Two weeks of non-stop Food, Family, Friends, Familiar Favorites and Fun

Pour a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and sit down, this is going to be a long one.....

We left our special spot on Conesus Lake Monday morning.    Thanks, again, to Jerry and Pelle for their warm hospitality and for allowing us to spend a couple weeks at this, their special place. 

  

Beluga in her old spot next to a new deck

Staying at the lake was an integral part of this summer's Food, Family, Friends, Familiar Favorites and Fun tour and we've been busy - very busy.

I'm getting the hang of my new laptop, thanks to our old company's IT guy, John, and his infinite patience.     I still have a few things to figure out but, for the most part, I'm feeling fairly comfortable with this new thing.     (I'm still having problems getting my photos from the cameras to the laptop but I'll get it eventually!)

We've been rocketing down memory lane while visiting with friends and family.   Some places looked the same, some very different.  Tons of very happy memories rode with us, some bittersweet pictures and a few unpleasant snapshots snuck in from time to time.     We'll tuck those away and concentrate on the wonderful friends and experiences we enjoyed.  

We arrived on a Saturday afternoon and Dave backed old Beluga down the familiar driveway like he's done it before!     The next day we were invited to Cindy P and Walter's "new" house for a pizza supper.       We haven't seen the property before so it was fun to see where they've settled and get a little taste of their life there.

here she comes with desert!

Jagger waits patiently for us to come out

We sat outside on the patio in their beautiful, green back yard and enjoyed yummy little fruit tarts after a dinner of pizza and wine.    Cindy and Walter gave us a short demonstration of Jagger's scent training work and Ms B was crouched nearby, intently watching a couple of exhibitionist squirrels just outside the fence.    Sweet old Luke took it all in from Cindy's lap.

Walter, Cindy and sweet Luke

Later in the evening, on our way home, we saw a white doe grazing in a large field near the lake.     She was quite far away from us but her dazzling white coat caught our eye.     There is (was?) a small herd of white deer at the Seneca Army Depot on one of the other Finger Lakes (Seneca Lake) about an hour east of us but we've never seen a single deer like this anywhere near us before.  

The photos are very bad, my little camera was zoomed out as far as it could in order to catch sight of her.     Don't ask how I know she was a she.....     

 Unlike the Seneca Depot deer, she did not appear to be albino....her large ears looked to be brown and there was a brown blaze down her nose.

We saw her every evening at dusk.   So beautiful.   I hope no one takes advantage of her lack of camouflage come hunting season.   I'd hate to think of her beautiful head hanging over someone's fireplace.....

The next day our old friend Judi came (laden with goodies from Buffalo) for an overnight.    The weather didn't cooperate that evening, but we were able to enjoy some of the goodies she brought at second cup on the deck the next morning.    We talked and talked and laughed and laughed and ate and ate.    Even after 67 years of friendship, we never run out of things to talk about.    Nice.

Hi Judi!

After Judi left for home, Dave and I went to one of our old time favorite hamburger joints - Tom Wahls.     We ate there on the first day of our honeymoon trip (and, don't tell anyone, but I still have the root beer glass we stole that day).....   Food is still exactly, deliciously the same, even the frosted mugs of homemade root beer.   Judi was invited, of course, but she declined, stating she was just too full from the Paula's donuts at second cup.     

Tom Wahl's steakburger, mmmm

 I can now see that showing you what we did and who we saw, in order, is going to be  hard.....Maybe I'll just show you the pictures with comments instead. 

I didn't take any pictures at the two routine doctor visits I had.   After one of them we traveled a little north of Rochester to Webster for a lunch date with our good friend Barb.    She met us at a new French restaurant and afterward we went to her town house for a bit of desert and companionship.   It was good catching up.

Hi Barb!

she just wanted to rub her cheek on his fork, that's all.....

 After the other appointment, we drove down to Perry, NY and the Charcoal Corral to meet the fabulous Fred and his sweet wife Jeanie.     On Thursdays during the summer, the little restaurant/miniature golf, drive in theater venue holds a cruise night that draws lots of old cars.     They fill the grassy lawns around the buildings and it's fun to get a hot dog, and (in my case) ice cream, then check out all the beautiful hot rods.   

the horseradish hot dog guys!

