Busch Gardens Interview

Fair warning, this is a long post. I didn't want to break it up into two, though.

This weekend, Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA had open interviews for stage technicians. They also had auditions for dancers, singers, and instrumentalists. As tempting as it was to bust a move, I decided to just go for the interview and forgo the auditions. :-P

Since I love Williamsburg, and went there pretty much every summer as a kid, I made a weekend of it. I left at 7AM on Friday so I could get there in time for lunch. I made it in almost exactly six hours, and went straight to the Williamsburg Winery.



I've been here once before, but I was only 19 or 20, so I couldn't do any tasting. I got there just as a tour was ending, so I joined in at the end for the tasting. I toured last time, so I didn't really need to again. After the tasting (and after buying a couple of bottles) I went across the way to the Gabriel Archer Tavern. It's a little pricey, but this was my mini-vacation, so I splurged. I had a glass of wine from the winery; a turkey sandwich with gouda, apple slices, lingonberry chutney, and honey mustard; and a bowl of French Onion soup.



It was all amazing. A. mazing. Well worth a few extra dollars.

After my winery adventure, I went to check into my motel. The ride there was awesome... my GPS took me right through the William and Mary campus, and along a back road right behind Colonial Williamsburg. It was relaxing and gorgeous. When I found my motel, it looked ok, and the location was amazing, but I was the only person there. It was back away from the road a little, and as it got later and darker, I was pretty sure I was going to be murdered/robbed/raped. The room was nice enough, though, and it was clean.



I got settled in, and played on my computer a little before heading out again. I drove around awhile, just poking around. I wanted Zaxby's for supper, so when it got to be about 6:30PM, I went into 'points of interest' in my GPS and typed in Zaxby's. Well, apparently the one in Williamsburg is newer than my GPS, because it told me that the nearest Zaxby's was 109 miles away. So I looked up the address and found it that way.



That bright blue sign was like music to my eyes... you know what I mean. Zaxby's is a southern thing, and I loved it during my time in SC. I got some fantabulous chicken, and stopped at Brusters next door for a milkshake before heading back to the motel. When I got back, there were actually two other cars there! It was less sketchy with other people around. I got comfy, watched some tv on my computer, and went to bed.

The next morning was my interview. Tech interviews started at 10AM, so I got around and checked out a little after 9AM. Busch Gardens was only about 5 minutes away, so I found a Starbucks and had breakfast while I killed some time. I had the strongest Americano ever. I think it was just a grande cup full of espresso. It was wonderful.

I got to the entertainment department at about 9:50AM, and there were already 7 other people there. I waited about an hour for my turn. The woman who interviewed me was the same woman that I met with two years ago when I interviewed there. Once I told her that I used to have hair, she remembered me.

My interview went very well, much better than last time when I didn't actually know anything about anything technical. This time, the only question I couldn't answer was about some kind of... system... or coding... or... something. I can't even remember. She didn't seem to expect me to know it, anyway, it just would have been a plus if I did. So she asked all of her questions, and I asked all of mine. She said the park opens at the end of March for spring breaks and whatnot, so if she wants me to start in time for that, I'll get a call within the next week. If she wants me for later in the summer, I'll hear from them in the next month. If they don't want me at all, I won't hear from them ever. So now I wait.

After my interview, I drove up Rt. 60. That's the road that has a million restaurants along it, some local stores, civil war stores, outlet malls, etc. I swear, any restaurant that you can think of has a franchise in Williamsburg. Go ahead, name a restaurant. There's probably one in Williamsburg, and it's probably along Rt. 60. There are also Pancake/Waffle Houses on every other corner. (Waffle Houses are to Williamsburg what Starbuck's are to New York.)

The Williamsburg Pottery Factory is also on 60. I love the Pottery. They've been there forever, and they've recently started renovating. This is what it used to look like:


(Photo courtesy of... somewhere on the internet. I did a Google image search, I don't remember. :-P)

This is what it looks like now:

(Click for a larger view.)

