I write this from our deck at sunset.
While you might think I include everything that happens (and then some), I don’t even include half of what happens, or even the best parts so that I still have stories to tell when I see you IRL. Whether I still remember or even get to see you IRL is an open question.
Ah, the joy of not traveling while on vacation. Again we were not cooped up in our car for a long time. We drove down the west side of Lake Canandaigua to Conklin Gully where we went for a hike recommended by the Airbnb owner after we complained about the crowds in other locations. If you aren’t the only hikers, then there will be only one other group on the trail he told us. When we arrived at the trailhead, there was only one other car in the lot – so far so good. By the time we swapped out for our hiking shoes (we have a bin with our shoes in the back of the car), someone else pulled onto the lot. By the time we finished the hike and returned to our car, the lot was mostly full – 20ish cars. These are not normal times. We did have a nice chat with a local as he asked us where we were from since the Honda frame covers up the Missouri on our plates (maybe that’s why no police have pulled us over to ask if we are quarantining) and we don’t let any opportunity to talk to someone besides each other go to waste.
The trail itself basically went steeply up the side of the gully so there was an ever steepening drop off to the stream that remained stubbornly below. It was hard to see the gully for the trees. About a third of the way, there was a huge stone cliff and the gully was only 20 feet below us, and my brain rejoiced. We kept going up however, until we went steeply down to a bridge that crossed the gully. We turned around there as there was a Boy Scout troop on the far side that was apparently combining backpacking with rappelling.
Then it was back the east side of the lake so we could walk around the nice downtown here and have lunch. They have a crepery here so there was much rejoicing. Aferwards we set off to Sonnenberg Mansion and Gardens if only because the mansion was open. However the second floor was closed because of the virus according to a sign – I’m not sure why that means any floor above the first was off limits but I was just glad it was open at all. They had a ten person limit and despite the fact they had made a single door the only entrance and exit the docent had to go inside and count the people before letting us in. Apparently keeping a running total is not as easy as I think.
We enjoyed dinner on a rooftop restaurant with our near customary splitting of a meal. The waitress, who was obligingly chatty, told us we would be enjoying sunset soon. An hour later I checked the weather app as the sun seemed no where near setting only to discover we had another hour to go. Soon is a relative term. We left the restaurant which we belatedly discovered catered to the older man younger woman crowd and I got to watch sunset from our own deck.
Originally I had Orchids etc. but that isn’t as good a caption IMHO
