Yearly Archives: 2013

Worth the Hype

So, after 11 months of living in Rochester, passing by this place in beautiful Pittsford right along the Erie Canal a million times, and lots of enthusiastic referals and “you haven’t been to Pittsford Dairy yet!?” from friends, we finally found occassion (summer heat, visiting relatives, and a lazy Sunday afternoon is an occassion, right?) to get ourselves over to Pittsford Farms Dairy to try their oft raved about chocolate milk and ice cream. The chocolate milk, while still totally delish, was pretty standard in my book, but I would hardly call myself a chocolate milk connoisseur either. But I DO consider myself pretty adept at judging ice cream, and theirs I will definitely be back for.

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I gotta say, I was instantly smitten with the offerings – tables of fresh berries, amazing homemade pies and droolworthy sweet breads, stunning rustic decor (must. have. milk bottle chandelier. yesterday.), a freezer full of ice cream cakes (I know what I want for my birthday…), fresh pastries, long community picnic tables set up inside for the enjoyment of goodies, lots of sweet and shady outdoor seating next to a corn field for pretty summer eves, milk and chocolate milk sold in refillable glass bottles and jugs (swoon!), and homemade cheeses, seasonal custard, and so many flavors of hard hand dipped ice cream, shakes, malts, banana splits, and sundaes! Heaven.

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This seasonal fresh blueberry custard? AMAZING. Easily the creamiest custard I have ever had. My mouth tingles just thinking about it. And that lilac hue is gorgeous! I wish they’d keep this winner around all summer long!

Obviously, I sense a future of many a date night here…

If you haven’t been here yet, treat yo’ self and try it :) I’ll even go with if you need a buddy! This place would be a rockin’ dessert compliment to lunch at the Village Bakery across the street.

Also, can I just brag on the unbelieveable weather we’ve been having this week!? The last week in July is historically toasty pretty much anywhere in the U.S., but we’ve been basking in precious, sunny, breezy 65 degree weather for the past two days. I cannot even fathom what turn of excellent fortune allowed us to deserve such an amazing treat. It’s like a mirage…I’m not even sure it’s real. It was flat out chilly and fall-like Wednesday morning, and I got to spend the whole morning outside doing an acting expansions exercise with our conservatory students in that glorious weather. Seriously!! Summer is the greatest.

Have a wonderful weekend!

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One Way Ticket

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Two Sundays ago we checked out the New York Museum of Transportation, a tiny yet fun and really interesting little museum only open on Sundays way out in the country amid corn fields and railroad tracks that was once an abandoned dairy farm. We enjoyed an actual trolley and push car rides on the railroad, learned alot about old railroad stations and their tools, instruments, and legends, Morse code, telegraphs, and the Rochester Subway System, and toured many rail cars stocked with really great artifacts and wonderful stories of Rochester’s not too far gone past and how people on the rails communicated back then. If you’re looking for a really neat day trip for any history buffs or train enthusiasts, I’d highly suggest it…especially on a beautiful summer day or colorful autumn eve!

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I couldn’t help but note that the Cincinnati subway ceased construction in 1928 after it was mostly built but before tracks were laid and it was ever actually put to use (as my favorite Ted shirt says – “The Cincinnati Subway – taking you nowhere since 1928”) and the Rochester subway started its operations in 1928. They were probably under construction during the exact same years…it’s just that one was canned due to cost and the other was completed. Also fascinating is that both Cincinnati and Rochester drained, reinforced and converted the already dug Erie Canal into their underground subway systems. And up until they filled in the Rochester subway recently (last year?), you could tour both abandoned subways. So thankful we were in the handful of the lucky few who got to tour Cincinnati’s subway! Abandoned canal-subways fascinate me.

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Doesn’t this totally look like it used to be an amazing piece of scenery on a traveling circus car? I adore it!

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Cruisin’ down the Erie Canal

One of the wonderful things about living in Rochester is our close proximity to the Erie Canal. In the spring and fall its paved waterside trails provide a peaceful and serene running track, it’s rich history and beauty makes it a great place to take out-of-town visitors, it’s a grand spot for biking, strolling, fishing, kayaking, canoeing, paddleboarding, or simply a little R&R, and in the summer boat cruises along the canal are an awesome way to unwind with the family, soak in some rays and a cool breeze with a peach margarita in hand, check out a lock, and learn more about the origins and history of the canal.

