Anniversary Trip

June 12th was our 18th year anniversary! 

On our 5th and 10th year anniversary we went away for a couple of days to celebrate.  Things became much more complicated by the time we hit our 15th year anniversary and we didn't get away.  This year I said I really wanted to do something together.  Jenna and I were discussing plans for June.  She needed me to take her children for a surprise get away for Isaac's 30th birthday and I needed her to help manage my children while we were away.  We negotiated that I would go away for 2 1/2 days around my anniversary and we would take Aidan and Sierra the 25th and 26th of June. 

Abram and I had planned on flying to the finger lakes in NY, but the weather was not cooperating.  We drove 6 hours to stay at the Fox Inn in Penn Yan, NY.  It is surrounded by several finger lakes.  We had an amazing weekend away as you will see.  I am not one to sit around when I have a chance to explore. 

This is the Fox Inn.

This was the dining room where we had breakfast.  The Fox Inn is known for its amazing breakfasts.  You choose from a number of menu items and breakfast is served on gold plated dishes!  We chose the early time, 8:30 so we ate alone although there were other couples in the inn at the time.

Love Mr. Fox near the fireplace!

You entered the inn through a small sitting room in the back.  I was intrigued by the plant holders used in the room.  There were several around the small room.

I had a cup of coffee outside one evening and was joined by a cat who seemed to live at the inn.  It was not an indoor cat at all.  It's food and litter box were both outside of the house.  The cat was very friendly, but certainly looked like it had gotten into a few scuffles.  I am truly a cat person if I will chose to have my cup of coffee with a strange cat.

We had a wonderful dinner on Lake Keuka. Here is a picture of us with the lake in background.

We at dinner on the porch over looking the lake.

After dinner we went for a short walk and I had to climb into the enormous life guard chair.  Sarai saw this picture and said "That's my mommy.  She really little!".  I had to laugh.  The chair really dwarfs me. 

Saturday, we got up, had an amazing breakfast and began to plan the day.  I had read that there were nice hikes and possibly waterfalls near the finger lakes.In our room I was reading through a journal that other people written in saying what their visit was like.  One person said that Watkin's Glen was amazing and made the visit remarkable.  We looked up Watkin's Glen and discovered it was a gorge with waterfalls and a great hike.  Luckily for me, we also discovered that Watkin's Glen Falls was only 35 minutes south of the inn.  I had also looked at the weather and read that there were forecasted thunderstorms for the afternoon.  I hoped we could hike in the morning before the storms and then visit a winery or two in the afternoon.  Our host recommended that we visit Dr. Frank's winery.  So we had a plan for the day. 

We enter Watkin's Glen State Park and saw this site!   It was amazing.  The water had chiseled out the rock creating a beautiful gorge.  There were several waterfalls on this walk. 

We were able to walk behind this waterfall.  Just breath taking views. 

This is called lover's lane because the waterfall has carved a heart shape pool.

more waterfalls to walk under and behind.

A view from under one of the falls.  You do get sprinkled on, but we were hiking on an extremely humid day so the spray was welcoming.

This is a view of the same waterfall but from another angle. 

We offered to take a couples picture at this site and they in turn took ours. 

This area is called Cavern Cascade.  I asked Abram to pose near the waterfall so we could see the scale of how big it was.  He decided to pretend to take a shower! 

The hike through the gorge is said to be only 1.5 miles.  We took our time gazing at the sites and climbing the steep staircases.  Once we were through we headed to Dr. Frank's winery.  Unbeknown to us, the weekend of June 11th and 12th was special.  The wineries around Keuka lake had a bar-be-que wine tasting event.  For $30 we could visit 10 wineries in the area, eat a small meal and taste their wine. 

This is the view from Dr. Frank's vineyard.  It is over cast because the thunderstorms had rolled in.  We didn't mind since most of the wine tasting was done inside. 





I honestly don't remember which winery this was at.  It is a huge barrel for wine.  I do remember it was the last one on our stops.  We visited only four, but that was plenty since I tasted close to five wines at each.  Abram was the designated driver.  I was the designated taster and decider of which wines to buy and bring home. 

We ate enough between the four wineries that we skipped dinner that night and just had ice cream later!  While relaxing in the inn we discovered a pamphlet on the Corning Glass Museum.  We decided to visit it Sunday morning before we headed back to MA.

Here are some of the amazing exhibits at this museum.

This is a lynx made out of glass!  It was over three feet tall.

This picture is for Cora.  this is a glass flute.  I believe they said there were only 25 in the world made. 

This is a cool chess set. It is the Catholic hierarchy vs the Jewish heir achy.  Had to laugh when I saw this one!

In addition to walking around the museum and seeing glass making demonstrations, each patron was offered, with a fee of course, to create something with glass.  This was an opportunity I didn't want to pass up.  Here are photos of me getting ready to make a glass flower.  Making the flower allowed me to experience what it is like to work with glass. 

Here I am picking out the colors for my flower.  Yes, I decided to dress up for my anniversary not knowing that I was going to be working with glass. 

Here I am swearing the safety clothes for the glass making.  All of the pieces were too big for me. 

I went first.  Here is the man who is getting liquid glass for me to work with.

