheads, NY
On Friday morning Nancy and I departed via rental car to drive 3.5 hours to the Elmira NY area, where I grew up. I had several Sixty Sixties related to visiting the area and we spent 1.5 days taking bunches of pictures and touring around.
Our first stop was the National Soaring Museum. I was a junior attendant there (in the Merrill House building) and my Mom ultimately became the Executive Director. She took it through several fund raising campaigns and it was great to visit and see how it continues to grow. Although I have a few pictures in the gallery below, I made a separate SmugMug gallery for the NSM here.
In the pictures below you will spot an HP-18 (I was building one when in college), my first automated panorama with my new camera, and a Schweizer exhibit. In the Schweizer exhibit is a wooden TG-3 wing that barely fits. As a result, I had the sawed-off wing-tip in my bedroom as an extra bookshelf!
I had some conference calls that afternoon and found a local hotel to get some quiet space. Our hotel was in Sayre, PA (about 23 miles away) since the NASCAR race ongoing at Watkins Glen has booked all of the hotels in the area. Nancy did some shopping at the Arnot Mall while I did my calls and then we had a Japanese dinner (mostly sushi) at the Big Flats (actually Fisherville) Mt. Fuji restaurant.
Saturday we headed to Corning (via the Starbucks in Big Flats). While passing through Big Flats, Nancy mailed a box back to herself and we spotted that baseball field where my homerun was turned into a ground rule double (the fence hadn’t been built yet and I hit a barn). It doesn’t bother me at all as I hardly remember now 45 years later.
The main attraction for me in Corning is the Corning Museum of Glass. It has been updated and redone to great style. I had mistakenly thought I would have preferred the old familiar one, but the upgrades were nice. In addition to the pictures below I made a SmugMug gallery here. I really liked all of the demonstrations that replaced the Steuben factory and the history section has been redone.
Downtown Corning was very nice and is now referred to as the Gaffer District. It was mostly underwater during the 1972 flood, but has come back nicely. It has been rebuilt and we are looking forward to a future vacation or perhaps family reunion there.
We had lunch at a family favorite restaurant called Sorge’s. One funny story is that at one large family dinner 6 year old sister Sue instead on sitting at the head of the table. Ultimately she was presented with the bill due to a collaboration between our dad and the waitress when Sue was in the restroom. If only we had iPhones then to collect the look on her face. It was priceless when she was informed that she may have to do dishes if she doesn’t have the money.
We then proceeded to Horseheads to view our first house in the area. As I was taking pictures of 217 Hibbard Avenue, the current owner came up (husband’s name is William Thomas) to me and we discussed the neighborhood and status of the neighbors (Zaffarano’s).
I then snapped pictures of all of our schools (Broad Street Elementary, Gardner Road Elementary, Junior High East, Junior High West (Sing Sing), and the Senior High School. It was surprising how far we commuted via bikes and walking in those days.
Note below the interesting Horseheads sculptures added to the Interstate overpasses.
We then headed to Elmira. We got a picture of the reformatory where we did quite a bit of tobogganing during the winter, of the ever-intriguing Strathmont Mansion in West Elmira, and then proceeded to Eldridge Park.
Eldridge Park was the local amusement park as we grew up. It had several rides including a trademark carousel and roller coaster. It never quite recovered from the flood of 1972 and ultimately closed down and was converted into a park with running trail. We stayed at the bed and breakfast right across from it for Aleah’s graduation in 2006 and it was closed down.
Now it’s making a comeback and slowly but surely the rides, arcades, and food venues are being restored. The centerpiece to the restoration is an old-style and beautiful carousel. Interestingly it is large and very fast. One of the trademarks I remember is the ring dispenser. My dad and other adults would be trying for the ‘brass ring,’ mostly with limited success. Here are links to stories about brass rings. ( wikipedia | pdf ).
Well I rode the carousel (see pictures below) and I actually got the brass ring. I am proud as it was challenging back in the day and it was challenging this time.
Our favorite ride back in the day was the Flying Scooters. They have been re-implemented as the Thunderbirds. Since the Sliwa’s were a flying family with aviation skills and daring to match, crowds would gather to watch how high we would get the birds over the lake. On this occasion, by following Steve, Nancy got the hang of it and had lots of fun as well. However, when my chain started to skip I reduced my amplitude of the maneuvers. Apparently I’m not quite as daring as I used to be.
BTW I learned as a youth that Eldridge Lake was nearly bottomless and that it had an underwater cave connecting it to Seneca Lake about 20 miles away. Apparently bodies lost in the lake would sometimes get stuck in the cave or even be found in the other lake. This made our flights over Eldridge Lake even more daring, or so it seemed at that time. However, when I turned 50 and did some research on the topics I was sad to learn that these were merely urban legends.
After Eldridge Park we had dinner at Moretti’s, another family favorite. It is an old time Italian restaurant. It’s dated now, but it was great to have another dinner there. We were disappointed that the best restaurant in town, Pierces 1894, closed down in 2008 (interesting links: 1 2 3). It was where we did all of the family special meals including Dad’s retirement dinner.
Sunday morning we took an early flight back from ELM to PDX and arrived in time for a United Way event that evening. It was a great mission and I made progress on several sixty sixties.
A SmuMug Galleries: Trip Summary | NSM | CMOG
Here is a wordpress gallery of the trip:
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