It's a Wonderful Life...Really!

On Wednesday morning, we drove into Seneca Falls to go to the Wonderful Life museum.  Frank Capra's movie, It's a Wonderful Life, is my #1 favorite movie of all time and the town of Seneca Falls is thought to be the place where Capra got some of his inspiration for the movie.

While Capra never mentions the town of Seneca Falls in his memoirs, it is known that he spent some time in the town and the area while visiting his aunt in nearby Auburn, New York, in the early planning stages for the movie.  See The Real Bedford Falls for more of the coincidences between Seneca Falls and the movie's Bedford Falls.

Note to everyone who reads our blog.  First of all, thank you very much for reading our blog and riding along with us.  We are so blessed to be living our dream and love hearing that someone else enjoys reading about our journey.  Second, I'm going to assume that everyone has seen this iconic Christmas movie that runs over and over again throughout the Christmas holidays.  If you have not seen it, YOU NEED TO WATCH IT!

We almost came through Seneca Falls when we were heading back south after our northeastern tour in our first summer of full-time RVing in 2012 but we ran out of time.  We wanted to make sure we visited Seneca Falls and the Wonderful Life museum this time.

Since the museum did not open until 11 am, we drove around the town of Seneca Falls first.  Our first stop was the bridge where it was thought that Capra got his inspiration for George Bailey's (Jimmy Stewart) jumping in the freezing water to save Clarence, his guardian angel, in the movie.

Here, let's put you in the mood a little more with a black and white photo.

On the bridge is the below plaque that honors Antonio Varacalli.  Antonio, a 17 year old Italian immigrant and Barge Canal worker, jumped in the water to save a young woman who had just jumped from the bridge attempting suicide.  Although Antonio could not swim himself, he managed to get the young woman, Ruth Durham, safely to the bank before drowning himself.  The town of Seneca Falls honored the young man by raising the funds to bring his mother and two sisters to this country from Italy to join his father who already lived here.

Could this have been Capra's inspiration for the scene where George Bailey rescues his guardian angel when he is about to commit suicide himself?  And remember the bridge scene at the end of the movie??

Can't you imagine George Bailey up there on the bridge praying for his life back after being shown what life would have been like without him?

O.K.  Now back to reality.  Here is a view of Seneca Falls from the bridge.

And here is what downtown Seneca Falls looks like.  Another quaint little New York town.

Before going to the museum, we stopped at a small farmer's market and bought some delicious zucchini mini-muffins from a couple of Amish ladies.  They were delicious and eaten very quickly.  :)

We still had some time before the museum opened so we rode around town trying to see if we could find a house that might have been the inspiration for the old Granville house from the movie.  Like so many of these old New York towns, there were several beautiful old houses.

Well, 11 am finally rolled around so we drove to the museum and walked inside.  The Wonderful Life museum is located in what was the first movie theater in town.

The first thing we spotted when we walked in the museum was a cigar lighter like the one in the movie that George would hit and make a wish.

"Hot dog!  I wish I had a million  bucks!"  :)

The museum is not big by any means and is filled mainly with memorabilia related to the movie.  Karolyn Grimes who played ZuZu, the youngest daughter in the movie, has donated over 200 items from her collection to the museum.  The museum was filled with lots of interesting quotes from different actors and their memories of making the film.  We both enjoyed looking at all the memorabilia and listening to some of the stories that the museum's curator had to share with us.

After leaving the museum, we drove back down Cayuga Street (which was formerly called Sycamore Street - like in the movie) to a house that looked a bit more like the old Granville house in the movie.  Hmmm...what do you think?  Regardless, it's still a beautiful old house.

We stopped at a Subway in Seneca Falls and had some lunch and then headed for our next stop of the day:  Taughannock Falls State Park.  We drove south on Highway 89 which runs along the western side of Cayuga Lake, one of New York's Finger Lakes.

There are wineries everywhere along this road.  And I mean everywhere.  Like every 2 or 3 miles.

It rained on us for a few minutes as we drove through some forests filled with trees that are just barely starting to change into their fall colors.

When we reached Taughannock Falls State Park, we stopped at a picnic and recreation area along Cayuga Lake.

We thought it was funny that several people were swimming despite the sign telling them not to.  :)

There was also this great big beautiful oak tree close to the water's edge.

After leaving the picnic area, we drove to the Taughannock Falls overlook hoping to get to see it before the bottom fell out of the clouds.

We walked down the steps to the overlook and very quickly took some pictures as the wind was starting to blow very hard and the rain was starting to fall.

The yellow specks are leaves flying around from the wind.

Of course, the pictures don't do it justice and it is probably even more spectacular when the falls are flowing more heavily.

After leaving Taughannock Falls, we drove over to Hwy 414 and followed it up back north along Seneca Lake, another one of the Finger Lakes.

After we got back to the campground, we decided to try the Mexican restaurant we had seen in Waterloo for dinner.  We split a delicious plate of nachos and then went for a walk to the back of the campground where the Seneca River flows.

You know, when I think about how beautiful this earth is that God has made for us to explore and live in, and the awesome family and friends with which He has blessed us to share life with, it really is A Wonderful Life!  :)