They're just finishing up the changes, so they aren't open yet. This was the first time in my 25 years of life that I've been to Williamsburg and couldn't shop at the Pottery. They're re-opening at the beginning of April. I'm super tempted to go back then (if I'm not already living and working there). As much as I'll miss the old version of the Pottery, and re-living my childhood whenever I was there, I hope the revamping will boost business and allow them to be open for another 74 years (they first opened in 1938).

After I took some pictures of the Pottery and trudged around the construction site a little, I went to Golden Corral for lunch before heading home. I love Golden Corral more than I should. The new Chocolate Wonderfall is wonderful. If I get this job, and end up back in the south, I'm going to have to join a gym or risk getting morbidly obese.

So that was my mini-vacation/interview weekend. I would love to work at Busch Gardens. This is the third year that I've applied. Maybe the third time will be the charm! I love Williamsburg almost as much as NYC. Hopefully I get a call this week!!

Chicago - Part 3

This will be the final installation in my Chicago posts. I've been putting it off because it's been taking forever to load photos. :-P

Aaaaanyway, our final full day in the city started a little later than the last. We probably have many margs to thank for that. After we got going, we quickly found out that it was very cold, very wet, and very windy out. Boo. We sucked it up and headed to Navy Pier.



I kind of thought Navy Pier was like a boardwalk and everything would be outside. So we were pleasantly surprised when it was all inside. We even got a free coupon book for checking in on Facebook.



It was pretty awesome. There were tons of little souvenir shops, restaurants, and coffee shops. The first thing we did was, of course, get more Starbucks. We then did the Amazing Chicago's Funhouse Maze. I don't have any pictures because I was too busy hiding behind Marcy. It wasn't actually scary, but it had a haunted house vibe, and I kept expecting someone to jump out at me. It was loads of fun, and I would recommend it to anyone who happens to be on Navy Pier.

After the maze, we walked through the Stained Glass Museum, which I was pretty much enthralled with. My favorite piece was this one:



...which any Questionable Content fan will appreciate, because of this.

After wandering around the Pier for a couple of hours, we set off to find the original Pizzeria Uno. It was after the lunch rush, so we didn't even have to wait!



Instead of getting enough to feed an entire third world country again, we got individual-sized pizzas. I went with BBQ chicken deep dish pizza.



It was still way too much because it came with soup or salad and then, of course, we got dessert. It was as amazing as Giordano's, though!

After day two of way too much amazing Chicagoan food, we went to Sear's Tower... which is actually now Willis Tower. Apparently the name changes to whatever company is renting the most space in it. It was Sear's when they built it, now it's Willis - some financial company, and the guy said it would soon be United Tower, for United Airlines.

We got there (after only asking directions once), got our tickets, watched the little informative video, and went to the top - 103 stories high. It was rainy and windy and foggy, so the views weren't great, but it was still amazing.





































There's also the Ledge - these little glass boxes that jut out from the side of the building, so when you step out into them, it feels like you're floating 103 stories up in the air.



It was an amazing experience... until we were almost ready to leave. Apparently the wind was so strong, they had to evacuate the top floors of the building. You could feel the whole structure swaying. There was so much movement, that we couldn't even use the regular elevator. The cables were swinging around and we probably would have plummeted to our deaths. Instead, they had to take everyone down in groups of about 35 in the freight elevator in the middle of the building. Let's just say it took forever, and no one was happy.

After escaping an untimely death, we headed back to the hostel before our show that night. I had been planning on going to the Lincoln Park Zoo, but it was way too cold and wet. We went back to the room to recover and dry off a little before heading to Trick or Teets. It was a Halloween burlesque-parody. So there was no actual stripping, just lots of sex jokes and crude songs. It was hilarious! I would totally go back to see it again.

After the show, we hit a bar on the way back to the train. It was a sports bar, and they were doing airline trivia. Not really my cup of tea, but it was warm and they had alcohol. We also passed this place...



It was very confusing. It says it's a watch and clock repair place... but there were a bunch of neon beer signs in the windows. I still don't know if it was actually a bar, or what....

