A Springtime Visit

After our adventures with raisin bread and the animal hospital we finally have had some time to update you on backlogged posts. Namely, a post about the week that Chrissy's parents came to visit back at the beginning of May.

The impetus for the timing of this trip was Rochester's famous Lilac Festival in Highland Park which is quite a sight to behold. Enormous lilac bushes of differing varieties cover much of the park, fanning out their delightful fragrances. The lilacs are truly beautiful and impressive, and they're a very good reason to make a trip to Rochester--plus it's in the spring, so for all you friends and family who are afraid of the winter's wrath, you don't have to deal with snow if you come to the Lilac Festival!


We also took a trip down to Canandaigua which is a quaint town at the northern tip of the Finger Lake which shares its name. Specifically, we went to a wine and food pairing at the New York Wine & Culinary Center. We had a really great time comparing Rieslings (the wine variety that the Finger Lake wineries are famous for) with different flavors of food. In the photo below, Jonathan is shocking our teacher and the rest of the people in our class by bluntly saying that his wine and food pairing reminded him of "bad, smelly fish." Of course, my parents and I laughed and everyone else looked a bit bewildered--they just were unfamiliar with the wonderful and biting merriment that is Jonathan's sense of humor.


For Mother's Day I treated my mom and dad to a tea brunch at La Tea Da. It was very fun and girly and I think my dad, I mean, my mom thoroughly enjoyed it. ;-)


And of course, Kenai LOVED her time with her grandma from DE. Hopefully she's good practice for the arrival of Maryetta & Davey's little munchkin.


We also visited some of the beautiful gorge parks down at the southern tips of the Finger Lakes. We first tried heading over to Watkins Glen but, despite the fact that their website indicated that dogs were allowed everywhere but the Gorge trail or the pools, it turned out that dogs were only allowed in the parking lot. And I don't think Kenai would've enjoyed hiking around a parking lot that much.

So, then we headed over to Robert Treman State Park b/c we'd taken Kenai there before. Unfortunately, the gorge trail was being repaired, so no one was allowed on it! We hiked around a little bit, but we weren't able to see a whole lot. Mom and dad decided to wait for us at the trailhead.


Finally, we headed up to Buttermilk Falls where the trails were open and dogs were allowed!! It was really beautiful! We had a picnic lunch at the base of the larger falls and then Jonathan and I opted to hike up beside the stream, while mom and dad waited at the base. Kenai even met another Greater Swiss Mountain dog on the way up. She wasn't very nice though. :(


Other activities during the week:
-Mom & dad helping out with the landscaping around our house--THANK YOU!!!!
-Heading to a Rochester Red Wings game
-Eating a garbage plate at Nick Tahou's
-Visiting the George Eastman House and Photography Museum
-Going to a cooking class at Wegman's

Oh, and here's a link to our Picasa Web album to see all the photos from that week:

Spring Visit to Rochester