Greetings from Erie

We have arrived at our hotel in Pennsylvania very late because we got caught in the Rainstorm From Hell as we were leaving and the entire time we were driving away from Cornell, so I will keep this very brief and tell our day in photos:


Beautiful Beebe Dam at Cornell University, which we visited after the morning information session so younger son could learn about the marketing program and the college that it's in. I got sunburned walking around the lake that feeds it, but it was worth it to see the ducks, dragonflies, flowers, etc.


The campus clock tower, which we saw while informally touring the campus (we didn't do the official hour and a half tour again because we did it with older son two years ago).


The Plant Science building was evidently trying to earn its Ivy League title. We visited a lot of the central campus while dropping in on several dining options to see where we wanted to eat lunch (we ended up at Trillium since it had the best combination of veggie and non-veggie options).


We saw a groundhog running around one of the gardens in the middle of campus. There are lots of water features, lots of flowers, and lots of trees (plus lots of chipmunks and squirrels, and son saw a bunny while running in the morning).


Everything was beautiful until the sky opened up. We waited out the worst of the storm in one of the student entertainment centers in North Campus. Then it was still pretty but very, very wet.


Then we drove through even worse rain and fog through a big swath of New York, with younger son driving with practically zero visibility until we made him pull off so he could stop.


Above, the beaver outside the very clean but very small Allegheny rest stop and here the stained glass window inside...


...where we at dinner on stools, since eating our picnic outdoors at the drenched tables in rain and fog was impossible.