We planned the trip so that I wouldn't have to take any vacation days and he wouldn't be out of the country for more than 24 hours on working days. I had initially asked to leave work around 1:30pm on Friday, but my boss said we could finish up earlier and I ended up leaving at about quarter after noon. The drive was a little more than four hours for me and close to around 6 for Brendan, including Border Control. I ended up doing it all in one shot, both ways, which is the longest I've ever driven in one go. Only for you, dear!
Brendan's mom sent him with some chocolate chip cookies and banana chocolate chip muffins that she had baked for me (which were amazing-- I'm still enjoying them!). Border control almost didn't let him cross when they found out about them-- they made him stop and get them out of the trunk so they could make sure they weren't "edibles". I guess they gave him a pretty hard time about it, because they kept him there for quite a while, but the guy finally let him go.
We met at the motel and checked in so we could get settled, then went to dinner at a restaurant right on the Marina at the south end of Seneca Lake. It turns out it was opening night for the restaurant, and since it was Friday, they were having their Friday Fish Fry, so we both decided to try that. The food was excellent and came with a pretty generous portion, so I ended up having leftovers and saved them for later. Then we walked around the marina for a little bit and talked, then headed back to the hotel and spent some quality time together. We watched the Leafs vs. Capitals game and boo'd when the Leafs lost during overtime.
On Saturday we were all over the place. We decided we wanted to try the unicorn frappuccino thing from Starbucks, but the nearest Starbucks was about 20 mins South of us, so we found a cute little diner in the area that we could go to for breakfast. When we went to Starbucks afterwards, they were sold out, so we just went back up to Montour and scoped out the falls. Then we headed out to go hiking at Watkins Glen State Park.
We really wanted to go down into the gorge and hike the gorge trail, but it was closed off, either because of the slick conditions due to rain the previous day or because it hadn't opened for the season yet. I got blisters on the back of both of my heels, but Brendan is an outdoorsy kind of guy and came prepared with bandaids.
We finished up after about two hours and decided to go to a wine tasting, as the Finger Lakes are known for their vast variety of wines and vineyards. We picked a nice one that I had previously saved when I was looking at things to do in the area. It was priced quite reasonably and the fellow serving us even let us try their ice wine, which was not on the list for our tasting, when he found out Brendan was Canadian and had never tried it! When we finished, Brendan asked me which wine I had liked best and bought a bottle of it to share with me when I come to visit in May.
We didn't have anything planned for the rest of the day and my heels were in pain from the blisters, so Brendan suggested we drive up along the shoreline just to see what was there. We got about halfway before we pulled over into a "scenic" lot that overlooked a farm. They had some sign posted that described some of the history of the area, which I read to him, and then we turned around and headed back. He asked me if I wanted to get ice cream (I LOVE ice cream) and we stopped at this cute little ice cream shop in Watkins Glen on our way back to the motel.
We had planned to go to dinner that evening, but Brendan wasn't feeling very well and didn't want to leave while he was feeling so bad. I ended up eating our leftovers from the previous night until he felt a bit better, when he asked if I wanted to go see the falls lit up at night, since I'd mentioned it to him before. It was like 10 at night and very chilly, so we spent just a few minutes at the falls and then we hit up a Burger King at his request to get something to eat, since it was the only thing open. He got me some chicken nuggets (
) and we went back to the motel and had a nice evening just being with each other.On Sunday we stayed in and enjoyed a lazy morning together until we had to check out of the motel around 11. Then we went to breakfast at a local diner, and afterwards I chose a park on the southern tip of Seneca Lake to just go and sit and talk for a couple hours before we had to leave. It was an absolutely beautiful day and we strolled out onto a little rock outcropping so we could be by ourselves. Brendan told me all about the birds and fish in the area while a group gathered behind us in the park to conduct some Native American ritual that lasted about an hour and a half. We both got a little burnt, but it was really, really nice to have that extra couple hours together before we had to part ways.
I left Brendan with some koulouria (greek cookies) from church, my old 3DS, and a copy of Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which he's loving so far. He's really into nature and I've enjoyed the game from the start, so I thought it would be a great gift for him and a way that we could spend some time together, visiting each others' towns. I've already got tickets to fly into Toronto at the end of May during Memorial Day weekend, and really, it can't come soon enough. I'm so glad that we have that trip planned, though-- a month is manageable, I feel. I was pretty sad yesterday and cried a bit, but it doesn't feel like it'll be forever until I see him again. I hope we can keep this up.