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There are several cruising companies in and around the Rochester area, but we opted for the Colonial Belle out of Fairport because it cruises some of the most beautiful areas including Bushnell’s Basin and Pittsford, and it includes passage through Lock 32. I was also pleased with the open-air top deck for a nice breeze and great views, the unexpected onboard drink offerings, interesting historical and just-for-fun information about the canal voiced by the vessel’s captain throughout the cruise, a great folksy canal cruising soundtrack by a local musician (who sometimes plays and sings live onboard), and the themed cruises they offer including lunch and dinner cruises, murder mystery cruises, jazz and wine nights, parrot head, and fall foliage cruises. With a hunk of free time on a lovely Saturday afternoon, we booked the plain old 3-hour mid-afternoon lock cruise, which was a gorgeous and entirely relaxing way to spend a part of our weekend.

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I would love to go again with some friends for either the parrot head or murder mystery cruise and then again with visiting family in the autumn for the fall foliage sunset dinner cruise! Who’s with me??

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On Market Mornings and BBQ Ribs & Blues

As I’m sure you’ve gleamed by now, our public market cannot be beat and neither can our rad summer festivals. Also, 71 degrees in late July (our upcoming forecast for Wednesday)? Summertime in upstate New York is truly grand!

Mellow Morning Marketing

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(These pastries from Flour City Bread were incredible}

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{Yes, this gorgeous chameleon is real and quite pettable}

BBQ Ribs & Blues Fest

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{Good old fashioned live blues tunes and a cozy patch of soft green lawn, this is the life!}

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{Texas girls gotta support}

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{Dill pickle and jalapeno chips}

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{Ribs!}

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{Rib man hard at work/play – he’s a happy camper}

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More weekend fun to come!

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Welcoming the Weekend

Some busy, busy weeks (busy yet wonderful, I mean I do have an incredible job in the theatre!), Friday can’t come soon enough!

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Have a great week!

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Home Improvement: From House to Home, Part II

Lookie what arrived on Wednesday!

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Omg we finally have living room furniture!!

Well, a sofa at least. The ottoman is still being built and we’ll add the chair when we can afford to….but still! Holy beautiful sofa!

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And man oh man, is this couch comfy and well-made! And even more gorgeous in person. And it was pretty awesome custom designing every detail of her too, from fabrics to arms to the shape of the back pillows and right down to what type of spring and stuffing fills the cushions (once we finally came to some agreements and made a decision).

Also, I adore the pillows!

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It’s a perfect fit. The room’s still a little sparse, but like I said, the matching ottoman will be arriving in a few weeks, the chair will come eventually, we’ve got some really neat new floor and table lamps in mind, plans to build some sweet end tables, pictures to hang, two more pillows with bright pops of color to add, and a few other ideas up our sleeves.

But for now, I cannot even tell you how thrilled we (read: our aching backs) are to be resting on a comfortable sofa again and off the floor and hard backed chairs!

Ted never even told me it was arriving. I came home Wednesday night from the theatre, where he met me outside for dinner and a trip to the grocery store and when we came back home and opened the front door…bam! There it was…perfectly in place and looking like a totally different home in the most wonderful way possible.

LOVE.

:)

Happy Friday!

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Home Improvement: From House to Home, Part 1

First up: the yard. We both agreed our townhome improvements had to start with the weedy, overgrown, neglected, hideous-and-half-dead-pine-shrub yard that came with our otherwise really lovely new place.

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{Before…it ain’t pretty}

I’m not a big flower person (too ordinary for my tastes), and I’m definitely not a fan of the cost or daily effort required to maintain mulch, flowers, grass, trimmed shrubs, etc. And because I’m a Texas girl at heart, we decided that a snazzy, non-traditional for our neighborhood, eye-catching, low-maintenance, and cost-effective Texas rock garden with dazzling firefly mason jar lanterns, gathered driftwood fresh from the beach at Lake Ontario, white marble gravel, slate stepping stones, and a vintage half-oak whiskey barrel was just the ticket!

After designing, researching, purchasing, spraying, de-weeding, de-shrubbing, digging, turning, leveling, tarping, bricking, shoveling, placing, hanging, and seeding…we are thrilled with the outcome.

Without further adieu…our DIY landscaping reveal!

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{Work in progress – the inaugural scoop of gravel!}

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{After! A glorious improvement!}

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{Before and after, side by side}

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{And, of course, my beloved firefly mason jar lanterns at night. I adore them.}

Next summer we intend to turn the whiskey barrel into a fountain, take down the rusty street lamp lighting fixture on the left leaving just the pretty firefly lanterns for light, perhaps make and hang a live succulent wreath on the door (because I also have a hopeless obsession with any plant from the cactus family), and hopefully they’ll have pressure washed the siding and walls by then as well because, wow, do they need it.

