A Weekend Away

James and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary in upstate New York. James has been working in New York for the last two weeks so for Labor Day weekend, I made the 5 hour drive up to meet him in the Finger Lake area of the state.

The Finger Lakes consist of 11 long, narrow, roughly parallel lakes, oriented north-south as fingers of a pair of outstretched hands. Two of the lakes (Seneca and Cayuga) are among the deepest in North America and have bottoms below sea level. These lakes all formed over the last two million years by glacial carving of old stream valleys. The Finger Lake area is New York's largest wine producing region. With over 100 vineyards and wineries surrounding the lakes, there was no shortage of the red (and white) stuff for us to taste over our three day stay. There were several cheese farms in the area too. We made sure to make it to a few of those as well.

We stayed on Lake Cayuga at the John Morris Manor. Our hosts, Tony and John and their dogs Bear and Bender, were wonderful and made our stay super comfortable, not to mention Tony's A-mazing breakfasts. We also met an array of interesting people including another couple celebrating their first anniversary as well.

On our first day of vaca we met up with our friends, Jim and Carrie (yes, that makes a pair of us) who live out 45 minutes away in Rochester. We spent the day visiting a number of wineries and had lunch and dinner along the way. By the end of the day, we had accumulated three cases of wine between us. I'm sure they'll come in handy around the holidays.

On Sunday James and I made the two hour drive west to visit Niagara Falls. I visited the Falls once before, when I was about five. Besides the yellow slickers and booties, I don't remember much from that trip. Evidence is provided below (incidentally, it turns out I had the same haircut I have now...sweeeet). James had never been to visit the Falls so we were eager to check out this 10,000 year old waterfall. As it was, we were not the only ones that wanted to take in the beauty of Niagara Falls - the place was packed! In a way though I think it's nice to know that a place like Niagara Falls can still compete with Disney World.

American Falls and Horseshoe Falls (top L); me at age 5 (top R); in line for Maid of the Mist (bottom L); on the boat (bottom R)

We waited in line for an hour and half for our turn on the legendary Maid of the Mist which would take us up close and personal with American Falls and Horseshoe Falls. While the "slickers" weren't quite as cool as they were 20 years ago, it was well worth the wait to get that close to the awesome power that is Niagara Falls. Over six million cubic feet of water pour over the falls every minute, making it the most powerful waterfall in North America. It's really something you must see. If you haven't been, put it on your list. One word of caution - be sure to hit the restroom before standing in that line, that was a missed opportunity on my end. The "mist" on the Maid didn't do anything to help the situation either.

We spent our last day together exploring the coast of Lake Cayuga. We wandered upon a state park and an amazing gorge complete with a waterfall known as Taughannock Falls. It was spectacular. We then drove to the south end of the lake to the town of Ithaca. Ithaca is a cute little college town with great shops and restaurants. The last time I was there was when I was a senior in high school. I came to the area to visit schools and ended up coming very, very close to going to college in Ithaca.

In the afternoon we explored the lake by kayak. It was a great day to be paddling, not too warm and not too busy on the water. There were an abundance of sailboats out enjoying the weather as well as a few crew teams from Cornell University.

We wrapped up our anniversary weekend with a delicious gourmet meal in Seneca Falls at a restaurant called Divine. And it was...both the meal and the weekend away. Cheers to Year Two!