The Finger Lakes

Last weekend Wellfleet held its annual Oyster Fest. It rained hard at times on Saturday, occasionally showered on Sunday. Most of us who live here and aren’t involved with shellfish stay home and avoid the congestions and happy drunks. Woody had to go to town to sit at the WOMR table, a waste of time since most of the crowd comes from off-Cape and nobody is interested in a community radio station. He had to park at the DPW and hike into town carrying the station leaflets; very few were accepted so at the end of his sitting there, he had to haul most of them back uphill the long walk to the DPW. It was not an afternoon he enjoyed.Monday my outgoing secretary called in sick so I had to deal with beginning the training of Emily, my incoming assistant. At the same time, I was doing laundry and trying to pack. The result was I took too many clothes and forgot important information. It was an exhausting mess. Penny called in sick on Wednesday also, so Emily did her best to train herself with information Penny and I had written down for her. I wasn’t here at all.Early Tuesday, Woody and I left for the Finger Lakes. That night we stayed on the water in Penn Yan, a small town not at all fancy but with wonderful views both at the place we ate a simple supper and from our room in the Hampton Inn. Woody was driving the Suburu that we had been having trouble with. It seems the mechanics @ Beard may have fixed it on the 2^nd attempt when they kept it for 3 days. We had never been to Keuka Lake before. Its much smaller than Seneca or Cayuga but beautiful, with very steep sides. We went to three good winerie and one dud. Then we hit a couple on Seneca Lake and arrived Ithaca at rush hour.We had a very nice hotel room at the Hilton Garden. We have been to Ithaca many times over the years so we knew what we wanted to do there, which wineries we wanted to hit, where we wanted to eat a simple lunch and supper both days. We went to a park we like on the lake first thing next morning and took our time just sitting and staring at the lake, right at the very edge. then we went to check out Taughanock or something like that falls. We always go to Hosmer as they in a unpretentioness setting have wonderful wines never overpriced. We had a good healthy lunch at the Thirsty Owl bistro, at a winery where we always get wine, right on the water. We saved half of our sandwiches for the drive home so we wouldn’t have to eat unhealthy fast food. We sat outside and watched them harvesting grapes and enjoyed a great view of Cayuga just beyond the vines.We hit our other favorite wineries and again, at Buttonwood sat in the sun looking at the view and listening to the blackbirds in the vines. The crew were harvesting a bit below where we and the blackbirds were enjoying ourselves. At Thirsty Owl, they have a friendly orange cat I petted and at Buttonwood, a polydactyl black and white kitty. I needed a cat fix. Then it was back to Ithaca to the Cornell apple store to load up with great fresh eating apples you can’t get at the supermarket. Also honey and other local products.Friday we got a good start, in the car by 7 a.m. and here by a few minutes after 3. Janet did a wonderful job with the cats but they were standing on their heads with delight that were back. Now it’s back to work and catchup time. I mostly unpacked last night. I’m dealing with a sore back from all that car travel and over 300 emails. Woody has gone off to the gym and then a WOMR meeting. I’m working here.