When you have three days off in a row from work, you go somewhere. And that's exactly what I did. Although I really would have liked to have been at work, seeing as work makes you money and money is a necessity to live, but when you have the time, you might as well make the most of it.
Rochester, NY has this little thing called the Lilac Festival mid-May. Those of us who aren't original Western New Yorker's wouldn't know this, but since I have my connections, I acquired the information about the purple flower inspired festival. My Aunt and I packed an overnight bag and headed East to partake in the festival. We hopped on the scenic route ignoring the hideously boring I-90 which sucks money out of you at each exit with their gray and blue toll booths. After our 2 hour
journey we parked and immediately sought out the restrooms. Not any
ordinary restrooms, these portapotties were purple! I had never seen
purple ones before and to my surprise they were much nicer than the regular blue and green. As we made our way into Highland Park we were greeted with the aroma of hundreds of lilac bushes everywhere. Lilac purple, white, and dark people bushes could be seen all over the hillside. Such a gorgeous sight to behold. As we meandered our way through the windy paths, we had to take pictures! It was relaxing just to sit on a bench, people watch, and take in the perfumed air. After about three hours of just chillin in the park we headed for our next destination.
On our way to Geneva, we had to drive through the little town of Canandaigua which resides on the finger lake, Canandaigua (go figure). It was the cutest picturesque of a town and just driving through I knew that I would love it. After being rerouted through this awful detour we finally made it to our Days Inn in Geneva. We wanted to stay at a B&B or even at the Ramada Inn on the lake but they were a little too steep for our one night stay in town. We changed clothes quickly and set out for
Belhurst Castle in order to eat dinner. This place was mammoth and gorgeous!
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| Belhurst Castle |
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| One of the dining rooms |
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| Wine Spigot |
We sat in this little room facing the river. I ordered the sauteed chicken breast
layered with vine ripened tomato relish and pesto cream. Can we say YUM? So good! We took about an hour 1/2 to eat and after dinner we asked our waiter if we could roam around and look at the upstairs of the castle. He said, "Sure"! He then handed us two wine glasses and said, "And please help yourself to the wine spigot upstairs that Mrs. Collins had installed between her room and the nursery." Wait a minute! This place has a working wine spigot just like a drinking fountain for guests to just come up to and drink their fill? YES!!! We took our glasses up the great wooden staircase that was absolutely gorgeous. When we got to the second floor landing there was about 6 people sitting about. We knew this was where the wine spigot had to be.
We started chatting it up to the them and after we filled our glass with wine they insisted on giving us a tour of all their rooms. I think they were all a bit tipsy from the wine spigot due to the fact that they were Canadians and were being ridiculously nice to us! I'm being a little racist here, but most of the Canadians I've met while living in the Falls have not been the nicest. We were shown this gorgeous blue room with beautiful wallpaper and a four poster bed. The second room had this phenomenal
fireplace with a huge bed. They then walked us up to the third floor to their friends room, who looked a little leery about having two strange women run around her bedroom, but she let us all the same. This room was labeled, "The Study" and had a weird little set of steps that went to no where. It was really cool. The one lady insisted on taking our picture on the steps, then on the bed (?). WEIRD! She was like, "Oh Joe will not even know what to do with himself when he tell him two chicks were on his bed!" After the tour we said goodbye to our Canadian friends and went back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.
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| Rainbow Falls |
The next morning we had to stop at Tim Horton's in order to grab breakfast because the selection the Day's Inn offered as continental breakfast was horrible. Bananas, nasty coffee, and mushy cereal. Not my type of morning smorgasbord. We took the beautiful drive on 14 down Seneca Lake to Watkins Glen. This State Park is absolutely stunning and is a must see for anyone in the area. It was open to the public in 1863 and features a spectacular narrow gorge where you can hike alongside Glen Creek past the 19 waterfalls. My favorite falls were Rainbow falls and Cascade Cavern. So beautiful.
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| Cascade Cavern |
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After we hiked all the way to the top we laid down by the small creek just to take in the sights and sounds. We headed to the restroom, (of course I was with my small-bladdered Aunt) and afterwards started back on the Indian trail which is above the gorge. After walking it awhile it was kinda of boring just like any other hike in the woods. My Aunt was on the phone and as we were walking I saw the ground moving. And it wasn't the ground at all but a 1' 1/2" snake! My Aunt's foot almost went right down on its head, but I screamed just in time! We avoided a snake bite and headed back down the glen on the gorge side. It was much prettier. We were both super sweaty and super hungry. I changed in the car since the bathroom floor at the main gate was completely soaked. The car next to me got quite a show. While I was in the midst of changing the towel I used to cover the windows fell down. Whoopsy!