But for now, this summer, we are all about enjoying our new yard as is!

We even won a gift card to Wegman’s from the townhouse company in the landscaping contest last week. :)

Not too shabby for a quick weekend DIY project.

Have you done any fun home improvement projects lately?

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Cedar Point on the 4th of July!

After a glorious last half-day in Lansing, we ventured 3 hours southeast to Sandusky, OH to meet Kate, Tim, Caleb and Alexis (Ted’s sister, her husband, and our neice and nephew) for some 6:30 p.m.-midnight 4th of July fun riding coasters and watching fireworks at Cedar Point (cheaper twilight admission after 5 p.m.)! Somehow we’ve managed to spend two out of our last three married 4th of July’s with Kate & family and we’ve had so much fun each time. It’s a tradition we wouldn’t mind continuing!

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(Welcome to the island!}

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{Because it was 4th of July and the lines for all the greatest coasters – like the Millennium Force – were over an hour-and-a-half wait time, they set up a plinko game right outside of the entrance to the Millennium line. For $5 you got two chances to play plinko and win 2 passes straight to the front of the line if your puck landed in the yellow slots. Why not? Ted and Caleb gave it a try and our good luck charm Caleb dropped the pucks and won us not 2, but 4 passes to the front of the line for Millennium Force!! Those passes saved us four adults 1.5 hours in line, allowing us time to ride the Millennium Force, grab dinner together as a family, and ride several other coasters too! It was amazing. Totally worth it! And despite the crazy high climb and really steep drop, Millennium is sooooo smooth of a ride; a completely magnificent coaster.}

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{Happy 4th of July!}

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{Hanging with the kids while Kate and Tim took their turn on the Millennium}

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{Can’t pass up a good opportunity to be utterly obnoxious}

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{Not a bad spot for some Happy Birthday America fireworks!}

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{And after hitting up the Millennium, Gemini, and Iron Dragon, it was clearly time to hunker down in the bunk beds – yesssss – when we finally made it back to the hotel at 1 a.m. for a good night’s sleep}

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{The next day we drove to Menor, a suburb of Cleveland, to meet up with a bunch of Ted’s family, all driving in to celebrate Fr. Bob’s 80th birthday. I had to leave to drive back to NY mid-afternoon, so only some of the family had made it to town for the weekend by the time I left, but it was so nice to see the ones I did get to see…and from what I hear, Ted and the rest of the family enjoyed a wonderful weekend together too.}

Family, Friends, Food, and Fun…and that concludes our summer road trip! :)

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The Last of Lansing

For our last day in Lansing we breakfast’d at Fleetwoods Diner (another favorite breakfast joint from our past), wandered the island in Fitzgerald Park in Grand Ledge, enjoyed some ice cream at our favorite tiny little small-town ice cream stand in GL – Corner Cone, checked out the amazing produce, awesome selection of hard ciders, and other exquisite goodies at Horrocks (the best grocery store for real, which seriously beats out Wegman’s any day!), walked Old Town and the Riverwalk downtown, found a playground, and met up with one of Ted’s friends from MSU for a lunchtime drink.

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{Gyro hippie hash at Fleetwoods – a truly delicious one-of-a-kind breakfast!}

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{The island at Fitzgerald Park}

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{Feeding ducks}

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{The face tree}

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{Blue Moon at Corner Cone!}

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{Horrocks, you are the best grocery store that ever there is! I miss you so!!}

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{Swingin’}

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{And lastly, on the road again with everyone’s favorite road trip snack – the Astropop!}

So long Lansing…thanks for the memories! You have always been so good to us :)

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Catchin’ Up With Kristine

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In Lasing we met up with Kristine, our amazing friend, actor, playwright, and former boss/artistic director at the theatre we where we met, for some tasty drinks, the awesomest thin crust pizza grub in existence, dancing to sometimes grand and sometimes awful karaoke, and five wonderful, joyful hours of conversation and laughter at Leo’s Outpost – one of our old Lansing haunts. She is such a gem and we love her dearly! Just having one solitary evening with Kristine was one of the major driving forces of our road trip, and we’re so thrilled we got her all to ourselves!
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We vow it will not be four more years before we see this brilliant woman again!

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