The Birthday Boy!

(Jeff here) Our Friday last week was pretty special in that it was my birthday. We headed out from Watkins Glen with a stop at Tobey’s Donut Shop where Carrie treated me to birthday donuts! We journeyed west to Lake Chautauqua where we have visited on three other occasions. The Chautauqua Institute is located on the west side of the lake and it is always a favorite place of our’s to spend an afternoon. It reminds us a bit of Mackinac Island in Michigan. The scenery is always beautiful and the pace is much slower and has a vintage vibe. I look forward to getting the chance to take some picturesque photos of Carrie while on the grounds. Carrie always looks great, ALWAYS - but she looks especially radiant in Chautauqua. So, for my birthday, I got to take photos of my gorgeous redhead and then have dinner with her at the Heirloom Restaurant in the grand Athenaeum Hotel.

We didn’t realize that Jay Leno was in town with his stand-up tour, performing at the amphitheater that evening. We were able to enjoy a bit of his comedy as we strolled by the amphitheater. (At 72, he’s still got it.) 😂

I had a few gifts waiting for me when we got back to our campsite that night, one of which was a snow cone machine!! I am a ice cruncher. It drives Carrie a little crazy sometimes, so I guess she thought if the ice was already crushed and ground down to something closer to snow, I would be less obnoxious with my crunching. Lol!!

Honestly, she puts so much thought into every gift she gives. Just one of the many traits that makes her so endearing. My best gift was and always will be just celebrating life with her. ❤️

Lake, lagoon, kites, & dinosaurs!

While our Thursday last week in Watkins Glen was already pretty epic with our cruise on the Schooner True Love, we managed to get a lot more out of that day. 😁

The weather was great and we got in some more kayaking on Seneca Lake in the morning. After our cruise, we ran up to a winery (Castel Grisch) that we had sampled some of their sparkling wine while on the True Love. We discovered they had a hidden field of dinosaurs!! Naturally, we had to play a little Jurassic Park. 😜

Later in the afternoon, when things heated back up, we took to the lake again for a break from the heat. It got pretty windy so we brought out our big kite and had a great late afternoon of kite flying!

Afterwards, we had enough daylight to go explore another waterfall nearby at Eagles Cliff Park. On the way back to the campsite, we made one last walk through part of Watkins Glen State Park before the sun set. Speaking of sun sets, the one we had last Thursday night was spectacular!

We finished the day with Jeff grilling some burgers on his new Blackstone griddle.

It was a lovely, lovely day. 🥰

Watkins Glen State Park

Whew! SO much fun that we are getting SO far behind on posting.

These are pics from our Tuesday in Watkins Glen, NY! This small village of just over 2,000 is known for its contributions to auto racing. Watkins Glen is where US road racing got its start! Today, Watkins Glen International Raceway hosts several races throughout the year, including a NASCAR Cup

Series event in August and the Vintage Grand Prix event every September!

Watkins Glen is at the southern tip of Seneca Lake, the largest of the eleven Finger Lakes in mid-state NY. The weather was perfect on our Tuesday and we spent the morning hiking in Watkins Glen State Park. The ”gorge trail” is amazing! it’s only a mile long, but it is all uphill, which makes the mile coming back a breeze! 😁 There are 19 waterfalls on this trail! NINETEEN! It’s almost like traveling thru a fairy land. I would love to do a mermaid photo shoot here. ❤️

It really warmed up in the afternoon and we decided to cool off in Seneca Lake, which was right across from our campground. Later in the evening we walked from our campsite at Clute Park up to Lafayette Park for a picnic and great little concert by a local husband & wife jazz duo.