“My work is done. Why wait?” . . .

George Eastman, for those of you younger than about 40, was a very rich businessman who, if he didn’t invent photography (which has been around in some form since about 500BCE) at least popularized it with Kodak film and cameras. Including the Brownie that I had as a child and that he GAVE AWAY at one point to every child who would turn 12 in 1930! Free, gratis, no money whatsoever and he even included a roll of film which at that time included developing. And he was enough of a businessman (he gave away almost as much money—without the publicity—as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, funding among other things, MIT and the Rochester Institute of Technology) to put most of Kodak’s energy into film rather than cameras hence insuring that all the camera manufacturers would need to use his products.

He was born in 1854 and on March 13, 1932, he disowned his niece (didn’t seem to bother her) and on March 14, 1932, he shot himself. And left a note that said, “To my friends, my work is done, why wait?”

No, not Niagara, but the falls in Rochester NY. Who knew?

 So we spent the morning and part of the afternoon at the George Eastman House (and Museum) ogling his splendiferous mansion and jealously perusing the photographs that are strewn around. 

Reminded me of the dining room my grandmother had. Yes, really!

She also had a billiard room.

And gardens, although not quite as elaborate as this.

She did not have a conservatory, either. Eastman did shoot (with a gun, not a camera) the elephant (which is a  copy of the original)

He had TWO player-organs.

And he had concerts in his home. This is supposedly one of, if not THE largest organ in a private home.

The grand entrance stair.

We even brought out our inner child by going in the “Discovery Room” and playing with the paper that will develop an image in the light. This particular activity was, I think, intended for six-year-olds but that wasn’t going to stop us. Basically you take a piece of light sensitive paper, place an object on it, expose it to light, and then immerse it in water. A masterpiece results!

We had a wonderful time and spent more money in their shop than in any other we’ve been in!

We did the tourist thing on our way to Toronto and went to see Niagara Falls (from the Canadian side) on a Chamber of Commerce Day.

What you can see from the road.

Unfortunately we did not have time to take a boat to the base of the Falls.

It looks a bit different from the Canadian side, I suppose!

And we went up the CN Tower (which they advertise as “the tallest freestanding structure in the Western Hemisphere”), a great disappointment. It cost us $24 each to go to the lower level (which you can only go half-way round as there is a restaurant in the way which was closed for a private party). We couldn’t even look down on Rogers Field and the hotel! If we wanted to go all the way round we could pay another $12 to go to the tippy-top or, for nothing (!), we could walk down one level from the $24 level. Being the cheapskates we are, we walked down. Well, bigger disappointment! While that level does go all the way around the tower, there is heavy duty mesh over all the viewable area! So although you can actually see everything, it is a “filtered” view. Bah humbug!

We had lunch here along with a couple of very nice beers. They have 65 on tap! Randy had Skinny Dipping with Friends stout and I forgot what I had other than it was a double or triple IPA.

Randy, of course, had to take a photo of an airport.

On a more heartwarming note, off we went to the Toronto/Seattle game, leaving the Rochester area without realizing that Memorial Day weekend this year (2015) is THIS weekend, May 22 through 25^th and most motorhome parks are booked. BOOKED! Completely. We finally found one in Byron, NY, for May 20^th and 21^st with room to store the motorhome on the 22^nd when we have a hotel, the Renaissance, in Toronto. The hotel is physically part of Rogers Field and some rooms overlook the baseball field! We could have gotten a room overlooking the field but decided not to spend over $500 for such a room and instead splurged on $75 seats between 1^st and home. BUT, the hotel does have a bar overlooking the field so we took Cubby Bear there for a martini before the game. Oh, yeah, we had a martini, too!

Cubby Bear in the restaurant at the hotel overlooking the field.

Cubby getting hammered!

This nacho appetizer ended up being a not-terribly-good dinner.

From our seats.

Ace, the mascot of the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Mariners beat the Blue Jays (it seems the Blue Jays are not the best team in baseball). Losing
4 – 1 starting the bottom of the 9^th (interestingly, very few fans left the field, probably because the few fans that went to the game [21,195—looked like a LOT less!—capacity 49, 282] are diehard baseball fans), there was a flurry of interest when the lead-off batter doubled followed one out later by a homer. Kevin Pilar pushed a bunt down the first base line and was called safe sliding into first. But the Mariners challenged that either a) he was actually tagged or b) he ran outside the base path (you can watch the video here http://baseballsavant.com/popup/video.php?video_id=126504383). He was ruled out (we never found out which was the cause for the overrule of the umpire’s call) and the next player flied out to end the game. SO close! But close only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades.

We left Toronto and our lovely hotel room (We each took two showers, just to enjoy the unlimited hot water—our motorhome only has a six-gallon hot water tank) early in the morning, drove to Byron, NY, to pick up our motorhome. We grossly misjudged how much time it would take to drive the “blue” roads (non-interstate) to some as yet unspecified RV park (remember, it is Memorial Day weekend!). The “blue” roads are pretty, to be sure (although they are not blue on our maps!), but driving an eight-and-a-half-foot behemoth such as ours (and we’re not the biggest on the road by a longshot! Some motorhomes are 45 feet plus a “toad” [towed vehicle]; we are 33 feet plus the Jeep) on narrow country roads is hard, tiring work!

So we drove and we drove and we drove. About 245 miles. Or so. I think I’ve seen every farm animal there is by the side of the road: cows and horses, of course; also chickens, goats, sheep, and PIGS! I just don’t think of pigs as roaming by the side of the road. They are always in pens. Preferably very muddy pens.

We’re in Amish country so we saw a few horse-drawn wagons plus a buckboard being built. When we are 8 ½ feet wide and on a country road with oncoming traffic and there is a horse-drawn wagon also on the road, there is a bit of a pucker factor involved since we and the other traffic are going 55mph and the wagon is going 5mph!

Finally found an RV park with space for us and so collapsed. I have a chest cold so Randy fixed “dinner,” toasted sandwiches. They were delicious! When one doesn’t feel well and someone else fixes dinner, it ALWAYS tastes great. When our daughter texted me to give Randy a hug for her and I looked over at him, he was sound asleep on the couch. Time for bed!