Fences

As you drive along Route 5 in New York State, you'll come across a parking area somewhat west of the Dunkirk/Barcelona area. It's a pretty place...this is what it looks like as you walk past the picnic tables. You can walk all the way down to Lake Erie.

When you get to the edge, you'll see a fence. This keeps you from walking off the cliff, which I guess is about 50 feet high or so, give or take.

When you look through the fence, you'll see the beautiful lake...but at a distance. On Sunday, I didn't want to be fenced in and kept at a distance. So even though the edge beyond the fence is only about five feet wide or so, Dan and I found a gap at one end and slipped through.

What I saw when I looked over the edge was incredible:
The lake was so crystal-clear. I've never seen it so clear. Plus, the lake bottom around Erie is mostly sand or small rocks. I never knew there were spots like this, with great slabs and chunks of rock. It was like looking at a creek.
These pictures come the closest I could come to showing the scale of how high we were.
In the distance, I could see the cliffs of the surrounding shoreline.And here's a spot where the bluff gave way. Hopefully no fools like me were standing there at the time!But the shots I got were so pretty...And believe me, I did my best to stay safe!

Random pieces of Fall

Last week when we took a walk at Presque Isle, we visited Graveyard Pond Trail. Since the overall color of the trees is still pretty spotty, I took a lot of macro shots...random pieces of Fall, if you will.

(Note: Apparently I was wrong last month when I thought I might have seen the last bees of summer!)

Presque Isle on a Blustery Day

We took a walk down at Presque Isle this afternoon. It's not all that common for Lake Erie to get big waves, not like the ocean or anything, so it was pretty awe-inspiring to see this today.

The sky was beautiful, with lots of fluffy clouds, and the sun was ducking in and out and creating some really interesting light patterns. The waves would crash against the breakwalls and create these huge jets of spray...and I wasn't quick enough to capture them, but there were two dumb seagulls who thought the breakwall would be a good place to land, and they got doused.And we weren't the only ones who braved the cold winds today. I saw one other person enjoying the show.

The Brave Ones

Last Saturday while running an errand downtown, Liam wanted to stop by the dock. We were lucky enough to find our local firefighters running a training exercise, rappelling off the Bicentennial Tower.

I have a special admiration for firefighters, more than any other public servants. They're a special breed, I think.

It was a crappy day for photos, though...very cloudy!

We hung around a watched for 15 or 20 minutes and I was really taken with how human these guys seemed. A couple of them were kind of hesitant to go off the edge (understandably so), and you could hear the man at the top of the tower giving them instruction and encouragement, while the guys below watched carefully and cheered them on. I didn't hear anyone razzing anyone else, which impressed me.

In general, everyone on the ground was pretty intent on the ones coming down the ropes...

but we all know that training can be tiring, and one might need a rest from time to time.

Nebo Chapel

On Sunday, we stopped by Nebo Lutheran Chapel along Route 6 in Mount Jewett. Actually, I drove by and saw this from the road. I immediately turned the car around because I had to take some photos.
The chapel was built by immigrants in 1887 and is patterned after a church near Stockholm, Sweden.
There were lots of Swedish names on the tombstones in the churchyard and a mix of older and more recent graves.
Unfortunately, there was a pretty steady drizzle right then, so I didn't get to explore as much as I would have liked.
But I did find this beautiful stone...it looks like a seashell cradling the baby.

Wind Damage

Our roadtrip yesterday included a stop at Kinzua Bridge State Park. This is the place that used to be the site of the world's highest railroad viaduct. A tornado knocked it down in 2003.

It was actually pretty neat to see the remains of the twisted steel girders and the still-bare and gnarled trees.

I have to admit that I was a little bummed that you couldn't walk out onto the bridge any further, though. It would have been cool (and scary as hell) to stand out there.