Suffrage (noun) – The right to vote in electing public officials and adopting, or rejecting, proposed legislation. (from Britannica).
For the past seven years, my wife has taken me on some amazing road trips for my birthday. From a tour of filming locations from one of my favorite TV shows, to ripping my car around a Formula One racetrack, to visiting a pantheon of baseball history, our birthday adventures have taken us to some amazing locations. This year I sought to return the favor and planned out a road trip adventure for her birthday, incorporating cool history, beautiful views, and amazing food.
Our destination? Seneca Falls in the Finger Lakes region of New York. The town is best known as the birthplace of the suffrage movement, when a meeting in 1848 began the slow process toward women securing the right to vote in America. Besides history, Seneca Falls also shares a connection with a beloved holiday movie, offers views of wildlife, and boasts some of the best restaurants in the region.
So come along, then, on my wife’s very own birthday road trip adventure!
Let’s begin:
The Birthday Road Trip
Rather than driving to the Adirondacks, we’d be pointing the car a little to the west, and heading to the northern edge of the Finger Lakes region.After loading up my Acura TLX with our luggage, we departed on a Friday morning under sunny skies. Less than an hour after leaving our house, we crossed the state line into Pennsylvania.Our drive took us northward through the Pocono Mountains, and then through the city of Scranton, before crossing into New York State.We made a lunch stop in the city of Binghamton, New York, where an old cigar factory is now home to the Lost Dog Cafe & Lounge.The Lost Dog was opened in 1994 by members of an all-women’s rock band based in New York City. The cafe is named after a chihuahua owned by one of the founders. The dog would frequently wander away for weeks at a time before invariably showing back up at their home.Every birthday girl needs a birthday cocktail! Hello, Grow a Pear (apple brandy, pear nectar, fresh lemon, simple syrup, and aquafaba)! And if you’re at Lost Dog in autumn, give it a try!My wife ordered the “Rachael,” a reuben sandwich made with turkey, served on gluten-free bread.Meanwhile, I went with the Spring Roll Bowl – shredded romaine, cabbage, carrots, scallion, cilantro, peppers, peanuts, rice vermicelli, topped with blackened chicken. It was abosolutely delicious… if quite a bit spicy! Fueled up, we made one more stop in Binghamton before continuing on our journey.A block away from the restaurant we found the Old Barn Market and Gluten-Free Bakery. A coffee shop and bakery, Old Barn offers a number of vegan and gluten-free baked goods (more on what we bought later). We stocked up on some road trip snacks and got back in the car.Needing to stretch our legs, we pulled into Emerson Park in Auburn, New York, on the shore of Owasco Lake. Of course, I managed to snag a glamour shot of the TLX.Eleven miles long and over one mile wide, Owasco Lake is the sixth-largest of the Finger Lakes.A little while later, we arrived at our lodging for the weekend: The Gould Hotel. Built in 1920, the Gould has been in operation for over a century.The Gould features a highly-rated restaurant, and so it was here where we would enjoy my wife’s birthday dinner.We started off with an order of gluten-free shrimp and crab cakes on the recommendation of the hotel concierge. My only complaint? If I knew how good they were going to be, I would have ordered double!My wife ordered this divine shrimp platter, which was absolutely fantastic.Meanwhile, I positively inhaled my entree: haddock stuffed with crab meat, served with broccolini and risotto! So good!We skipped dessert at the restaurant in favor of some of the treats we bought at the Old Barn Market in Binghamton. Someone who shall not be named maybe got a little impatient waiting for her dessert…The next morning, we started our day with a trip to Cafe 19, a small restaurant that offers breakfast and lunch six days a week (they are closed on Sundays).Cafe 19 is a play on the 19th Amendment, which enshrined women’s right to vote. The cafe leans into the town’s history – I personally loved the names of the coffees, each featuring a different figure from the suffrage movement.There are no major coffee shop chains in Seneca Falls, but with Cafe 19, you don’t need a Starbucks or a Caribou! I had a delicious iced oat milk latte and my wife had a hot almond milk latte.While I enjoyed a yummy sausage and egg sandwich on a bagel, my wife had a quite tasty order of scrambled eggs, vegan sausage, and gluten-free toast. Fueled up, we were ready to explore Seneca Falls!Across the street from the cafe is one of the most iconic statues in Seneca Falls. When Anthony Met Stanton recreates the moment in 1851 when Susan B. Anthony was introduced to Elizabeth Cady Stanton by Amelia Bloomer, all titans in the movement to secure the vote for women.The suffrage movement drew inspiration and support from the movement to abolish slavery in the 19th century. Four women who were major participants in abolition are featured here, including