After getting back to the hostel area, we found a nice warm, homey Irish pub with $2 drinks. We had more than enough to warm us up, then went in search of a Chicago-style hot dog. I'm glad we drank first because I don't think I could have eaten one sober. A Chicago-style hot dog is a char-grilled hot dog on a poppy seed bun, topped with relish, mustard, onion, pickled peppers, celery salt, tomato slices, and a dill pickle spear.



I was so far gone, it was actually pretty good. I had to have one while I was in Chicago!

The next day, we headed home around 10AM. The car even started on the first try. Leaving the city, we drove along Lake Michigan for awhile and it looked like the ocean. The waves were huge from the storms the day before.

Overall, I'm kind of in love with Chicago. I think it's earned 3rd place on my favorite cities list... behind New York and London, of course. While I am not a fan of the 10 to 11-hour drive, I will definitely go back someday, hopefully fairly soon!

Chicago - Part 2

So our first full day in the city started pretty early since we'd called it quits early the night before. We decided to head down to the Art Institute area. I wanted to explore the Institute and the Shedd Aquarium, as well as see the "Bean" and Buckingham Fountain. All of which were pretty much in the same area.

Since the Art Institute didn't open until 10:30AM, we found the Cloud Gate Sculpture, a.k.a the "Bean" first.




































It's pretty awesome. I could probably amuse myself for hours trying to get pictures of reflections.

After the Bean, we saw a Starbucks across the street, so we went for some coffee. I should have kept a latte count during the trip, because I took in more caffeine in those four days than I usually do in a month! Fresh from our coffee fix, we headed back past the Institute since they still weren't open at this point, and found Buckingham Fountain.



I'm sure it's very pretty, but unfortunately it had been drained for the winter. We did get our first glimpse of Lake Michigan, though!



By this time, the Art Institute was open, so we made our way back.



It was actually super amazing. We saw works by Picasso, Dali, Monet, Van Gogh, Hopper, Wood, and a bunch of other amazing artists. Apparently there were some paintings by Degas somewhere, but we couldn't find them. I think my favorite, though, was A Sunday on la Grande Jatte, by Georges Seurat.



We spent a few hours at the Art Institute and saw everything from paintings, to sculpture, to kimonos, to WWII Soviet propaganda posters. If I lived in Chicago, I would totally cough up the $80 for a membership, just to go and stare at masterpieces whenever I want.

After the Art Institute, we went for lunch. We ended up at Giordano's for our first taste of Chicago stuffed pizza. We ordered a medium for the two of us, which was a huuuuge mistake. One piece was enough to fill anyone up, and we each had to eat four because we were walking around the city and couldn't take leftovers with us. It was amazing, but waaaay too much.



Despite being stuffed to the point of not being able to breathe, we also each had a cannoli before heading to the Shedd Aquarium.

We didn't realize the aquarium closed at 5PM, and it was already about 3:30PM when we got inside, so we just did the $8 main floor admission. So we didn't get to see the dolphins or whales or the jellyfish exhibit, but just the main floor was awesome, and I love aquariums!




































Also at the aquarium, there were some awesome views of Lake Michigan.

































Since that was our last stop for the day, we made our way back to the hostel to get ready for our show that night. It was Woman School - based on a Moliere play. When we got there, however, we were the only audience members. Since it was just us, they decided to cancel the performance. They offered to move our tickets to another night, and/or give us lots more tickets for our friends, but since we were only in town for one more day and had tickets to another show, we had to ask for a refund. I felt bad since they were obviously a small, struggling theatre company, but I needed my $20 more than they did.

In lieu of our show, we went out drinking. We hit a tequila bar/Mexican restaurant first and split a pitcher of delicious margs, and then had a sangria a piece. We then ventured out and hit a few other bars before heading back to the hostel for the night.

Chicago - Part 1

So last week, my friend Marcy and I took a trip to Chicago. There was no special occasion, we just had some money saved up and time to spare, so we decided to check out a new city.

