Port of Rochester, Rochester, NY July 22-24

From Sodus Point, we headed to Rochester in preparations to meet Shelley Kerr, our friend visiting from Kingsport, TN. On our way in we saw a Fire Boat – who was practicing fire-fighting in Lake Ontario. The Port of Rochester marina was very nice. They had a great boaters lounge and free laundry!

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We took a stroll after docking and doing some clean-up of the boat. There was a small beach, and beach front park within walking distance of the boat.

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We took a dinghy ride up the Genesee River to see what we could see and we saw an abandoned boat – the Spirit of Rochester that used to provide lunch and dinner cruises between 1985 and 2004 in Rochester, New York. — Could it have been a local cruise ship in a previous life??

We went running 2.5 miles along the Genesee River the next day and ran under the Colonel Patrick O-Rorke Memorial Bridge. O-Rorke was a civil war colonel that grew up in Rochester and led the New York 140th Infantry at the Battle of Gettysburg. We ran past Turning Point Park, where cement barges from Canada deliver material to Rochester and turn around after unloading their cargo. The bridge over Genesee River must have been a mile at least. There was actually a cement barge unloading during our run and a few days later we were able to see the memorial bridge open to allow the barge to pass under on its way back to Canada.

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We rented a car so we could see the sights around Rochester and surrounding areas, also to be able to pick up Shelley when she arrived in Rochester.

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Rochester is clearly a town that was influenced tremendously by Kodak. All around town there is the name Kodak — on their corporate headquarters, Kodak Center for Performing Arts, Kodak Hall at Eastman Theater, and the George Eastman Museum. High Falls is the name of the Township in Rochester City where Kodak and Genesee Brewing are located.

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When Shelley arrived, we went to Genesee Brew House for lunch and beer.

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After lunch it was on to the George Eastman Mansion and Museum.

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The museum had historic Kodak cameras and movie film equipment. The George Eastman Mansion had some furnishings donated by the family and others were reproductions based upon the original furnishings when George Eastman lived there.

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George Eastman traveled quite a bit and liked to go on Safari’s. There were animal skins, animal hoof decorations – like waste baskets as well as an Elephant head and several Rhinoceros artifacts.

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George was also an avid supporter of the arts, through donations as well as having a pipe organ with 6000 pipes built into his home and then expanded to make it the worlds largest residential pipe organ.

In 1913, the Eastman Kodak Company was charged with having a monopoly that was later settled, but gave George Eastman anxiety for almost over a decade. In the 1920’s George got involved in Eastman Savings & Loan and Rochester Government.

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George Eastman never married, and built the mansion for he and his mother.

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George Eastman had incurable aliments and took his life at age 77 leaving a note that said “My work is done. Why Wait?”

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The rest of the museum was a history of Kodak cameras in the history of photography

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Some people might remember the flash cubes like pictured here on the Mick -A – Matic camera

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I remember the Ektralite 10 camera below and I had a Disc 4000 camera at one time.

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