Upstate NY

Last Thursday to Sunday, we went to the Finger Lakes region in upstate NY. David's parents (aka, Mom-Mom and Poppy) joined us on the trip, and we met in Binghamton on Thursday night. On Friday, we went to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Poppy and I stayed there the whole day, but Ali (and Mom-Mom) took the kids to the nearly Farmers' Museum. Sarah loved the carousel they had there.

On Saturday, *hic* we went to some wineries around the Finger Lakes *hic*. We went to 3 different places - each had 6 to 8 tastings for a dollar - what a deal! We must have really enjoyed the wine because we bought at least a bottle at each place. Later that night, we had dinner with Ali's Uncle Dennis and "Aunt" Pam. We chose a restaurant close to our hotel in Auburn, but I botched reading the map and took us around the block the wrong way before we found it.

On Sunday, we went to "The Farm, Part Deux", which is the farm of Ali's Uncle Al and Aunt Irene. They went all-out for brunch for everyone, but that didn't stop Ali, Sarah, and I from going in their pool. Their property is really great; it's on the top of a hill, so you can see in every direction for miles. I'm trying to convince Uncle Al to install a 10-meter meteorological tower as well as a 360-degree time-lapse camera and/or webcam. The camera would be great for looking at cloud and storm formations.

Unfortunately, we had to drive back home in the afternoon. After our unpleasant experience going north on I-81 in Pennsylvania (where they only have two seasons - winter and construction), we decided to take a combination of local and toll roads south instead. We still hit a little traffic and construction, but at least we felt like we were moving most of the time!