Travel Thoughts By Kim
A shot of Courthouse Square in downtown Albion with all seven historic churches that surround the square.
Let’s go on an adventure together….to the skies above Albion!
When I first met Ron in the early 1980s (other than vaguely knowing him in high school), he took me for a ride in his Cessna 150 to view the sunset over Lake Ontario at Point Breeze. It was our first date and my first time in a small plane. The view was spectacular and the ride was nice, but when it was over I got out and kissed the ground and swore I’d never get in it again. I broke that promise to myself a few times over the years. Ron is an excellent pilot and I always felt safe, but still felt a bit uneasy, and frankly queasy, about being in a small plane.
I love taking photos of farmland from the air – farm fields are beautiful works of art.
Fast forward to recent years: Ron lives in North Carolina and flies up from time to time to visit friends and family in the area in his current plane – a Eurofox / Aerotrek light sport aircraft. I’m not sure if I’m getting braver in my older years or whether I was just craving an adventure during the Covid restrictions, but on one of his trips up in 2020 I asked him for a ride so I could get a few photos. And, now I make sure we find time to go up every time he’s here with his plane. I really enjoy being up in the air and looking over our beautiful county. And, of course, I take photos.
Getting good photos from an airplane isn’t as easy as it sounds. Things look very different from up there and at 500 or so feet up and roughly 100 mph, there isn’t really time to “frame” the shot, focus, and get the right perspective – hahaha. That first flight, I took my Nikon and big zoom lens with me to get photos. Turns out, it is really hard to see what I want to photograph through the lens and I kept either missing the target totally or it was super fuzzy. So after that, I decided to just use my iPhone and see how that worked. And – WOW – I started getting really good photos. I still had some missed targets or slight blurriness, but overall the photos turned out great.
Oak Orchard Lighthouse at Point Breeze on Lake Ontario.
I was so excited when I got home after that first flight in May 2020 and downloaded the photos I took. I had just randomly snapped photos of downtown and I discovered I actually captured the entire Historic Courthouse Square – including ALL SEVEN historic churches that surround the square in one clear shot! I’ve included the photo in this article. As you look at the photo, you’ll see the Orleans County Courthouse is just right of center. Then, looking clockwise starting with the tall steeple just left of center is the First Presbyterian Church, continuing to the right is the former Presbyterian Manse and then you’ll see the former United Methodist Church (now North Point Chapel), across from that is a white building – the Free Methodist Church, far right center across the parking lot behind the courthouse is the Pullman Universalist Church, bottom center is the Holy Family / St. Joe’s Catholic Church and the First Baptist Church to its left, and finally, Christ Episcopal Church is the square bell tower directly across from the courthouse. What an awesome capture….I’ll admit I did a little happy dance when I saw it!
The only thing visible in Mt Albion Cemetery from the air are trees and the Soldiers & Sailors Monument Tower.
I love seeing all our amazing farmland from the air. The patterns in the plowed soil and crops are beautiful works of art. I also love all the waterways we have in our county – the lakes, the rivers, the waterfalls….stunning! And, as Ron says, no flight around are area is complete without a fly-over the Oak Orchard River and Lake Ontario at Point Breeze. It is also really fun to try to locate specific points of interest and the homes of friends and family – not always easy because, like I said, things look really different up there.
In the last couple of years, I’ve been flying with Ron four times. We have been all around Albion, Point Breeze, along the shoreline to Kendall, over Medina, and more. Last year, we even flew to Letchworth State Park. I was sure that was going to be amazing from the air. But, sadly due to the tree cover, it is so much more impressive from the ground. But, I still got some really nice photos of the gorge and the dam and we’re really glad we flew over it. We talked about maybe flying over Niagara Falls next time if the weather and timing cooperates.
I love our town and the surrounding area. There is so much beauty and history here – you just need to pay attention and look around. But, man….it’s a whole new level of amazing from a small plane and a cell phone camera!
I have lots of photos that I have shared on my blog in various posts from each flight. I hope you’ll check out all of the links below and see what I see when I’m in the skies above Albion.
May 2022
Happy Adventuring!
Kim
