Here's a few ideas: Niagara Falls- the Maid of the Mist is an incredible boat ride. Letchworth State Park is beautiful as is Watkins Glen. If you have children, the Museum of Play is suppose to be fantastic in Rochester. In the town of Penfield, there is a wonderful crepe restaurant right near the Erie Canal that serves every kind of crepe. The Andirondacks are amazing and definitely worth a hike. Western NY is beautiful. I grew up on a canal town and still miss it. And a minor point, in NY the turnpike is called the thruway. Oh, and it is probably not near your travels but the 1000 islands.....

>I had 21 of those butterflies in my shadehouse the other day. They flew in and couldn't find a way out. Had great fun trying to get them out :( I have the same problem here, Goldhills. After one flew into a spiders web a couple of weeks ago I went to one of the 'junk' shops and bought a $2 butterfly net - was very useful for catching the humungous grasshopper that's been in the munching for a while.

Robert have you ever tasted the tubers? Are they spicy like culinary turmeric? What colour are they? It looks very similar to Curcuma domestica.

"Generally, I am being told that my oil furnace is probably at the end of its life, being at least approx. 25 years old and should consider replacing now. The 2nd contractor that wants to replace existing with 4 ton furnace, states that the current one is not large enough to handle the size of the house. The rest, so far, want to add a separate system for upstairs." ----------- When the cooling A-Coil is set directly on top of the furnace the huge oil furnace heat/exchanger causes a lot of restricted back-pressure leading to a big drop in static pressure which reduces the velocity of airflow. That along with possibly improper duct design & return air filter areas would greatly reduce airflow. I am betting a 60K would heat your hone in that climate. Do your own whole house load-calc: http://www.loadcalc.net/ Or/and, do the floors separate. Print the instructions & follow them; including clicking on thr SIZING LINK when load-calc is satisfactory completed...