Around Rochester

You know, just photos from Christmas and New Years…2+ months ago…

{Fell in love with this gorgeous albino squirrel with mad bird-feeder manipulating skills}

{Visiting and bringing Christmas presents to the kitties at the shelter}

{Our tree & me}

{A merry little Christmas}

{Dinosaur BBQ with this goof}

{A Christmas Carol with the lady friends}

{Live Nativity and warm fireplaces…and peacocks. Who were an integral part of the Nativity story, don’t you know?}

{Christmas morning: breakfast tacos and cinnamon buns. Mmmmmm!}

{Southern Comfort soaked, white chocolate dipped, homemade poundcake}

{The best Christmas dinner and monopoly merry-making with Chelsea, Andrew, Chintan, and Priya}

{Mussels, frites, and Belgium beer}

{Finally found my Shiner Cheer! It took 8 grocery stores, but it was worth it!}

{Somebody was more than a little thrilled with all that snow!}

{And the supremely comfy Into the Woods theatre experience}

{We bowled…old-fashioned style! And found a new favorite bowling alley in the process.}

{And got treats}

{Aaaaaand more treats!}

{Then there’s this guy…who is, perhaps, my most favorite treat of all!}

{New Year’s Eve – ringing in 2015!}

Hey, look! It’s all the rest of the stuff that has happened in the past two months! Well, not all of it, but some of the stuff I took pictures of at least…

{Friday night bingo at a Ukrainian Catholic church with a bunch of Geva staff and our cast of Good People. Now, this is what we call primary research! It was a pretty intense experience – true bingo players don’t mess around – but also a lot of fun! Who knew you could play like 8 cards simultaneously and that they have special bingo paint makers? And those hot dogs! YUM. No winners at our table, but if you saw the show, you’d never know those actors haven’t been playing bingo since they emerged from the womb}

{The first Sonic Drive-In finally opened in Rochester! FIELD TRIP OF EXTREME JOY}

{Fall prettiness}

{Fall yumminess}

{Our lovebug}

{A tour of the Susan B. Anthony house with a few of our playwrights who were in town for our Festival of New Theatre}

{Book club: The Bookman’s Tale. A highly recommended read – a cross between a love story, a history story, and a mystery tale}

{Kitty love! Wash, Sancho, and Leo. My love for orange tabbies is limitless! My friends are all so generous with allowing me to come over and love on their animals. All. The. Time. I’m so very lucky!}

{Girls’ night dinner at Atlas Eats! INCREDIBLE. The food, the wine, the company, the atmosphere, all of it. The best!}

Of course, there’s plenty more things I didn’t get pictures of…like the great new scarf I’m learning to knit, my homemade rhubarb syrup and smorgasbord of soups, my 4x weekly dance class, First Friday fun with Jessica, Michaela’s wonderful visit to Rochester for a girls weekend filled with shows, museums, boutiques, and great food, Becca’s board games and carrot-cake-from-heaven birthday party, and “girls night” with Chelsea and Andrew that consisted of the discovery of a delicious new winter spice beer, an excellent selection of music while dinner was on the stove, Chelsea’s awesome stir-fry, the making of amazingly rich from-scratch brownies, Andrew’s homemade stove-top hot chocolate with a hint of cayenne, the movie Chocolat (which is so good!! Why did I wait so long to see this movie!?), and over two-hours of coon hound cuddles on a very comfy couch.

But, overall, fall in Rochester? Well, it’s pretty wonderful here!

Fall is my most favorite time of year!

And for good reason, too…

{pumpkins and pumpkin patches!}

{all kinds of pumpkins! so many unique pumpkins!}

{apple cider donuts, apple cider slushies, and corn-maze-opoly!}

{these sweeties!}

{apple slingshots and apple cannons!}

{corn mazes!}

{chilly mornings at the farm!}

{glorious trees!}

{did I mention pumpkins? so many pumpkins! and hay rides galore!}

{even more animals to love on!}

{local concord grapes!}

{Indian corn!}

{all the fresh apples for eating and baking!}

{gourds!}

{and sharing it all with this guy}

It has been 42 DAYS since I blogged. 42 DAYS. Holy crap. I bet you thought I was a goner! I think I thought I was a goner too. Alas, I am slowly starting to resurrect myself from the joy and turmoil of a life that has been changing nonstop in major ways since May. Some of our adventures I’ll share on this blog, and some I probably won’t. Simply put, 6 months ago I never dreamed our life would be what it is now. Clearly, we have a lot of catching up to do! Most notably, we took a 2.5 week visit to the United Arab Emirates at the end of August/beginning of September.

What. A. Whirlwind. It was wild! I have many, many photos, stories, experiences, observations, and memories to share, which I’ll happily do here over the next few weeks. So be sure to check back often if you’re curious about our adventures and are hankering for an epic photo overload.