I think it took about 11 hours to get there, but with the time change it was like it took 10! The only noteworthy event on the way was the first time we stopped for gas and my car didn't want to start again. It took about 10 minutes, but the engine eventually turned over. Oh, also Ohio is the widest state ever. PA took a few hours to get through, and Indiana took no time at all, but Ohio was never ending. The city actually wasn't terrible to drive in, but there was a detour and my GPS started to beep at me... like a car horn beep.... It may have freaked me out. I probably cried a little. :-P

We finally got to the hostel (yes hostel, not hotel), and I pulled up out front so we could check in. As soon as I put my car in park, it shut off. Like, I didn't turn it off... it just gave up. Trying not to think about it, we checked in, got a parking space and a map of the area, and went back to move the car. It didn't start. Like, for a long time it didn't start. It got so bad that I looked under the hood, shrugged at it, and tried again. After about half an hour, the engine turned over and we got it to the parking lot before it could die again. I decided not to think about it for the next few days, and just prayed it would start again when it came time to leave.

After all the car drama, we unloaded and found our room. The hostel was actually pretty amazing. Downstairs there were a bunch of couches and chairs to hang out in, some computers to use, a full kitchen, pool table, music room, grill, dining tables... I could totally live there. Even the elevator was awesome:



The pads on the floor had colored oil and water inside, so when you step on them, it swirls and smooshes around. They provided many minutes of in-elevator entertainment.

Our room was hostel-sized, but big enough for the two of us, and we splurged on one with a private half-bath. We just had to use the communal showers, which were still fairly private and pretty clean. Our room had this awesome mural on one wall:



After we got settled in, we found a bar. We went to Frank's. It was a sports bar, but they had decent, fairly cheap drinks. After... a few... we found this Mexican place that was open until 3AM, so I got some tacos and Marcy got a burrito. It was de. licious. We headed back fairly early since we were exhausted from 11 hours of driving after an early start.

I know this is a fairly short post, but I figured I'd do a post for each day, so Part 2 will be our first full day in the city!

Chai Tea - Spiced Bread

Whew! It has been way too long since I last posted. I just haven't had the ambition. My life of leisure has turned into a life of slackery. Slackerness? Slackerosity? Laziness.

The hostel is booked for my trip to Chicago! Just one more week! I still have to decide on the show(s) I want to see and get those tickets. My friend Marcy is going with me, and since it's just the two of us, we splurged on a private room. We still have to use the communal shower, but we won't have to sleep with 7 strangers, and we have a private half-bath. I'm so excited! This week, I think I'll print out directions from the hostel, to all the places I want to go. That way if we can't find something, we'll at least know how to get there from where we're staying. The fat kid in me is most excited for deep dish pizza.

It's also just one more week until the Apple Butter Festival. I have about half the stuff made that I want to get done. I need to step it up this week. I'll do all the baking the day before. I want to do a minimum of 2 dozen S'mores and Whoopie Pies, and half a dozen each of the breads. If I happen to have more time and ingredients, I'll make more. Speaking of baking, I tried the Chai Tea-Spiced Bread. It's pretty much awesome. Oh, and there are no tea leaves in it... like my mom thought. There's prepared plain tea, and then the Chai tea taste comes from the cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon.




Chai Tea-Spiced Bread

ingredients
3/4 C. sugar
1/2 C. butter - softened
1/2 C. prepared tea
1/3 C. milk
2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 C. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. ground cardamom
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground cloves

method
-Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease bottom only of a loaf pan with shortening or cooking spray.
-In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter with an electric mixer on medium speed, until fluffy. On low speed, beat in tea, milk, vanilla, and eggs until combined. (The mixture will appear lumpy/curdled.) Stir in the remaining dry ingredients until just combined. Spread the dough in the prepared pan.
-Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. (Do not underbake.) Cool in pan for 10-15 minutes, then loosen the sides and remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Glaze
In a small bowl, stir together 1 C. powdered sugar, 1/4 tsp. vanilla, and 3 Tbsp. milk. Add more milk by the Tbsp., until the mixture is a spreadable glaze. (Do not add too much milk, it will be runny.) Spread glaze over the cooled bread, and sprinkle with extra cinnamon.



Enjoy!

Working My Way to Chicago!

So I've made a couple of decisions the past few days.

Decision number one - I am setting up a stand at the New Columbia Apple Butter Festival. I'm not doing anything productive with my time, so why not crochet and bake to earn a little extra cash? I'm going to be selling...

