Naples

"The best laid plans . . ."
I was going to keep up with this blog the whole time we were gone, especially since I was going to have my laptop on the cruise and wifi.  Now we've been back from the cruise for 5 days and I haven't done anything so let me start with our visit to Lila and Keith in Naples. (I'm dating this back to the day I should have posted this). I probably won't remember that much anymore but I do have pictures.  At least while we were there I posted some of the pictures on Facebook but I haven't done anything with FB since then.

We did have a great visit with Lila and Keith Wednesday through Saturday.  The first night we were there we were supposed to go to a spaghetti dinner in their neighborhood but since we had outdoor seating and rain was expected we had steaks indoors at their house and just chilled after walking around the community.

The next day we did the tourists tour of Naples and a little shopping too.  We went to Clam Pass park

and to the Naples Pier

At night we went to a dinner and a tribute show at their club that featured Rod Stewart and Elton John.

The food was delicious but it was held outdoors and it felt like winter.  In fact, we saw someone with a fur coat on.  Obviously someone who is a year round resident because what tourist goes to Florida with a fur?  But in the future, if you go in the early months of the year, it might be advisable.

Visit to North Canton

Can't believe I never finished this posting of our visit to Margie and John.  What do I mean I can't believe it?  Of course I can believe it, I got distracted.  I was making the magazine and never got back here.

We left on a rainy Tuesday in July - Bastille Day, in fact - the 14th and stayed until Friday when we went to Pittsburgh which was only 2 hours away.  Below is just the highlights of our trip since I put the details in the magazine (see bottom of page).

This is the view of their house in North Canton, Ohio from across the street.

We went to the Fanny Farmer store and factory and did the tour.  We also bought some bad candy but I got a $20 gift card for the $8 of bad candy.  Hope none of the other goes bad before we ever eat it.

We went to the Aviation Museum and toured around.

Read about Rhoda Wise here:   http://rhodawise.com/
Will she become a saint?
We went to her house.

We had lunch at the Gervasi Vineyard and wine of course.

We took a real canal boat ride - drawn by horses

At night we played euchre and/or phase 10

And this is my magazine

balab magazine by Barb Boudens | Make Your Own Book

Rochester 3-Day Tour

We had a really good time when Margie & John, our new friends from Ohio that we met on our cruise came for a visit.  They were so great to be with.  I don't think they minded, and I loved it, that I didn't have to do anything fancy.  They arrived on Wednesday around noon after touring Niagara Falls (NY side) and Lockport, the Underground Cave and Boat Ride that we didn't know anything about, but now want to see.

We had lunch here and then following my prepared Tour Package.  I can't say that we followed it exactly, especially not for the meals but we did see most of the sites.  We went to Pittsford and took a walk along the canal at Schoen Place.

From there we went to Wegmans in Pittsford which is one of the out of towners MUST see.  A trip down to Park Ave was next since we decided we would never be hungry enough to eat at 7:00 which was on the planned tour.  We wandered down to F. Oliver's where we sampled and purchased and then stopped into Baker St Bakery next door to buy some bread for dipping when we got home.  On the way home we stopped at our local Wegmans and each bought a $6 meal which we never ate that night because we had wine, bread, vinegar and oil and some other appetizer type things.  And then it was time for dessert.

On Thursday we went to Ontario Beach Park and walked out on the pier

the water was especially disgusting looking!

  We walked to the lighthouse

 and then went into the park and rode the carousel



We saw a car using the electric-vehicle charging station at the pier parking lot.  I didn't even know we had these.  I just Googled it and found out that as of April 2014 Rochester had 24 of these and for the first year they are free to use.  The article said that the cost of electricity is minimal.
Also learned that Governor Cuomo announced a Charge NY initiative in 2013, installing 360 EV stations across New York.  Where have I been??

After all that we went to Pelican's Nest for an outdoor lunch.

And a stop at the Charlotte Lighthouse 

From there, Larry took over the tour and took us to places outside of what the original tour included but were very noteworthy stops.
We went to the House of Guitars, which this year is celebrating its 50th anniversary along with the Riots in Rochester.

This is what I remember the House Of Guitars from way back when.

Not too different now but a lot bigger but still as disorganized.  But just ask and they can find anything you want.

From there Larry took us over for a little hike at Whiting Rd Nature Center, just to make sure we would be able to eat again and then we rode down to the end of Lake Rd where the swing bridge is.

Once home again some of us needed little naps and thought we would never be able to eat again but somehow we managed to down those Wegmans $6 meals from the day before.

On Friday it was time to tour the George Eastman House.  

 Margie likes to take pictures in mirrors as much as I do.

 We toured the house on our own but then took part in the garden tour.

From there we drove over to Lake Ave and passed what used to be Midtown Plaza.  In looking up information about that I came across this video.  I remember all those stores from when I worked downtown at Xerox and we could just walk across the enclosed bridge to get into Midtown.

