Bicycling New England, the
Erie Canal, & around Lake Ontario 2005
Albany New York

July 2, 2005
Rest Day

To day we woke up late after watching the lightening and rain storms last night. We walked down to the motel and had a good breakfast of oatmeal, with raisins and strawberries. We then want back to our room read and watched the tennis match. We then hopped in the car with George and Jane and drove downtown to visit the state capitol building. We got there about 30 min late or 90 min early so we walked around the underground concourse. It seems that when Rockefeller was Governor he felt people should be able to walk everywhere underground so that they could not see the bad neighborhoods. So we walked under a couple of streets to the museum that had a Subway so we could eat lunch. Jane and Mary Kay had the joy of ridding a 102 year old Carousel, which was a lot of fun. We then walked back to the visitors' center so we could tour the state house. The Bad news you had to go through a strong security check point and Jim had his pocket knife with him. So he had to walk back to the car while the rest of us toured the capitol building. It is supposed to be the most ornate capitol building in the US. I think they are right. When Teddy Roosevelt became Governor they had 600 men carving decorations on the inside of the Capitol Building. They had been working on the building for over 30 years. He said stop, it is done. So they stopped immediately. In places you can see carvings that were started and then just stopped. Maybe government should do that more often. Below is a picture of the million dollar staircase.

We then returned the car to the airport, took the shuttle to the motel, and walked across the street to the Olive Garden for another good meal. By the time we finished washing clothes, working out the routes for George and Jane to finish their trip it was time to clean up and get ready for the next day. It was a good rest day and we are now ready to resume our trip.