Crocheted goods:
Scarves - $5
Hats - $4
Kitchen Towels - $3
Dishcloths - $1
Snowflakes - $3
Christmas Wall Decorations - $2

Baked goods:
Peanut Butter Banana Bread - $5
Chai Tea Bread - $5
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies - $1
S'mores Rice Krispie Treats - $1

I'm also toying with the idea of getting some waterfall, beach, and/or lake pics printed and matted to sell for $10. We'll see.... But the Festival is October 15th at the community center in New Columbia. You should all come buy things from me!

Decision number two is that I am going to Chicago. Since I started thinking about it, my unemployment kicked in, and now I'll hopefully make some cash from selling stuff, so I totally have the bank to go on an adventure. It's probably going to be for three nights, the third week of October. I'm going to stay in an awesome-looking but dirt-cheap hostel, see some shows, see the sights, and have a Chicago-style hot dog, and some Chicago deep dish pizza.

Another exciting thing in my life is that I may have a job! It's only a few hours a week, but it's in a theatre, 15 minutes from my house, and something to put on my resume. So going to Chicago is dependent on what my potential new boss says, but I don't think it will be a problem. It's actually in a movie theatre that does live shows sometimes, so I would be helping with lights/tech whenever they have a show. Sometimes I would work 10 hours a week, sometimes I'd work an hour a week. That's fine for me, though. It gives me flexibility for "real job" interviews and to do fun things, but it'll keep me from getting rusty and bored.

All-in-all, things are looking up, and I have a purpose in life again! You can look forward to a Chai Tea Bread recipe post, cuz I haven't made it yet, and I have to try it before trying to sell it to strangers!

Trip?

Time. is. flying. When did mid-September happen? I feel like it was just the other day I wrote my last post, and it's been over a week. Jeez.

My life hasn't been that exciting. I'm growing lazier by the day. I neeeed to get back to hiking. I bought that fancy new day pack and haven't used it yet! Maybe next week? It's tough now because my dad is starting Chemo and radiation on Monday, and we'll be at Cancer Care for a couple of hours everyday. Maybe I'll get my sister to take over one day so I can commune with nature.

I haven't really baked/cooked much, so I don't have any pictures or stories. I did make a pretty rad banana cake the other day, but didn't take pics. It wasn't that exciting, and it came out a little flat. I didn't sift my flour. Probably a mistake. Oh, well. It's still delicious.

My unemployment was approved, so I'm not slowly running out of money anymore! That kind of leads to the trip portion of this "Trip?" post. Since I have some cash flow now, I'm thinking about going somewhere. I'm actually thinking Chicago. I've never been to that city OR state. It's not too far to drive, and seems exciting. I found a couple of hostels that look decent, got great reviews, and are only about $30 a night.

I would probably plan on 3 nights at the hostel, with a day on each end for driving to and from. That would give me two full days in the city. I figure I can plan some things to check out, maybe take in a show, find some bars. I can explore for a couple of days, and maybe even take some resumes along and harass some theatres! Getting there would also take me through Indiana. Is there anything to see in Indiana? Then I could check off two more states for my 30 Things Before 30 list!

This is still just an idea I'm tossing around, but I'm itching to go somewhere new. Besides parking, I feel like I could make the whole trip cost less than $200, including the hostel, food, sights, etc. For gas, I might cash in some of my Mypoints points for gas gift cards. For parking, I would probably cough up the money for a garage, as street parking in any city scares me.

We'll see how long I remain unemployed, how my finances are in a few weeks, and how ambitious I am. If Chicago doesn't work out, maybe a few days in NYC are in order. That may be in order anyway. I can stay with my college roomie (yes, I'm inviting myself, you don't have a choice), so expenses would be minimal. I have a book that I bought when I lived in NYC for a summer of 1,001 things to do. I've done probably 200, but I could cross a few more of those off my list.... We'll see what happens!

I'll decide in a couple of weeks what I want to do. In the meanwhile, I'm GOING to get back to hiking. I shall also get back in the kitchen. If for no other reason than to have something to blog about!

