During the last month or so weekend plans had us busy travelling to various corners of New York State. The previous post started this travelogue with a fun trip to New York City to visit the daughter (see “A Weekend in Contrasts”). Immediately following that metropolitan adventure Greg and I made a trip to the Bebernitz homestead outside of Rochester, NY to do some farming. In a much earlier post I described niece Cheryl’s mid life career change from full time mom of 5 to hops farmer (see post “Wannado’s”, June 2017). We returned this year to help Cheryl with ‘spring training’, winding rapidly growing, prickly hops vines up their trellis. Mind you, there are over 5,000 plants so it takes a while to work the 7 acres. It’s back bending/breaking work that needs done every spring and we are happy to do our little part to help plus we get to visit his family whom we enjoy. We managed to get a couple of mid-distance bike rides in around the Lake Ontario shoreline in advance of an upcoming bike tour. Outstanding flowering apple orchards graced the gently rolling lakeside hills for miles and the weather was magnificent. We also had time for a stop at Fairport Brewing with Bob and Tina and her dad Denny and enjoyed a really great dinner at Edibles bistro.
The following week we headed to Long Island, a place neither of us had ever visited (unless a flight out of LaGuardia counts). Our friends Steve and Archandrea (see blog post “The Villes”, July 2018) invited us to their beautiful beach house in Amagansett, near Montauk. We departed on Monday and drove the 8 hours from nearly the northernmost part of NY to nearly the eastern most tip, around, of course, the hub of the world, New York City. We planned our drive to avoid traffic there and managed to survive. I may have mentioned previously that Greg has taken to driving slower (only 73mph in a 65mph zone!) and has an allergic reaction to traffic. He who drove to work for over 30 years on a 4:30am to 3pm schedule to avoid traffic in Northern NJ and Metrowest Boston to Cambridge, MA has forgotten all about sharing the road with people. Who are in his way. In any case, since my kids hate when we talk about traffic (is it an old person thing?), I’ll move on. Bandandrea and Steve have a lovely house a 5 min walk from the beach with an outdoor shower, a large deck and many comfortable bedrooms. Let me know if you are interested in renting, I’ll pass it on. Anyway, we had cocktails on the beach upon arrival and a great dinner on the deck. The next day we toured the Montauk area, a short drive away. The weather was superb and we hiked a few of the state park beach areas along the bluffs overlooking the ocean. (Bonus: Free entry! The NYS Golden Pass enables free entry into any NYS park for persons over 62 and their passengers, Mon-Fri not including weekends and holidays.) We then toured the Montauk lighthouse and museum. Commandrea and I met the current lighthouse keeper thinking he was a Coast Guard-ian but it turns out he’s some old rich guy who works on the charitable board that operates the historical site and gets to live there for free. Better to seduce country club widows with the line “I live in a lighthouse, let me lead you home”. Anyway, we had a nice picnic at a local park beach and then did some gift shopping and fish purchasing before heading to the Montauk brewery and then a South Fork winery (Channing Daughters) for some swill (really bad wine, and they wanted $18.00 a glass!!!)
The next day Christina came out on the train to join us for the day. We biked to the North Fork, ferrying to and riding across Shelter Island enroute. The homes and beaches and parks and gardens were beautiful everywhere. Alas, the brewery we sought in Greenport was closed so we improvised and rode onward to the Kontokosta winery just outside of town. The wines here were enjoyable made better by the outstanding views off the bluff. We biked back the way we came. Before dinner Christina and I headed to the beach to hang where we were the sole visitors for miles. I found a perfect sand dollar! The water was very cold. Amagandrea and Steve were wonderful, comfortable hosts and we really enjoyed our stay with them. We departed the next day heading towards New Jersey taking Christina as far as we could to save her train fare. We dropped her at the station in Bayside, Queens and then over Manhattan to NJ. It took us 3 hours to drive from Bayside to West Orange, 15 miles! Oh, my apologies for more traffic talk.
We finally arrived in West Orange, NJ to visit friends Rita and Dave, neighbors on Upper Saranac Lake; we have met them for dinner a few times when visiting Manhattan. We dined and visited and stayed overnight in their lovely new townhome. The next day, we headed out to see more of New York State by way of Northern NJ and Scranton, PA, a familiar route from when we lived in NJ many, many moons ago.
Our destination in NY was Watkins Glen, made famous by the speedway but also the geologically historical and beautiful gorge and waterfalls in the Watkins Glen State Park (the Golden Pass comes in handy once again!) Watkins Glen sits at the southernmost end of Seneca Lake, the longest and deepest of the Finger Lakes. US Navy vessels use this lake, over 600 feet deep, for deep water training and testing. We came to camp and bike.
Having enjoyed the Great Erie Canal Bike ride last summer (see posts “A Mule Named Sal”, “Second Thoughts?”, “I heart NY”, and “Finished”), Tina and I sought a reprise and found the Great Finger Lakes Bike Tour hosted by the Southern Tier Bicycle Club. We convinced our husbands, Greg and Bob, it would be fun and they believed us! With limited camping experience and a little bicycle training we managed to ride 35 miles between Keuka and Seneca Lakes to Penn Yan and back the first day. The rolling hillsides offered stunning lake vistas amongst beautiful, manicured Amish farms. The last few hills did us in but not enough to keep Greg and Bob from visiting a brewery or two while Tina and I collapsed back at the tents (which managed to stay upright all weekend despite all the husband’s grousing). The next day we rode 45 miles around Keuka Lake despite sore backsides. Our ride took us right along the lakeshore, through the middle of an ongoing triathlon and also a local college, a few lake towns, an arts festival, and another brewery. It was an outstanding weekend with spectacular weather and scenery. The Southern Tier Bike Club hosts did a great job organizing the rides, the SAG support, and feeding us back at the campground. Greg and I then headed home, driving through more of the beautiful Finger Lakes region and back to our own home on our own beautiful lake.
Although not in NYS, the next weekend we returned to Massachusetts to visit friends and for me to run a 5k with my former workout group in Stow. First, an after work drinks session with coworkers from AstraZeneca and then dinner with the workout ladies. I stayed overnight with one of the ladies, Ingeborg, who has fabulous gardens tended by her husband. It was really great getting to know her better. The next day we met up with Tenney and Lisa to run the ‘Muddy Princess’ obstacle course. I have not been running too much lately but this group of ladies is so amazing it was no matter. I was able to go through and over and under obstacles and mud, on purpose. In a tutu. We had a great time. For some reason, the weather has been cooperating all these weekends despite it being a very wet spring everywhere and the day was spectacular once again. After a shower, I met up with Greg who was on his own ‘tour of friends’ and we had dinner with Lewis and Louise and Jen and kids in Swampscott. We headed home by way of Burlington, VT which allowed us to have dinner with Dan and Anna. As it was Father’s Day, this was the perfect ending to another great weekend.
Finally, to round out the NYS tour, we attended a wedding in Warwick, NY, about an hour north of NY in Orange County. Our friends MaryLou and Ron were celebrating their daughter Lindsay’s wedding. We met this wonderful family when all our kids were in daycare together and have stayed friends since. Lindsay’s outdoor wedding was set on a horsefarm, nestled on hillside meadow, typical of the beauty of Warwick. We also visited Millie, now 94 years old, the widow of Greg’s friend Ray who operated a lumber mill in Warwick when we lived there. And Polly, a former coworker of mine from Wyeth, now a high school science teacher. We loved living in Warwick, but also in Stow, and are grateful we have had good experiences and memories, and especially, friends, from both.
My new reality 