Harriet Tubman, who called nearby Auburn, New York her home.From the statues, we also had a lovely view of the Seneca River and Trinity Church (left), which is the most-photographed church in New York.It was still early, so we decided to drive out to nearby Fayette, as my Mom told me that I had family who lived in the town in the mid-19th century. We made a quick stop to Whitmer Farm, which is notable for being the birthplace of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (also known as the Mormon church). Peter Whitmer owned a farm in Fayette, and he was one of six people who helped to establish the church in a log cabin on his farm in 1830. The current building is a reproduction that was built in 1890. The property is now a museum and visitor center run by the Mormon church (via Church of Jesus Christ).My wife then spotted a cool location in nearby Waterloo… the Memorial Day Museum! In 1966, Congress recognized Waterloo as the birthplace of Memorial Day, established in 1865 by a local pharmacist. Many towns claims to be the birthplace of Memorial Day, but Waterloo is its official home (via Waterloo, NY).While in Waterloo, our tour of the Women’s Rights National Historic Park began. Rather than one large piece of property, the park is spread across multiple buildings in several towns. This house in Waterloo was home to Mary Ann and Thomas M’Clintock, a Quaker couple who first fought to abolish slavery, and then turned their attention to equal rights for women. In this house the conference organizers would draft the Declaration of Sentiments, a text that enumerated the social, legal, and religious rights of women.A little further down the road we came to the Hunt House. Jane Hunt was one of the wealthiest women in the area, and she opened her home to the women who would organize the 1848 conference.We then returned into downtown Seneca Falls, to explore the heart of the Women’s Rights National Historic Park: Wesleyan Chapel. In this small church, over two days in 1848, a convention was held that inaugurated the movement to grant women the right to vote.We began our tour in the Visitors Center, where a small but well-curated museum tells the history of the suffrage movement. The convention was held on July 19th and 20th of 1848, and was the culmination of the efforts of local women Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mary Ann M’Clintock, Martha Coffin Wright, and Jane Hunt, who managed to organize the convention in a little over a week!The museum does an excellent job of using primary documents from the era of the suffrage movement to tell the story. The photographs, newspaper articles, and transcripts of speeches provide the viewer with great information.Of all the displays, the two competing women’s fashion trends of the mid-19th century is what I found most fascinating. On the left: the corset. Designed to present an idealized form of women’s beauty, the corset forced a woman’s body into a shape that gave an hourglass figure, with a small waist and rounded hips. Extended time wearing corsets could leave the wearer with permanent damage to her internal organs. The counter-trend? The bloomer suit (right), favored by middle-class women who sought comfort and modesty. The bloomer suit was the de facto uniform of the suffrage movement.After touring the museum, we went into the Wesleyan Chapel for a talk given by one of the park rangers. We learned a lot about not only the beginning of the movement (for instance, I did not know that civil rights pioneer Frederick Douglass was intimately involved in the 1848 convention), but also about the building itself. Built in 1843, the chapel was sold about 30 years later. It served in a succession of other roles: laundromat, mechanic’s garage, opera house, and roller skating rink… before the National Park Service purchased the building in 1985 and renovated it to look as close to how it appeared in 1848 as possible (via National Park Service).Our final stop for the Women’s Rights National Historic Park was to the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. One of the primary organizers of the 1848 convention, Stanton lived in this home from 1847 until 1862, when she, her husband, and their children moved to New York City (via National Park Service).Seneca Falls came to prominence as a mill town along a water pathway that connected to the Erie Canal. Although its manufacturing history is in the past, some of the old factories remain, repurposed for new uses. The Seneca Knitting Mill, which operated from 1844 – 1999, is now home to the National Women’s Hall of Fame (via Women of the Hall).All that learning makes a guy hungry! We headed up the street to El Bajio, a Mexican restaurant with good reviews. My wife ordered shrimp tacos, with rice and refried beans.Meanwhile, I had a taco salad, which was equally tasty! Refreshed and refueled, we set out to explore another aspect of Seneca Falls’ history.In 1945, film director Frank Capra visited Seneca Falls. A year later, the holiday classic It’s a Wonderful Life was released. Locals immediately noticed several seeming correlations between the film’s fictional