A visit to upstate New York and Vermont – Crossing Lake Champlain

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On the way to Fort Ticonderoga, we drove up the Vermont side of Lake Champlain. Of course, this meant that we had to cross Lake Champlain to get to the fort, which is on the New York Side. To do so we took the Ticonderoga Ferry, which describes itself as follows:

The Ticonderoga Ferry provides historic, scenic seven-minute daytime crossings on Lake Champlain between Ticonderoga, New York and Shoreham, Vermont. Connecting the Lake George and Adirondack regions of New York, with the Middlebury and central Green Mountain areas of Vermont. We are located at 4831 VT Rte 74 just off of NY Rte 22 in Ticonderoga, New York and off of VT Rte 22A via VT Rte 73 in Orwell or VT Rte 74 in Shoreham, Vermont.

The ride was quite pretty, but short and a little slow (important to me because I needed to relieve myself). Although I wasn’t focusing too well, I recall that it was also rather expensive. On the way back from the fort we decided to take a different route that didn’t involve taking ferries.

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Taken with a Sony RX10 IV

An Ice Cream Van

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I used to see lots of these when I was growing up in England. They played music, and when we heard them coming, we would rush in to our parents to get money to buy something.

I don’t recall seeing many of them nowadays, possibly because there are no children in the immediate vicinity, and there are no convenient places to stop.

I had the opportunity to speak to Mr. Angamarca. He was happy to chat for a while, and for me to take his picture. But he did insist that I show his telephone number. So there it is in the third picture: 929-306-9555

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Taken with a Kodak Easyshare 880.

In New York City with Jasmine – In Chinatown

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My feet were no longer hurting (much). I wasn’t thirsty, but I was starting to get hungry. Luckily Jasmine appeared with a couple of her friends. We had a drink (or in my case another drink) and after a while one of her friends left. We went to Chinatown with the other friend (who I’ve known since she was about 14 and at the International School in Geneva with Jasmine).

The chosen venue was Dim Sum Go Go. You can see the sign behind me in the fifth picture. There we met Jasmine’s friend’s two sons.

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Lin Ze Xu. According to Wikipedia (which has a lot of additional) information:

Lin Zexu (30 August 1785 – 22 November 1850), courtesy name Yuanfu, was a Chinese political philosopher and politician. He was a head of state (Viceroy), Governor General, scholar-official, and under the Daoguang Emperor of the Qing dynasty best known for his role in the First Opium War of 1839–42. He was from Fuzhou, Fujian Province. Lin’s forceful opposition to the opium trade was a primary catalyst for the First Opium War. He is praised for his constant position on the “moral high ground” in his fight, but he is also blamed for a rigid approach which failed to account for the domestic and international complexities of the problem. The emperor endorsed the hardline policies and anti-drugs movement advocated by Lin, but placed all responsibility for the resulting disastrous Opium War onto Lin.

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Picture courtesy of Jasmine.

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And that was about it for this particular trip. The next morning, we had breakfast, and after that I went back to Grand Central Terminal and took my train home.

Taken with a Sony RX10 IV