I wish I had seen a demonstration on how to make something with glass before I attempted it myself.  You should roll the rod quickly, but instead I was going slowly trying to keep it from flowing downward.  My experience with sewing made me think slow would be good, but instead I needed to do the opposite. 

After rolling it for a bit, it was time to add some color.  There are trays of colored glass which he would pick up as you see here.  Then you get the liquid ball and spin it more.

I used a flat metal paddle to push the glass inward.  Now I'm using large tweezers to pinch pieces outward.  I'm starting to create the pedals.

Now I have pliers and I'm pulling upward as he helps me spin the rod.  I was suppose to spin and pull at the same time.  There was so much to do I would forget one part when I remembered the other one. 

I wanted a curly stem.  My job was to pull the glass out while he twisted it for me. 

This is my flower when I had just finished it. 

Abram photographed another worker putting her glass into a mold to get a pattern on the outside of it.

We watched an incredible glass making demonstration. The man creating the glass vase was working so quickly. At the end of the demonstration he taps the vase so you can hear the ting and think it is relatively cooled. He then places a piece of paper inside the vase which instantly ignites! The vase is still extremely hot. It takes a minimum of 12 hours for a piece of glass to cool down without shattering.

My piece was shipped to us so it could cool down without breaking. Here it is on my island. Notice how the colors are darker now that it has cooled.

This it the back of the flower.

We had a wonderful time!  Thank you to Isaac and Jenna for managing my kids and to Tobin for doing some of the driving.  He now has a small respect for all the driving I do on a daily basis for them.  I highly recommend visiting the finger lakes in NY.  It is gorgeous!

Fun and Fright on June 1st

Abram turned 38 on June 1st.  Isaac found out that the Red Sox had a day game on the first.  We bought tickets and had an adult day date:  Isaac and Jenna and Abram and I. 

Abram took the day off, but Rachel didn't know he was staying home.  She woke up early and made him breakfast and a huge place mat birthday card.  She made him two English muffins, one with peanut butter and one with cinnamon and sugar and a smiling piece of ham.  She even put out his badge for work. So sweet!

We left for the game with plenty of time to get into the city, but parking was horrible.  All the regular places for game parking were full from those who work in the city. After looking for parking for almost an hour we ended up at the Pru.  For those who don't know, it's a long walk from there to Fenway Park for the game.  We saw a pedicab and Jenna wanted to get a ride.  They only hold two passengers so we had to wait for two together.  Luckily we found two.  Here we are on ours.  It felt so weird not biking myself.  We did have the only pedicab with rock-n-roll! 

I thought I had a better shot of Jenna and Isaac but this is the best.  We did have fun passing the sunscreen between the two cabbis.

A nice picture of us at the game.  We had amazing seats.  Third row from third base, right behind the cameras for the game.

Big Pappi running to third base.  This isn't my good camera either.  Our seats were this good.

We grabbed someone behind us after the game and got a group shot.  This was a great way to celebrate both Abram's and Isaac's birthday.

So here's where the fright part of the day begins.  The weather in Boston was beautiful.  Sunny skies, no wind or even clouds.  As we walked back to the car I began hearing hotel butlers talk about tornado warnings.  I did not think much about it until I received a text from a family friend who had Rachel saying:  We are safe.  We are in the basement!  OK, that got me worried!  I looked at the weather and saw horrible weather patterns.  Tobin was driving into Worcester to deliver some papers and Carmen and Sarai were home by themselves.  I sent the girls to the basement and prayed Tobin would be OK.  thankfully everyone was OK.  The tornado did not come near Shrewsbury. 

When we got home we celebrated Abram's birthday with whoopee pies.

All the kids added to the Birthday song.
 Happy Birthday Abram!

Back yard fun on Memorial day weekend

We celebrated Memorial Day at my mom and step-father, Lawrence's house.  Joel, Noah, Heidi (Noah's girlfriend), my gang, Teresa (Rachel's friend) and Marita all joined in on the fun.

We played a long, but fun game of Crockett.  The day began cool, but quickly became hot.  Noah is sporting an old bathing suit of Joel's because his jeans were too hot for outdoors.  In the background you can see my mom and Heidi chatting.

Here's Heidi waiting her turn at Crockett.

Sarai, Carmen and Marita enjoyed the swing in the backyard.

Carmen and Rachel took the camera at one point; so there's a picture of me!

Rachel playing

Teresa joined too.

Joel was in the game.

Abram and Tobin chose to play Frisbee. 

Carmen and Marita played a bit of boccie ball in the front yard.

Rachel and Teresa had hoped to go swimming, but the chlorine levels were too high.

They did how ever stick their feet in the water.  I also think the water was very cold.

Hammocks are always a big hit.  here's Sarai lounging, Carmen next to her, Marita playing with Sarai's hair and Teresa waiting to get her chance on the hammock.

Rachel and Teresa pretended to sail the hammock. they tried to toss the other one off the hammock.  I don't think it works like a pool float, but they had a blast trying.

Either Rachel or Carmen took this shot.

Teresa tossed herself off the hammock!

I cannot resist taking a picture of gorgeous iris.  I didn't notice in the the bright sunlight that the iris was a peachy color until I looked at the photo on my computer!

I know everyone had a great time together. Teresa and Marita appreciated being able to participate in the festivities.