Women's Rights in Relic

     Mrs. Van Dansk lifted the flap of the envelope and pulled out a letter.

     “Dear Elizabeth, it starts. A letter to Elizabeth Cady Stanton? Oh, now this is exciting!” She adjusted her glasses on her nose and glanced at each of us, a child-like grin dancing at the corners of her mouth, but it wouldn’t last.”

In Relic, the original owner of Hydrangea Hall, Olivia Ainsley Wagner Roth, was a suffragette who kept company with the likes of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

During some recent travels, I took a chance and turned off at the exit for Seneca Falls, the home of the women's movement, to see what I could see.

Alas, it was not much.

The museum dedicated to women's rights pioneers like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony was closed for the day. I’ll visit again.

If you try to find it, be warned…we passed it four times before I stopped in an extreme state of confused frustration to ask a shop owner where it was. I was expecting something grand, but found it to be an equivalent to 12 Grimmauld Place. My oldest daughter, a women’s libber in her own right at 13, said, “It couldn’t have been better hidden.”

Taking in the Sights

In the far left corner, Romanesque marble columns supported the domed iron grillwork of a garden house. A pillared pergola draped with vines waited for an evening stroll along the entire right side of the view.

 “It’s just that I’ve never seen something so…. Well, I just can’t believe I’ve lived here all my life and never realized this place was here.”

    “Well, I hear that people who live near Niagara Falls don’t go to see it either!” Ida mused.

Early in Eye of the Peacock,

Ida, the head docent at the historical manor, makes light of people who don't take time to cherish what is in their own back yards.

You don’t need Pokemon Go to get out there and learn about your surroundings. So instead of looking down at electronic devices, the family went off to Niagara Falls – which is actually in my “back yard” – and made a day of it.

I don’t think we laughed that much as a family in quite a while. With a real feel temperature of 95 degrees, we rode The Maid of the Mist without our protective ponchos, got soaked again at The Cave of the Winds, enjoyed the colorful displays at the Niagara Aquarium, and hiked Three Sisters Islands – all before quickly eating gigantic dripping ice cream cones from The Twist of the Mist!

Get out there and see what is great near you!