town of Bedford Falls and their hometown. In 2010, the It’s a Wonderful Life Museum opened to celebrate the possible connection between the film and the town.I’ll level with you, readers: while A Christmas Story is my favorite holiday film, It’s a Wonderful Life is a very close second. I remember falling in love with the film when I watched it with my grandparents when I was a young kid. I totally geeked out in the museum!The exhibits were fantastic, and filled with lots of information I did not know. For instance, the newborn baby in the film was portrayed by identical twins. Years later, Don Collins, one of the twins, wrote to Hollywood icon Jimmy Stewart, introducing himself and his brother, and sharing their connection through the film. Stewart wrote a warm response and shared how he and his wife were the proud parents of twins as well. Both letters are on display in the museum.The museum felt a little cramped and disorganized, but I read later that the current location is temporary while the permanent museum undergoes a major renovation. Of course, the small space did nothing to take away from my enjoyment… as well as the case that the museum is free to visit (although a $5 donation is requested).There are only five props known to still exist from the film – three of the cars from the film, which are all in private hands, and these two pairs of earrings that were worn by Gloria Grahame. Grahame played Violet, the woman who George Bailey helps out financially.After leaving the museum, we walked to a location in town with a major connection to the film: the Bridge Street Bridge. This bridge bears a striking resemblance to the one in the film where George Bailey contemplates ending his own life before meeting his guardian angel Clarence. As you may remember, George dove into the river to save Clarence from drowning. Perhaps Capra was inspired by the story of Antonio Varacalli, an Italian immigrant who in 1917 jumped into the Seneca River to rescue a woman from drowning, although his heroism led to his own death.“Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.” In a lovely nod to the film, numerous bells adorned the side of the bridge.Before heading to our next destination, we made a quick stop at Local FLX (FLX = Finger Lakes). It is a store that sells products from artisans in the Finger Lakes region. We had a lovely chat with the owner, who gave us several recommendations for dinner. The merchandise was excellent – unique, high quality, and affordable. It’s definitely worth a stop!Our last major stop of the day was a few miles east of Seneca Falls, to Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge was established in 1937 to oversee a stretch of marshy land between the Cayuga and Seneca Rivers. It is a major stopping point for migratory birds.After a helpful chat with Bob, a volunteer in the Visitor Center who was a wealth of information about birds currently in the marshes, we set off on Wildlife Drive. The road offers a three mile route through the refuge.A large group of sandhill cranes were foraging for food in the grass. Sandhill cranes are omnivores, eating berries, grains, amphibians, and small mammals. Once only spotted during migration, warmer recent winters have resulted in groups of these birds living in the refuge year round.This sandhill crane was wading in the Main Pool, a large body of water in the middle of the refuge. The pool was filled with hundreds of birds of all types.“Hey, what’s that black thing in the trees?” my wife, with her superpower eyesight, asked. “Umm… maybe an empty nest?” I responded. “Take a look with your camera,” came her reply…An empty nest… or maybe two pair-bonded bald eagles!As if on command, one of the bald eagles left the tree and flew right toward us.This moment alone was worth the trip to Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge.Bob, the helpful volunteer we spoke to in the visitor center, told us that if we see the birds on the Main Pool start to become excited and fly away, it means they see the shadow of an eagle overhead. Just like he said, as soon as the eagle flew out over the pool, the birds on the pool started going berserk.This gull made for a willing subject as it hovered over the marshland.Visible from I-90, which is adjacent to the Refuge, this eagle statue is strikingly lifelike. Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge is a fun destination near Seneca Falls, and it gets two thumbs up from The Open Road Ahead. Best of all, admission is free!After returning to Seneca Falls, we decided to enjoy the mild temperatures. We left the Acura at the hotel and walked to dinner in downtown Seneca Falls.Our first stop was for appetizers at Fall Street Brewery.Fall Street Brewery was… ok. Despite three workers talking to each other when we arrived, no one rushed to greet us or orient us to the restaurant. My wife’s question about gluten-free ciders was met with befuddlement (and no offer to help her find an alternative beverage). We tried a hummus platter, which was tasty enough, and I enjoyed the Mexican lager, which reminded me of a cross between Tecate and Corona. However, the lack of