Seneca Lake Wineries - Part 2

*click on a pic to enlarge

So my last post was day one of my family trip to the wineries around Seneca Lake in NY. Day two started with a continental breakfast at the hotel. It wasn't anything fancy, but I had a pretty darn good bagel, and there were doughnuts, cereal, oatmeal, bananas, and coffee and juice. After breakfast, we checked out and went to a little park with a path around the lake. It was GORGEOUS, and I took about a million pictures.































It's my mom's favorite place in the world! We walked around for probably an hour, and made some seagull friends. We then embarked on the the journey down the other side of the lake, to 11 more wineries and a brewery.

Our first stop was Ventosa Winery. They were kind of big and overwhelming. We didn't taste there, just looked around the shop. We then hit the Three Brothers Wineries. This was by. far. my favorite. There were three wineries and a brewery, all together. Each winery had very different wines and atmospheres. The first, Stoney Lonesome Estates was kind of sophisticated and had dryer wines. They had a Gewurtz that I liked, but not even close to that $24 bottle the first day. The second winery at Three Brothers was Bagg Dare Wine Co. You had to go through a little path in the woods, with this at the entrance:



It's Louisiana bayou-themed. "Bagg Dare" is Louisiana-speak for "Back There". They had sweet wines with fun names like "Skirt Lifter", "Well Hung", and "69 Ways to Have Fun". Their mascot is a skeleton. I want to go back right now. Maybe they're hiring??



The last winery in the group was Passion Feet. Mom and I decided that if the three wineries represent the three brothers, this one is gay. It had wines with names like "Seduce Me", "90 Seconds of Heaven", and "Heart Pounding Crush". Connected to Passion Feet was the brewery - War Horse Brewing Co. They had some great beers - my favorite being the American Black Lager. It tasted like coffee. Hardcore. They also had the best root beer I've ever tasted. Ever.

So yeah, Three Brothers was by far my favorite thing ever. They had a "passport" you can get for $8 that lets you taste 5 wines at each winery, and all the beers and root beer at the brewery. It was fan. tastic.

After Three Brothers, we hit up Zugibe Vineyards. They were good. I got a Gewurztraminer there. It was floral and fruity, and as good as the $24 bottle, if not better. Wagner Vineyards was next, and they had a pretty awesome gift shop, but no really amazing wines. We were going to eat lunch at their restaurant, but they didn't really have anything Dad could eat, and the deck facing the lake was pretty much full, and who wants to eat inside with that view?!

Next up was Caywood Vineyards. They had free tastings, and the guy just went to town. I tried several "meh" wines, and a Madeira that'll put hair on your chest. Then. Then we tried their chocolate wine. Just by itself, it was amazingly delicious. But when he mixed it with the strawberry wine? It was a downright religious experience. For. real. I also got to try some champagnes which were awesome and bubbly.

After Caywood, we hit up Standing Stone Vineyards, and Penguin Bay Winery. I tasted at both, but nothing really reached out and grabbed me. Hazlitt was next. I'd had some of their wine before, that Mom and Dad brought home from their last trip. I got a "Bramble Berry" wine there. They also had a great gift shop. Our last stop was Red Newt Winery. They had some fantastic wines, and the people giving the tastings were super fun and friendly. I got a nifty hat here, and a bottle of Blue Newt wine.

By this time, it's after 4PM, and we realize we never ate lunch. Mom and I had been tasting wine and beer all day, and all we'd eaten was a bagel at 9AM. Yeah, we were petty much drunk. We decided that we should find some food, so we headed down to Watkins Glen at the bottom of the lake. (You should know that my Dad was driving, and had not been drinking. :-P) We first tried to eat at the marina, but they were between lunch and supper. After some debate/argument/walking, we got back in the car and went to Montage Italian Restaurant. It was pretty much super expensive, but deeeeelicious, and Dad actually managed to get half of his ravioli down. Oh, and the view from our table....



