Buffalo in the Summer - 2011

July 22, 2011

Today we took the metro into the city. We parked at the university and took it to the end. Along the way we stopped at City Hall which provided a wonderful view of the city (25 floors up). The metro ends at the pier. It has been fixed up a lot since we were there last. There were lots of brightly colored Adirondack chairs scattered all around the area for people to relax.

Glory Days Reunion – Saturday July 23, 2011

The Glory Days Reunion of Lovejoy, NY (Robert’s childhood neighborhood near Buffalo ) came together for a reunion (hosted by some of the members of Robert’s grade school).  It was amazing that so many people came out to the event which was held at a place called Fontana Grove.  There were hundreds of people there, many of whom had not seen each other is many years.

July 24, 2011

This morning we headed out to the wine country, in the Finger Lakes .  We had two sets of friends with us in two cars and we met up at our hotel which is the Best Western Airport Inn.  Along the way we stopped at a hamburger place called Wahl’s.  OMG the best burger I have found in a long while (of the fast food type, of course).  The onion rings were also perfect. 

Our first stop was the Sonnenburg Gardens , Winery and Mansion.  The grounds are beautiful and the mansion was decorated in the period for when the owner lived there.  We did get to have a quick sample of 5 wines.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay there a long time since we had to get to Penn Yan.

We arrived in Penn Yan at the Best Western Vineyard Inn and Suites.  It’s a very nice hotel and it’s in a perfect location near Lake Seneca .  We made arrangements to go on a cruise this evening and to meet up with Robert’s Aunt who would drive up from Trumansburg.  Our other set of friends had stayed at the Sonnenburg Mansion longer and we weren’t able to tell them of our plans.  Their phone was Verizon and they did not have cell phone coverage here.  We started out in the evening to go to the cruise and got a few blocks down the road when the car overheated.  The check engine light came on and we barely made it back to the hotel.  Our other friends walked into the hotel at the same time we were going to try to get a taxi to take us to the boat.   They ended up taking our other friend’s reservation and we were on our way to the dinner cruise on Lake Seneca .

The dinner cruise was very good.  They didn’t have any local wines to purchase at dinner which I thought was very odd.  Here we are in wine country and they are serving California wines, go figure… 

July 25, 2011

Touring wineries was on the agenda today.  We stopped at several wineries and then the weather turned on us and a storm blew in.  We ended up having lunch at the same place where we took the boat cruise the night before.   We also stopped at a cheese store which was on the way home and located just a few miles before getting into Buffalo .   Our friends dropped us off at the hotel so since we didn’t have a car anymore, we just stayed in for the evening and walked over to the Denny’s for dinner.

July 26, 2011

Today we went to East Aurora , NY . This is such a lovely little village.  We went to a fabulous Five & Dime called Vidlers.  Anything you could want is in this store!  There are lots of kitchen gadgets, soaps, penny candy like the ones sold in the old days, in glass jars.  This store is amazing.  There were a couple very interesting shops on the main street, like an olive oil and vinegar shop….this store was fantastic too.  It was called Tuscany on Main ”.  I didn’t get to go into the shoe store but had to take a picture of the outside of it.   I definitely would like to spend more time in this little village.  It was just so quaint.  We also went to a store called “Made in America ”.  The whole store only sold products made in the USA .  There were some pretty nice things there too.