 

Oh Fred.....

 As the evening wore on, we noticed lots of folks beginning to line the road leading out of the venue and into the town of Perry.      As we watched we saw why....the old cars leaving were giving everyone a real show on their way home.  

a nice burnout!

Concern for our safety kept us from getting very close, but we were close enough to see the smoke and smell the rubber and hear the crazy noise.   What a hoot!     Evidently the local police were somewhere else that evening or they chose to look the other way in the interest of giving the locals a great show.   Either way we had a ball.      One guy was really full of himself, really showing off,  but he started his burnout before he turned the corner, lost control, and his wheel (complete with the axle attached) flew off and headed in the other direction through the fields.    Glad we weren't close.        Embarrassing and very expensive.   It never pays to show off...

the road was filled with rubber marks!

We had a couple great dinners with friends Tom and Robin.  It was so good catching up in person, nothing like it.

my chicken and waffle sliders!

 They have a new pup, Jack, and we fell in love.   We love Tom and Robin too.

Tom and Jack

 I'm not good at taking pictures of people, I make them look too posed, or cut off their feet, or just plain forget to include one or all of them.    It's not because I'm not having fun (probably BECAUSE I am having fun) or that I don't care about the un-included (is that a word?) it's just me I guess.    No pictures of Jeanie, no pictures of Robin, no pictures of Jerry and Pele, no pictures of my laptop savior John.   

 Mea culpa

One evening we met Cindy P, Walter and their beautiful daughter, Geneva at the nearby Yard of Ale.   She lives in Ithaca (about an hour southeast of Geneseo) and came in specially to see us, thanks G! The waitress taking care of us that evening was another blast from the past - Laurie.    When Jesse was small he (we) took Suzuki piano lessons on Thursday nights.     After his (our) lesson we'd all have dinner at a now defunct local restaurant - Station 42.    It was a great family run Italian restaurant with grandma's homemade sauce and pizza fritte for dessert.    Laurie was our waitress there, every Thursday, for years.    Such a wonderful surprise to see her again!

Before she went back to Ithaca Geneva had lunch with Cindy and I at Letchworth State Park's Glen Iris Inn.    They have opened a lovely new outdoor patio beside the thundering middle falls and we enjoyed the sunny warm day amid the well tended gardens.  

the color coordinated girls

We spent Father's Day at Dave's brother Mike's summer spot on tiny Lake Alice, near Lake Ontario.    Mike and his wife Arline have two adult kids, Mike and Shelly.   Since it was Father's Day, we were  lucky to be able to visit with them all,  it's been way too long.    We spent the day outside, visiting, catching up, taking a boat ride and sharing a picnic supper.

Parade to the boat

Hey Mikey!

Shelly, Mike, Mike and Arline on her candy apple red scooter

Are you tired yet?    It was a really really busy two weeks.    Just a few more, I promise.

Up to Webster again, this time we were invited to old friends Cindy and Norm Kraft's home for dinner.    Dave and Norm grew up together and we've all been friends since before we were all married.

Cindy made a wonderful dinner complete with Dave's favorite, Rhubarb pie.   She makes the best pie crust ever.        After dinner their daughter, Melanie, dropped by with her family to say hello.    It was a whirlwind visit!

Norm, Quinn, Melanie and Cindy 
(the two other little blondies were busy elsewhere)

One of our last, but definitely not least, visits was with Tracy.    She started out being Jesse's babysitter when he was 18 months old and she was an 18 year old  student at SUNY Geneseo.    Actually, she took care of our entire household when we traveled, dogs, cats and horses along with little Jesse.    She became a dear and valued friend through the years.    We were so happy she could meet us at one of our old favorites, Phillips European (yes, again, another old favorite!).

Phillips is famous for their decadent desserts....Tracy and I gobbled ours up too fast for a picture, Dave cooperated.