good service really took away from the experience.We made up for it at our next stop… Red Brick Pub Kitchen and Cocktails. Recommended by our new friend at Local FLX, it was a neighborhood bar in the best sense of the word.Dinner hit all the right notes – a gluten-free Rootstock hard cider for my wife and a glass of Jameson Black Barrel for me. We both got burgers (which were delicious), but the high point were the tater tots – some of the best I’ve ever eaten. Service was friendly and quick, and the food was excellent. It was evident that the patrons were all locals – we were the only outsiders there, but the company was friendly. Definitely give it a try if you’re in town!The next morning, we were on the road early for our drive back to New Jersey. A rising sun and an early morning fog made for a dramatic view along US-20.Our final meal in the area was breakfast at At Long Last, a cafe in Auburn, NY.The interior decor was interesting. It looked like a place that belonged down the Jersey shore in Long Branch or Sea Isle City, and not in northern New York.My wife had eggs with mushroom, spinach, and tomato, with a side of home fries and gluten-free toast (she loved it). Equally as good was my order of corned beef hash, served with scrambled eggs (hey, I know corned beef should be served with poached eggs, but I like what I like!), and marble rye. The food was excellent, our server Davonte was friendly and attentive, and our meal prepared us for our long drive home.By mid-afternoon, we had arrived back in New Jersey. The state has been in the midst of a severe drought, and the dry conditions have led to numerous wildfires. A thick layer of smoke hung in the air over the highway, and despite my car’s ventilation system being set to recirculate, the smell of smoke filled the cabin. Mercifully, about fifteen minutes later we were through the worst of it.We pulled into the garage, the TLX nearing the 50,000 mile mark. The car transported us with comfort, ease, and sportiness to upstate New York and back. The Acura continues to impress. Onward!
Wrapping Up, and a Personal Note
Since her retirement, my Mom has made our family’s ancestry her personal research project. When we returned from Seneca Falls, she shared a really cool story with me – my great-great-great grandmother was in attendance at the 1848 convention! Mom emailed me this clipping from the Utica Saturday Globe, where Dr. M. Virginia Glauner had spoken at a conference in Washington DC in 1898 on the 50th anniversary of the Seneca Falls convention. After her first husband died, she attended and graduated from medical school at Syracuse University in 1878, wore the bloomer suit, and was “an earnest suffrage advocate.” Very, very, very cool!
Seneca Falls is an amazing place for a long weekend adventure. Come for the important history, but stay for the fun shops, great restaurants, cool museums, and amazing wildlife. Better yet, spend a week in the Finger Lakes, exploring not just Seneca Falls, but the amazing opportunities for adventure you can find in the region!
Thanks for coming along on this special birthday adventure!
Wow, what an incredible birthday trip! The food all sounded delicious (minus the appetizer spot that was disappointing). I loved reading about the history of the women’s rights movement and Seneca Falls with the connection to It’s a Wonderful Life. How cool that you got to see a couple of bald eagles! And that is really neat to find out that your family had a connection to the 1848 convention!
What an interesting weekend!! Looks like a great birthday trip for your wife- gold star ⭐️! The eagles were awesome 🦅 Mikey and Mae loved the eagle picture- especially because you could see its face! Hugs from all of us ❤️
The Open Road Ahead 
Wow, what an incredible birthday trip! The food all sounded delicious (minus the appetizer spot that was disappointing). I loved reading about the history of the women’s rights movement and Seneca Falls with the connection to It’s a Wonderful Life. How cool that you got to see a couple of bald eagles! And that is really neat to find out that your family had a connection to the 1848 convention!
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So glad you enjoyed the post – it was a pretty epic weekend (minus Fall Street Brewery!). Thanks for reading!!
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Happy birthday to your wife! That’s a great trip you planned for her. Glad you had a good time.
Trimity Church is gorgeous ! Love the architecture and setting next to the river.
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Yes, Trinity is a beautiful church. Thanks for reading!
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What an interesting weekend!! Looks like a great birthday trip for your wife- gold star ⭐️! The eagles were awesome 🦅 Mikey and Mae loved the eagle picture- especially because you could see its face! Hugs from all of us ❤️
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So glad you approve of the trip idea! Yes, please tell Mikey and Mae that the eagle was amazing!! Thanks for reading!!
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