It was time to head out of Dodge again and this time it was a two night adventure to Herkimer, New York and then Watertown, New York.

In Herkimer, New York, over a 5 hour drive from New York City we took an Erie Canal Sightseeing Cruise.

What I learned about the Erie Canal was that it was one of the most important transportation routes in the early history of our country. Construction began on July 4th, 1817 in Rome, New York and it was completed about 8 years later. In addition, the canal ran about 363 miles from the city of Albany to the city of Buffalo but in 1918 was expanded and became part of the 525 mile long New York State Barge Canal.

So it was a lovely day and a lovely lunch cruise and learning about the Erie Canal was both fun and educational!

We then ate lunch at the Waterfront Grill.

But we didn’t eat until 3pm. I was so starvedLol that I forgot to take a picture of the main chicken dish but Lol I did catch the dessert. So Yum 🙂

Then we arrived in Watertown, New York for a two night stay at Hotel Best Western. Was it the bestlol, I’ll leave that to you to decidedLol when you visit.

OK. This was scary. Another woman from the trip and I decided to walk around Watertown that evening which just happened to be a Saturday night. Would you believe??? The town was practically deserted and we only saw about 6 people on the street. Trust me. It was like an image out of The Handmaiden Tale.

Check it out… And this was only one view. But…Yes, the rest were the same.

The next morning after breakfast 🙂 we went to the Thousand Islands Winery for a wine tasting.

It was a lovely property, over 40 acres and the wines were really great.

But I long ago stopped buying carrying wine I liked when on a trip but I couldn’t resist buying a jar of Champagne Garlic Mustard. I can’t wait to try it with pretzels. Yum

Then we took a tour of The Thousand Islands and that was both fun and interesting.

The most interesting fact for me that both Canada and the US shared these waters and that you didn’t need a passport to be on the water.

But…if you dropped your anchor then you needed a passport. I found that — just interesting. That just dropping an anchor — you needed a passport or you were in “deep”lol waters. 🙂

But then came the very favorite part of this adventure which was visiting the Bailiwick Animal Zoo which is located in Catskill, New York.

It was so much fun to be able to feed some of the animals and just meet them in this very open and friendly environment.

Here are a few of my favorite moments…

So all in all, it was a very pleasant adventure but my heart belonged to those gentle lovely animals. Yes, even the bear was enjoying the fun.