We got to the house with enough time to go to the nearby supermarket for dinner ingredients. I made us some food while we watched the sun set.
We played the license plate game on our way north, and we did quite well. While I was making dinner, Vivian and Elena compared our list to Vivian's new states placemat. We try to teach U.S. geography when we can.
We were a little worried about the clouds, but the sun put on a great show after dinner.
My camera couldn't capture how red the sun was, so Jeff gave it a try with his.
The next day, our plan was to keep it local and simple after spending most of the previous day in the car. The first challenge was figuring out how to make coffee, which I did more or less successfully while Elena went out on the balcony to blow bubbles.
We spent a leisurely morning enjoying our temporary home. Elena worked on a story, while Vivi found the best reading spot.
Eventually, we got the girls dressed and headed to the winery five minutes down the road.
The girls played outside while Jeff and I tasted wines.
We found a pinot grigio and a vidal blanc that we liked, so we bought a few bottles.
On the website, it said that they had a deli, but it turned out it was only open on the weekends, so we went back into Aurora to hunt for lunch. We ended up at the Fargo Bar and Grill.
They had a soup, salad, and sandwich type menu, which was yummy, as well as a kids menu with a coloring page and crayons. We were all happy. After lunch, we went to the Village Market across the street to buy a couple dessert type things.
We walked around the area a bit to burn off some of our lunch, and then headed back to the house.
We were waiting for Mom and Dad to show up. I had started working on Vivi's birthday puzzle, and my goal was to get the frame done before Mom came. I managed with just a few minutes to spare.
We offered them some snacks.
And dinner was a hot dog feast.
Unfortunately, it was cloudy, and the sunset wasn't as spectacular as our first night, but the clouds brought the rain, and the temperature dropped, so we got to enjoy much cooler weather after that. Dad and I started the next morning with a walk to Aurora, which is about a mile and half from the house we rented. He walks fast, so I only had time for one picture.
The plan for the day was to go to the Corning Glass Museum and Three Brothers Winery. Jeff and I had been to the museum a couple times already with Vivi when she was little, but it was everyone else's first trip. We took the obligatory picture with the awesome glass sculpture at the entrance.
Since it was lunch time, the first order of business was lunch in the museum cafeteria, which had a wide range of choices. After lunch, we started in the more hands on part of the museum that explained the various uses of glass. Mom really wanted to see the glass breaking demonstration, which was a lot of fun. Elena was in my lap, so I really couldn't take pictures. Afterwards, we played with some of the glass they had.
They also had some interesting explanations of how heat and various elements interact with glass. This display showed how glass reacted to heat, going from clear to ceramic.
Elena and I learned about the elements that give glass different colors.
They also had a display on glass's role in the moon landing, since it's the 50th anniversary.
After that, we went to see the more artistic display of art through the ages, starting with ancient glass and moving to more modern glass. They had a fun activity for kids with a scavenger hunt type sheet and pencil for finding representations of different animals in glass. Elena got really into it, and it was fun for the rest of us to try and find animals for her. She was pretty good, but towards the end she started running around and popping up in the strangest places.
Mom wanted some time in the gift shop at the end, and luckily, there was a cool contraption to keep the girls distracted.
They were pretty worn out, and rested in the car after that. Elena actually fell asleep. It was a bit of a drive to the Three Brothers Winery, so it was plenty of time for a nap.
Vivi was reaching her limit by that point.
We let the girls find a table and gave them devices while we tasted. That cheered them up considerably. They even found a doggy to play with. We wanted them to be in a better mood, because we were experimenting with Vivian's babysitting. The adults were planning to go to a demonstration kitchen food and wine pairing in Aurora, while leaving Vivi in charge. She ended up doing a great job with Elena, and the dinner was fantastic. It was a multicourse meal with wines from the Buttonwood Grove Winery on the other side of the lake.
The Chef's name was Patrick, and our hostess was Grace. They were both really outgoing and passionate about what they were doing. But the most important part was that the food was FANTASTIC, and the wines went with everything perfectly. Patrick had started with the wines and planned the menu from there, which is not usually how it goes, but it worked wonderfully. We also had one of the winemakers there, Jenna, to explain the various wines. I was so excited about taking a picture of the first dish, that I accidentally dropped my phone in the bowl! Luckily, Jeff got a picture.
The salmon was delicious, and I am now fully a fan of cooking salmon as little as humanly possible. I did a better job with the next dish was various kinds of shellfish in a delicious broth.
The wine with it was so good that Mom decided she now likes Rieslings. The next course was a bread course, with this Japanese style of bread we had never heard of, but now love, and the wine with it was my favorite of the night.
Part of the fun was sitting at the kitchen counter and watching Patrick prepare everything as he explained it to us.
I was a little worried about the lamb course, because I don't usually like lamb, but he explained that this lamb was local, and it's more the Australian lamb that has the gamey aftertaste. He also recommended loin over leg. I am now a convert. It was fantastic.
The finish was a dessert that wasn't too sweet, but was totally delicious.
It was a meal that we will all remember fondly. At the end, they gave us macaroons to go with a display of the wines we had drunk. We couldn't eat any more, but we spent some time saying thank you to everyone before heading home to the girls. I honestly wasn't sure how the evening was going to go, but it was a great addition to our Finger Lakes experiences.
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