We were starved and hankering to see some of the local wineries so we got in the car and drove. We made the bad decision of not driving into Hammondsport to find food, so we were left with a road with no food in sight for miles. We finally stopped at a little winery on Lake Keuka to see if they knew were to find some food and we were sent to a little deli called, "The Olney Place". I got the Rebecca sandwich which was absolutely amazing. It was a take off of a reuben but was 10 times better. Their homemade cookies they had were also amazing. It was just a little podunk place but sooo good! We ate by the water in adirondack chairs.
After that it was on to some much anticipated wine tasting! We went back to the place that gave us the recommendation of Olney's since my Aunt stole their menu and had to bring it back. Jon was our little wine enthusiasts who was a bit snooty for my taste. I did learn some new things though while at
Ravine's on Lake Keuka. They specialized in dry wines which I like much better than the sweet wines. Jon told us that you can't really mess up a batch of dry wines. Most wineries will try for a dry, but if it doesn't come out right they'll pump it full of sugar and sell it to you anyway under a different label. Lesson #1. Secondly I didn't realize that bottles came in certain shapes for certain wines. I thought they were just bottled in the bottles that the winery had lying around. Ravine's was very good, but Jon talked for forever! We ended up buying two bottles of wine total. I can't wait to drink these babies while doing a bit of porch sitting. Jon recommended a couple of other wineries up the way. So we hopped in Scuttle and started to drive the scenic Route along Keuka lake.
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| View from Rooster Hill |
We decided to stop at
Rooster Hill which was absolutely gorgeous. It was 4:15 when we stopped and the tasting room closed at 5. All we really wanted was a glass of wine and a place to sit out and enjoy the view. Rooster Hill offered us just that. Our tasting room lady was Kathy and she was so incredibly nice! We ended up with a little souvenir glass, and bought two bottles there as well. She let us sit out on the deck and buy a glass of wine. It was so nice, and peaceful. We were the last ones there and enjoyed every minute of it. After our wine was drunk it was time to hit the road.
We stopped in Canandaigua for a bite to eat. Another favorite little town of mine nestled quietly on the finger lakes. We ate at this little place called the
Muar House Cafe and enjoyed our little dinner. We decided to walk onto the dock and just relax although it was covered in Geese poop. We met this kinda different guy who wouldn't stop talking and kind of interrupted our peace. So we left.
On our way home we took the scenic route again along route 20, where we didn't realize took us right into scary downtown Buffalo. At this point we just wanted to be home. I was driving down Bailey Avenue when this black person dressed all in black just darted out right in front of my car to the other side of the street. My heart flew up into my throat as I realized I just nearly missed this guy and he could've flew right up on my windshield like in Great Gatsby! It wasn't until I was getting over my panic from that guy, another man darted across the street right in front of my car. Did these people in downtown Buffalo have a death wish?!?! I was freaking out. Through the course of my drive down Bailey Avenue a total of 4 people darted across the road to get to the other side. I seriously thought I was playing Frogger. What is wrong with people? They see a two-ton vehicle barreling down the road and think that it would be a good idea to hop right in front? Yes, as a pedestrian you do have the right away, but don't be an idiot about it! Good thing I just got my brakes checked at the local Good Year tire!
After almost killing people I was sooo ready to be home. But this weekend was Canadian holiday Victoria Monday and that's when we were driving back. All the Canadians were itiching to get home just as bad as we were. The Grand Island bridge was backed up more than usual so we waited in the toll booth line for the state of New York to steal a dollar from me like usual. We pull up to the booth, hand the money to the collector and proceed to go. He then says, "Oh no no, sorry, we're shutting down the Southbound bridge. You have to wait for about 10 minutes till we do that." I look at my Aunt and laugh. Of course we will have to wait. Just our luck. He then laughs a little to himself and says, "Yeah, sorry. It sucks to be the first one." Thank you for that word of encouragement Mr. Toll Booth collector!!!! Ugh. We waited for 10 minutes for them to change the North bound bridge from two lanes going North to one lane going north and one going South. I had never been more ready to see my bed!!!
Well, Wendy is one of those good friends who will push you do things you don't want to do. I like that in a friend. As long as it's reasonable. Healthy peer pressure. She urged me to reschedule for a month out so we could get finances settled, yadi yadi yadah. I 
falling. It was crazy. I didn't get the stomach drop feeling like you do when you're on a roller coaster, but I got the feeling of weightless calm. The weird thing is I can't really do heights, but this was different. I was too far away from the ground to even notice how high I really was. We free fell for about 40 seconds before I pulled the rip cord for my shoot. We pulled it at 6,000 feet. It was a little painful when that happened because I was strapped to another human being and I had this harness going in between my thighs. The loudness ceased and everything was just peaceful and quiet. Like how the world should be. It's amazing to see the world from above. You really notice how entirely round it is.
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