Of the four months that I spent wandering the US for Camfel, a few were in New York.  Unfortunately, we never got the chance to go to New York City. What we did see was a whole lot of upstate New York, from Apple Farms and Autumnal leaves to you guessed it…traffic. Some of the places we went were shocking but overall it was great to see the parts of New York that people don’t always talk about. I apologize in advance for the low quality of some of these photos, I wasn’t always prepared with my camera and my phone ended up being my go to.

Long Island:

In all, about a week of our time was spent on Long Island. We didn’t get to see the Hamptons, not that I could ever afford anything there anyway. I don’t have much to say about Long Island. It felt very similar to Los Angeles. It was diverse, being that it had rich neighborhoods, poor ones and some in-between and there was a huge number of people of all races. The people on Long Island, or at least the ones in the cities we visited were all friendly and went out of their way to suggest good eats and places to see.

One place that really sticks out in my mind was Middle Island Pizza, the pizza there is amazing. We were recommended the joint by a principal at one of the schools we visited and I’m so glad we stopped in. The staff was super friendly walked us through the menu and gave us some great suggestions. The real showstopper is the red sauce, in all honesty, if I could have it bottled and shipped to California I would. As we walked into the restaurant the chef was stacking fresh hot out of the oven donuts on the counter so naturally, we bought some of those and ate them as we waited for our food. For lunch I grabbed the Momma Mia Hot Hero and just thinking about it now has my mouth watering. It consisted of grilled chicken, fresh mozzarella, tomato, roasted red peppers, and basil. If ever in Middle Island go check it out, I hear that the ‘Salad Pie’ picture a salad on a pizza is to die for. If I could go back I would.

After one of our shows, we stopped by the Amityville Horror House. Yes, the real house that the movie was inspired by. We didn’t want to get out and take a bunch of photos out of respect for the people that do live there and ya know… the evil spirits. It was cool to see the house as we are both fans of the creepy, strange and paranormal and totally something worth stopping by if you too love horror. Pleas try to be respectful of the people who live there, it is someone’s house after all.

Speaking of the creepy and strange, we stayed at an Airbnb that was magical. It was in the middle of the woods and our host upgraded us for free. It was a welcome upgrade after we had spent about two hours in traffic going from New Jersey to Long Island and then had the Ranch incident 2k16. We spilled ranch dressing in the heating vent of the transit. We spent a good hour trying to clean it out. The Airbnb had a MASSIVE four-poster king bed with a canopy and amazing decor. We’re talking swords and knives hung up on all the walls, mummy motifs, a suit of armor. It was like we had stepped into an episode of Game of Thrones.

Niagara Falls & Buffalo.

We stayed in Buffalo for a few days and got some rest and relaxation in a cute Airbnb in a quiet part of town. Our goal for our few days off was rest and a visit to the Falls, Buffalo was perfect for that. Buffalo was home to some great places to grab some grub, one night after a hard day of travel and work we grabbed dinner at Lloyd’s Taco Factory. It was pricey but cute and filled with locals. The restaurant had a bar attached to the dining area was full of decently dressed people flirting and drinking. We were wearing pj‘s and were half dead from travel and work, leaving me to feel a little underdressed. The tacos at Lloyd’s weren’t your average street taco tacos, but versions of the meal I’ve come to love. Don’t go expecting a corn tortilla with some carne asada and onions. What you do have to get is the Dirty South, a corn tortilla topped with buttermilk fried chicken, baby kale, bacon aioli, waffle pieces, and maple syrup. Not your average taco but SO GOOD, honestly I still think about it. The classic beef and pork tacos were good, however, the star of the show was the Dirty South.

Here is an outside look at the Restaurant, the lighting was low so all the photos of the tacos look like I was eating them in the middle of the bat cave.

Obviously, Niagara Falls is a must see, I would totally suggest going on the Canadian side. I personally didn’t bring my passport on the trip with me. Whenever I have to carry that thing, I feel incredibly anxious so I didn’t want to feel that for 5 months. The United States side of the Falls is beautiful and if you can take the boat ride do it! We happened to be there on a day it was closed so we explored as much as we could. The sheer magnitude of the Falls is outstanding. I could have stayed and watched the water pour over the edge for hours if I wasn’t going to get soaking wet doing it. While we were there we chatted with a Police officer about the possibility of us crossing the border without a passport and he told us “you can try!” and then had nearly an hour long conversation about our tour and lives and what or University experience was like. It was very surreal to have a cop not care that we wanted to Illegally cross the border, don’t worry we didn’t, we were too scared, although I wish we had. Unfortunately, most of the falls activities were closed since we visited in offseason, but the trip was still worth it.

