Thursday 29th April

Today was a long and busy day. Our first stop was at 7.30am when we attended the breakfast meeting of the Owego Rotary Club. After briefly introducing ourselves we discussed many different topics with those at the meeting.

From there we headed to Corning and to the Rockwell Museum for Western Art. This is housed in the former City Hall and displays items collected by local businessman Bob Rockwell, which he donated to the museum. We were given a tour of the many paintings, photographs and other artefacts.

We had lunch at Old World Cafe in the centre of Corning. As ever the food was delicious and plentiful!

We then visited the Corning Museum of Glass. This is the largest glass museum in the world and we were treated to a whistle-stop tour of the exhibits. Helen and Caroline then took part in sand-blasting to create their own patterns on glass - as you can see sticking the stencils on the glass is dangerous business and safety goggles are needed!

In the evening we each spent time with our host families. Carol, who is hosting me and Tom, invited several friends and neighbours round, including someone from Australia who went on a GSE to America about 25 years ago and subsequently moved to the States. We took advantage of the great weather to have a barbecue - thanks must go to John who was chief barbecuer adn cooked the steaks to everyone's individual preference.