Upstate New York. July 19 - 20, 2026.

This was just a short trip to Glimmerglass Festival for two operas: Puccini's Madama Butterfly and Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte.  Both started at 1 pm, so we decided to drive up from NJ Sunday morning to the first performance, stay in a local hotel, and return to NJ after the second performance.'

I didn't expect much traffic going up given it was a Sunday morning.  Indeed we made it to the location in good time.  Monday afternoon traffic can be tricky, but we encountered only minor slow downs, and got back home at 9 pm.

The week before NJ was suffering from this "Canadian fog" from the wildfires in Ontario.  It was so bad at Glimmerglass that they had to move the performance (the night before) to an air-conditioned high school auditorium (some high school, some logistics).  For the two days we were there, the weather was gorgeous, and it was quite cool also, which made for a pleasant concert experience.

For the afternoon/evening of July 19 we didn't do too much - just visited Lock No. 21 and walked around Mohawk River right by the hotel.  Utica has declined considerably over the last decades, the area the hotel is at is part of the city's revival attempt.  Things look reasonably new, and there are multiple eateries in the area (we are talking Denny's).

Accommodation.  Fairfield Inn, Utica, New York (1 night).