 

I don’t really know how to describe the Falls, which doesn’t look good for me as a writer. The falls were magnificent, and I think the most shocking part was how much water was rushing by. It was hard for me to comprehend that much water when my home state was in a severe drought. I stood there for a while, a wide smile stretched across my face in a state of disbelief, these three waterfalls all incredibly impressive, were not made by mistake. If you’ve never been to the falls its somewhere that should be seen in person. Being there in the fall meant the trees and the ground were covered in a spattering of reds, golds, and oranges.

Letchworth State Park

We also got the chance to check out Letchworth State Park, on the recommendation of a very persistent and wonderful AirBnB host. As soon as we checked into our Airbnb, she had us sit down on the couches for a chat and a meet and greet with her animals. She told us that they had a beautiful State Park in her town but the thing people knew them for was a ridiculous robbery. Three men broke into a local restaurant stole some cash as well as a tub of macaroni salad, they were caught via the trail of macaroni salad they left behind. Shortly after that she ushered us out of the house and insisted we explore the State Park.

Letchworth State Park is stunning and is considered to be the “Grand Canyon of the East”. It won USA Today’s 2015 Readers Choice award for the best state park. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to explore before sunset so we didn’t get to hike but we did get to see the three waterfalls. The Gorge was 600 feet deep at some points and surrounded by trees in full-blown fall colors. It was an off day, so we had the park to ourselves for the most part. If you’re ever in the area I highly suggest checking out the park, I would love to go back in the summer for hiking and checking out the waterfalls more. The Middle Fall is huge, and I believe the biggest one at 107 feet. Above the last or Top Fall, you can see a railroad bridge that before it was rebuilt with iron was the tallest wooden bridge in the world. The park is gorgeous, and I am totally glad our Airbnb host forced us to drag our exhausted and grumpy butts out of the house to go see it. I will say that night we went to get pizza in our PJs which we proceeded to eat on the floor of our Airbnb with a warm sprite and Doritos, it felt like college all over again.

Another recommendation we got while in NY was to check out the LaFayette Apple Festival which just happened to be going on the weekend we were nearby. Its an arts and food festival held on a former apple farm. It had poured the day before we went, so the farm ground was muddy and slick and it was freezing cold out but the festival was worth it. Rows of tents filled with local artisans and goods kept us warm and entertained, and food stands to serve every apple dish imaginable kept us full. We sampled fresh pressed apple juice which was by far the best apple juice I’ve ever had. We waited in line for apple donuts and the piece de resistance, fresh hot apple dumplings.

 

Lake Erie

We also spent a large amount of time around Lake Erie visiting in several different places, Evangola State Park and Barcelona Harbor are sublime. Evangola State Park was a perfect place for a picnic and reading on the beach although the shore was lined with the heads of fish, we figured it was due to a curse put on the water and was not a usual occurrence. Barcelona Harbor is home to a pretty little lighthouse and interesting dock. 

Rochester

Lastly, we spent some time in Rochester. On the recommendation of a friend, we visited The Little, a small independent movie theater. There we went to a special showing of Beetlejuice, people dressed up, there were prizes to be won and the audience came alive with the movie. It was my first time seeing Beetlejuice and the small theater and the wonderful vibes they created made it one of my all-time favorite movie experiences.

Also on the recommendation of my friend, we visited the George Eastman Museum. It’s the world’s oldest museum dedicated to photography. The mansion and the gardens that surrounded it are simply breathtaking, the whole time I was wondering just how I could manage to come to own and live in the house one day. The museum offered a children’s section with hands-on experiences to help teach kids about the growth and evolution of photography and its development. To be honest, we spent a lot of time in this room. The museum also housed a collection of famous prints from the photojournalism world that I was all too excited to see in person especially after having studied them in my classes while in school. I wish we had been able to catch a docent-led tour, as it seemed like a good experience. I would definitely visit the museum again, I feel as though I could spend hours on the grounds learning and dreaming.

For dinner one night we went to a local “hot dog shack” called Dogtown. It‘s a small building in a little parking lot, pretty easy to drive by if you’re not looking hard enough. We both ordered Junk Yard Dog Plates which was NOT what we expected. It was two hot dogs and two sides, I imagined the sides to be ya know sides, however, they were TOPPINGS! Everything we selected for our plates was pilled on to each other and plopped down in front of you. Now, I‘m not saying this is a bad thing but it was surprising. I‘m a person who likes to eat my food portioned out, each bite is calculated so I can end on a specific flavor, the food was good it was just hard to eat as I am someone who doesn’t like all my food in a mountain on my plate.

In all New York was very different from what I expected. Of course, we saw and ate in way more places than mentioned here but if I added everything this post would be 15 pages long and my fingers would be bleeding. I would love to visit New York State again, and hit the places that we DIDN’T get to see, like the Adirondacks, Albany, Seneca Falls and more. Let me know what your favorite places in New York are, and as always explore on.

 

Cheers,

Ashlee