We finally got to our lunch spot, The Genesee Brew House

We didn't take any pictures of the food, but wasn't beer the reason to come?  But just as a reminder for the next time, Margie and I each got the Brew House Nachos which were really good but couldn't finish them so took them home.  Not so good as leftovers.  Next time share.

Because it was crowded and we didn't want to wait for an outside table we ate indoors and then went up to the 3rd floor roof to take pictures of the falls.

And John found a new friend as we left.

Back home we were going to have a healthy salad and pizza for dinner but by the time we got around to eating, it was just the pizza.  Looks like Larry and I were going to have to be healthy on our own.

We had a great time.  Thanks for coming Margie and John.  See you soon!!

The Villages

We left Orlando yesterday morning and arrived at The Villages by 11:00.  The previous night on our way to the mall we got stuck in so much traffic that we wound up going directly to church.  On the way home we stopped at a Subway and bought a sandwich to share back in the room.  We were anxious to get out of there the next day.  The place we stayed was nice but more family oriented than we wanted to be.  Too many kids, been there - done that!  Now we're with the old folks but since it's Easter there'll be grandkids all over the place, but not ours.

Check in was  a breeze, we went to Publix to stock up on some good food after our previous 3 days of not such good eating and a bunch of buy one get one free bargains.  We sampled a good chicken dish and bought the ingredients to make a modified version.  There was an unexpected brief downpour in the afternoon and by the time we were thinking about dinner it was too late to make the chicken.  We decided to have hot dogs instead but never bought the sauerkraut and beans so we took the golf cart to Sweetbay.

At first we couldn't get the golf cart to start.  It had been charging all afternoon but it seemed dead.  I went inside to read the notes about the golf cart in case there was a clue.  The only thing it said was to check the batteries for water.  When we lifted the seat, I saw a switch that was set to off.  One flip of the switch and we were off.

Then when we were at Sweetbay we heard "Hi guys!" and there was Susie Q.  Friends from back home, who we haven't seen since we were all here 2 years ago, we ran into at the grocery store.  We don't even run into each other at Wegmans and Joyce & Richard live in the same town.

Eating Out(side) in March

I took a break from trying to pack to go on an outing with the ladies to Flight Wine Bar. Of course we had a wonderful time and it's still hard to believe we were sitting outside and were HOT and it's only March! 

The bushes are in bloom and the sun was very bright!

And the river looked so peaceful and summery

The night before we went to Aladdin's at Schoen Place and ate outside too.

Bridge Club in the News

Below is the link to the article about our bridge club that we did in Karen's memory

You can read the article here:

September comes to an end

I can't believe that tomorrow is the last day of September.  Not only did the summer come and go but now September is gone too.

Yesterday was a doctor day.  In the morning I went to the dermatologist and didn't have any problems and just had some liquid nitrogen applied to some of those harmless ugly spots.  I probably won't post a photo of them :)  In the afternoon I went to an orthopedic surgeon for my right shoulder.  Larry went with me since he used to play tennis with the doctor and wanted to see him again.  On the way home we stopped at a PT place but found out that they're not associated with our insurance.  After this year we won't be associated with our insurance either.  We have Essence, it's been in the area for two years and obviously didn't make it to a third.  Back to those Insurance Open Houses again.

At night we went to the Back Nine for dinner with Penny & Chris, only a year later than we planned.  Andy works there so we got to see him too.  I took the picture below with my iPhone but it seemed like all my flash pictures would come out really cloudy so I did this without flash and then enhanced it - quality isn't too good.

However, this morning I looked up the phone problem online and realized it was caused by my case.  After cutting away some of the case around the flash it works fine.

Hydrangea Luncheon

We couldn't have asked for a better day.  It was sunny and warm, at least it was outside.  Inside, the barn was very breezy and cool until they shut the door by our table, then it was perfect.  But that didn't happen until after the opening talk.

First there was the standard introduction with some history of Hurd Orchards and then we learned  about the growing of Hydrangeas, how they were started at Hurd Orchards and the importance of water for them.

 We had three vases of flowers on our long table.

We started with a fruit salad of fresh peaches, nectarines, plums, and red raspberries with a peach buttermilk dressing.

We were served honey oatmeal bread, peach muffins with peach and pear jam.

The main course was ham with a spicy plum jam, applesauce made with Macintosh apples and a sprig of mint on top and an absolutely delicious tomato stuffed with cream cheese mixed with tarragon vinegar, chopped purple onion and fresh herbs and topped with basil.

For dessert there was a peaches and red raspberry crisp with a dollop of whipped cream.

The entire meal was accompanied by a Jersey Mac apple cider.

Lila and Anna seemed to be paying a lot of attention

Mary Beth, Lynn, Joan, Sandy & Jane

 Anna, Helen, Georgeanna, Kathy & Cecilia

 Barb & Sherry

After the huge vase of hydrangeas was removed, there was Annette.  

Thanks Annette for arranging our outing.