Beyond the silver rainbow: Chasing autumn leaves

Leaving Toronto on Monday, my sister and I traveled along the north shore of Lake Ontario towards East. The next three days were quite busy as we planned to have a look at the Thousand Islands and then go back into the US. There we would see the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, visit the Green Mountains in Vermont, check out the egg in Albany and finally reach New York City by Thursday afternoon.

The autumn leaves near Lake Ontario were mostly gone due to a storm a few days back. However the scenery was really nice and sometimes very Finnish. One highlight were the Sand Banks, a long sand beach with big dunes. Unfortunately the dunes were not allowed to access in this time of the year. Even a local guy we met didn't have a clue why that is. In any case we found a nice spot to oversee the lake during a cloudless but windy sunset.

Adirondacks, where do I start. Of course with the leaves. Same as Lake Ontario - gone. Some pine trees turned yellow though, so it wasn't all like 'naked' trees. The landscape was great, nice mountains and roads winding around them. Again lots of resemblance with Finland. Home sweet home. If I'll ever be back, I definitely visit the Adirondacks again.

In the evening we discussed whether to see the Green Mountains in Vermont or not. So many people told me that Vermont is really beautiful. Weather forecast showed +6 C only and the whole day rain. Luckily we went there yesterday. I felt like being back in Central Europe, it all looked so familiar. And - most important - when getting there, almost all the leaves where still on the trees in so many colors! Even in rainy, foggy weather the colors where shiny. So it felt like we hit the jackpot anyway. The scenic byways didn't disappoint.
After that we drove to Albany, the state capital of New York. There, a theater for performing art was built in the shape of an egg. Interesting architecture.

Today we conquered the last 100 miles to New York City into Brooklyn, where our hotel was and where we met up with my wife. Traffic wasn't too terrible and besides a few close encounters, my nerves held up quite well. Nice experience, once and never again..;)