But, first and foremost, I found this image the other day during a particularly rough day for me and I thought it was a perfect, stunning example of how to care for a friend who is going through a difficult time. My friends (and of course family) in Rochester, Texas, Vegas, Ohio, Chicago, the Emirates, and everywhere in between have been so absurdly wonderful to me lately, and I don’t know what I would do without them as our lives continue to change and we try to adjust and cope with all the amazing and frustrating things, but this is still a great reminder to anyone who wants to comfort a friend in need.

{click to enlarge}

Before we left for the UAE, amid all the insane packing and incredibly detailed planning, Ted and I both celebrated our birthdays. The night before we left, which was my birthday, we went out for a “last supper” of sushi, salmon teriyaki, and ice cream.

{it’s blurry, but I love this guy}

A few more fun Rochester shots from after we returned from the UAE:

{Ted discovered us a new favorite Rochester diner!}

{Snuggles with this guy :) }

{Girls night with Katie, Janice, and Jessica….delicious margaritas and my first Rochester Garbage Plate! I don’t know if I’ll find myself craving something like this, but I’m glad I finally got to try it and hang out with these awesome ladies!}

{Crimson Crisps….they’re back! My favorite local NY apple is finally back in season! This is going to be one tasty fall}

{The apple crisp Chelsea and I made amid a wonderful night of wine and excellent company and conversation}

Stay tuned for UAE pictures coming soon….I’m glad to be back in the blogosphere! Thanks for waiting an absurd 42 days without giving up on me!

{Dinner at Voula’s Greek restaurant & bakery and a stroll through the Memorial Art Gallery gardens and Neighborhood of the Arts with Kristen for our joint birthday celebration. Our table at Voula’a was a vintage desk with a drawer. I opened the drawer to find a pile of sweet notes other diner’s had left behind. So awesome! Almost as awesome as their jalapeno dip. Kristen is moving to Vegas in September and I am going to miss her and our Rochester adventures like crazy}

{Mediterranean wine tasting class with my friend Chelsea at the Rochester Brainery. At the top of the class – before delving into tales of Mediterranean travel and their accompanying wine tasting matches – we all got to blind taste a mystery wine and had to write down on an index card what we thought about it. While most everyone wrote fancy stuff like “notes of grapefruit, acidic, Sauvignon blanc, smoky, etc.” the awesome person whose card I got wrote “smells like my basement” – which wasn’t too far off from what I wrote. This person and I were clearly meant to be friends}

{Celebrating the post-Showcase conclusion of Summer Academy 2014 with the rest of the faculty at The Distillery – man am I going to miss these wonderful, talented, funny people}

{Another celebratory dinner – Rochester’s BEST grass-fed burgers with local white cheddar, veggie slaw, a pile of fries, a combination ketchup-mayo-bourbon sauce, and some Prosecco sparkling wine with Ted and my father-in-law Jack at Good Luck}

{We had a LivingSocial deal to Bistro135 Jazz Lounge in East Rochester that we needed to use before its expiration. We sat out on their gorgeous patio and ate really delicious food. I had a fantastic arugula and roasted beet salad with goat cheese, ground pistachios, and orange flavored olive oil with crab cakes and remoulade. Ted had a classic Caesar salad packed with calamari and BBQ pulled pork sliders with garlic aioli. It was amazing! Definitely recommended – especially if you can score a deal there}

{Harry G’s}

{Swan German Market & Restaurant}

{Banana and cotton candy}

{Silver Lake Twin Drive-In & Mini Golf & Charcoal Corral Grill}

{La Casa}

{Perinton Park cookout}

{Bike trip along the Erie Canal}

{Town of Irondequoit 4th of July fireworks}

{Rochester Red Wings baseball & cotton candy}

*For the record, I highly recommend ALL of these incredibly awesome establishments!*

And, of course, this is a festival, so…

*All photos by Ted.

**Maple walnut caramel apple devoured by me.

Friday night at the

Rochester Museum & Science Center’s (RMSC) 21+ “After Dark: Carnival of Curiosity” event

Featuring:

Free reign of the museum after hours (sans kids!), fire dancers, fire demonstrations, sword swallowing, snake petting, cyr wheel, stilts and hula hoops, clowns, circus costumes, juggling, fun house mirrors, the bed of 1,000 nails, make your own balloon animals, carnival games (bean bag toss, fish pong, balloon darts, and tightrope walking), tent of wonders (strange museum collection items), Vaudeville acts, Twin Tesla Coils musical lightning electricity show, old carnival movies, carnival music, prizes, a midway of interactive science-based carnival games, activities, and oddities, multiple cocktail bars, and carnival food (corn dogs, zucchini fries, kettle chips, popcorn, candied apples, and caramel apples). And of course, friends. Duh. We went with Shawnda but ran into a handful of other Rochester friends too!

Click here for a fun little video clip of my mad tightrope (or, you know, ratchet strap) walking skills.

Click here to revisit our fun at last year’s RMSC “After Dark: Repeal! 1920s Prohibition Party” event.