Our very last visit was in Amherst, NY, near where we both grew up.    My family is very small - two cousins on my mother's side and three on my father's side.    Those three and their spouses were gathering at Cousin Linda's house for a casual dinner.     We see each other rarely so it was nice of Linda to organize this meet up when two of us were "in town"

Since Amherst (near Buffalo) is quite a distance from Geneseo, we stayed overnight at Judi's house that evening before heading back home on Sunday morning.    Our last good visit with her, sigh.

bye Judi

Tonight we're in smoky Ohio, on our way to Spokane.   It was raining when we left Geneseo, it rained all the way to our first stop last night and much of today.   

 

hail at lunch time.....

We're settling down to our quiet life on the road now.   It was absolutely wonderful to see everyone (we did miss two special people, Lisa and JoAnn, but it couldn't be helped)  and wander along memory lane.    We're happily exhausted but looking forward to the next chapter of this journey.

  

The Lake

 

We're here at the lake, enjoying more Food, Family, Friends, Familiar places and Fun.    I have a new laptop and I'm still figuring things out so stay tuned......

Friends - 2

 Harpers Ferry has been a frequent stop on our travels when we moved north and/or south on the east coast.      The National Historical Park is interesting ("John Brown's body lies a moldering in his grave"), as is the confluence of the mighty rivers - Potomac and Shenandoah.    There are numerous historic sights and beautiful old small towns.     We've explored and experienced this area numerous times, but this visit was purely to enjoy a Familiar Favorite, an old Friend (s) and good Food.     The drive up from North Carolina was pretty, albeit smoky - not something we've ever experienced here.

is that Beluga passing us?

We settled in at the Harper's Ferry KOA, a place we've stayed at many times before.    This time we had a newly created spot in the woods, just above a civil war trench in the woods.

The sites were pretty and private, but......so uneven.    We found ourselves staggering about in the dark when we got up in the middle of the night to........well, you know.    Our ankles were scraped by the door slamming closed when we let it go and I fully expected to find Dave upside down in the bedroom closet when I got up in the morning.......   We were only there for two nights and the body does acclimate eventually, so it was all fine in the end.

We met my old friend Mary and her cool husband Dave at Alma Bea in nearby, historic Shepherdstown.  Mary and I have been friends since we were in our early teens, we lived through the back field from each other and both rode rangy, grade Palomino horses - four blond pony tails among us.....

She was in my wedding, I was in hers.....

Back to the present - we had a lovely meal at Alma Bea, an old railroad warehouse beautifully redone to house a modern restaurant specializing in "Appalachian flavors, tapas style"....Intriguing!

one of Dave's choices - deviled eggs!

Mary chose Mussels

The next day Dave and I stayed inside, it was so very smoky outside we could barely see the next site.    I concentrated on laundry, bills and a blog to pass the day before meeting Dave and Mary, again in beautiful Shepherdstown, at one of  our favorite restaurants - the Press Room.

More wonderful food and conversation.    Is this becoming a pattern?

Dave (my Dave) loved his Seafood Stew

After another 3 hour meal we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.    Dave and I walked around the little town before heading home.    As we walked in front of the old courthouse we heard someone playing a familiar tune on a harmonica, Camp Town Races I think....and then a few doors down we saw a man sitting on a bench playing accompaniment on an accordion!   

oh Dave

The Potomac River runs along behind the historic district and you know we had to make our way down to it!

little streams cascading down to the river

what do you suppose this was?

We left Harpers Ferry this morning and drove the very familiar route 15 north beside the picturesque Susquehanna River to this night's stop at Ives Run COE campground in Tioga, Pennsylvania.     The smoke abated somewhat, but was joined by drizzle and rain to make for a gloomy day.

We thought we were all settled into a nice, grassy and private site at the COE park in Tioga, but the high voltage electric kept tripping our surge protector.   Not a situation we can live with.    We prevailed upon the Ranger to find us another spot.   

large Tulip Poplar tree behind our site

 Pack things back up, unhook, drive around the loop to site # 8, (good electric service) hook up again, slides out, etc. etc., wine served and enjoyed, supper eaten and we're now happy for the night.    Tomorrow we'll drive the 90 or so miles into New York and  our old driveway at the lake!    See you there.

a gloved Tulip thief at my door.....