After spending the first two weeks getting as far north as we could relatively quickly, it was a welcome break to set up camp and stay put in Watkins Glen for several days.
After our day of hiking the gorge-ous waterfalls, we actually had to take Tuesday to do some housekeeping and laundry. Normal life activities must continue, even though the scenery is so beautiful and it's a little hard not to get distracted from chores. That's entirely due to the location, of course, and in no way reflects on my ability to focus on housekeeping.
One thing I really did like about going into the village and doing laundry at the laundromat was how quickly we could knock out four loads from start to finish! All of us were helping load, switch and fold. And leaving a load in the dryer for a couple days (not that anyone would ever do that) was not an option. With all clothes and towels fresh and folded, we got to explore other things in the village.
Like Ben & Jerry's. Anyone else a Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz fan?
Apparently we had enough time in the area to make it to Ben & Jerry's twice.
Back at camp, Petunia wrote and recited her "campfire ghost stories" to me and Mark. They were certainly the funniest scary stories ever.
One thing about being on adventures is getting to meet new friends. This sweet little girl and Petunia became fast friends and met up several times to go bike riding. It was really lovely to get some time to speak with her and her family. I hope we can stay in touch with this special friend.
The sweetest girls with "almost matching" bike helmets.
The Finger Lakes region is also quite known for its wines. Around many of the several lakes in the area are winery after winery. We stayed close to only one lake the whole time, barely scratching the surface of things to do in the area. We did take one afternoon to go wine tasting, which I love to do in new regions we explore.
The wine was good, but the views were spectacular!
At Glenora Wine Cellars
Bellangelo winery had their tasting bar set up so you looked out over the lake.
As you can see, Petunia found a few things to occupy her time while we stopped in just a few wineries one afternoon. She was very well behaved and a great sport about letting us having some adult recreation.
In battle with another pirate.
One family had 3 dogs out tasting with them and that occupied Petunia for that whole stop!
We were referred to Shaw Winery and I am so glad that we took that advice. We had our best wines there and ran into this couple, who were celebrating their honeymoon! If you have been part of the Love Your Neighbor experience (more on that later, if you haven't) then you were part of gifting these newlyweds with their wine tasting fee. They were grateful for the small surprise gift which lifted all our spirits!
Cheers and best wishes for many happy years together!
Just married.
So much natural beauty still to be seen that day
We spent another day back at the state park. We returned for hours to the olympic-sized pool where all of us went off diving boards for the first time in who knows how many years. There were 3 diving boards on one end that went into a 16 foot deep end! That's not our typical pool experience, for sure. Not to sound like a broken record, but even the pool setting was extremely pretty.
Epic cannonball!
Lovely way to spend a day!
After all our varied experiences in the area, I know many good memories will remain. Perhaps one of the strongest images, however, will be from my camp chair gazing up into these majestic trees.
Thank you,, Watkins Glen. You were good to us.