So it was an EXCELLENT two days, and an unforgettable experience. I'm glad we got to go before my dad starts all his surgeries and treatments. We're also now fully stocked up on wine. I have 27 bottles, and my parents have something like 50 bottles. Should get us through the winter. :-P

Seneca Lake Wineries - Part 1

So this past Monday and Tuesday my mom, dad, and I went to Seneca Lake in NY. It's one of the finger lakes, and is surrounded by wineries. Sur. round. ed. I decided to make this into two posts since we went for two days, and I took lots of pictures.

We hit 13 wineries and a brewery the first day, and 11 wineries and a brewery the second day. We came back with 27 full bottles of wine, 4 mini bottles of wine, and a mini bottle of champagne. That's right. You're jealous.

The first day, we left our house around 8:30AM. The GPS took us on some weird back ways, but we were in NY and at the first winery around 11:30AM. The first one we stopped at was Heron Hill Winery. They had an amazing Chardonnay - I think the best that I tasted the whole trip. I didn't get any pictures here since it wasn't very impressive, and they didn't have a view of the lake. We continued on to Hermann J. Weimer Winery. Here, I tasted my first Gewurztraminer. (Pronounced guh-vertz-truh-meen-er.) It. was. awesome. I tasted many throughout the trip, and none were anything like this one. You know when someone says a wine has "floral" qualities? Well, this one seriously did. It was like drinking roses. No joke. It was $24 a bottle, though, so I will have to go back after I hit the lottery.

Ashley Lynn Winery was next. It was kind of hick-ish. You tasted out of a disposable shot glass, and they only had fruit wines (apple, blueberry, cherry, etc.). They were very good, but I don't like too-sweet wine. They had a nice little gift shop, too. We got a few bottles there. I got an Apple-Cherry wine that was pretty magnificent. Fruit Yard Winery was down the street, and also had a lot of wines made from fruits other than grapes. I got an awesome Pear Wine there.

Up until this point, I hadn't taken any pictures because none of them were especially impressive buildings, and didn't have views of Seneca Lake. When we got to Glenora Winery, though, it was gorgeous.





















Plus, they had these huge wine barrels all over, and this awesome wine bottle tree. I could totally make one of those. Guess what everyone's getting for Christmas. :-P Since we hadn't eaten all day and Mom and I were basically tipsy, we had lunch here. I had a Cuban Pork Sandwich. It may be the best thing I've ever eaten. It was huge, and smoky and sweet and a little spicy, served with homemade potato chips.... I would totally drive the three hours back up there just for that sandwich. We also got a tour of the winery here that lasted, like an hour. It was cool, but halfway through I was ready to be done.

After Glenora, we backtracked some and started back up to the top of the lake, since our hotel was in that direction. Our next stop was Miles Wine Cellar. This one also had a brewery. The building (which I'm very mad I didn't take a picture of for some reason) was this old plantation-looking mansion. They claim to be haunted, and say that the ghosts like sitting on the porch. I tasted a few great wines, two beers, and a wine slushie here. That's right. A wine slushy. Mmmmmmm. Miles also had a dock, and you can go right down to the lake.



We left Miles and hit Torrey Ridge Winery and the Earle Estates Meadery. I think I should have gotten some kind of amazing discount at Torrey Ridge. How many Torreys do they get? Come on.



Connected to Torrey Ridge is the Earle Estates Meadery. They make honey mead, and had an active beehive right in the tasting room.



After Torrey Ridge, we hit Seneca Shore Wine Cellars, Fox Run Vineyard, and Billsboro Winery. We tasted at some of these. Seneca Shores was a cool medieval-themed winery. None of these really stood out, though, and I didn't take pictures. We then went to White Springs Winery. I didn't take pictures here, but they had some awesome Sangria wines. Dad got a wine bottle accent light here, that I think he was nuts to pay $20 for. I've decided I'm going to learn how to make them. Some people may actually get these for Christmas if I buy the glass-cutting drill bits.

Our last stop for the day was Belhurst Castle Winery. I didn't actually taste here, because nothing really struck my fancy, and they were pretty high-end and pricey. I would love to stay in the castle some day (honeymoon??).



After we hit all the wineries for the day, we checked into our hotel in Geneva, NY - just a few minutes from the lake. It was decent (a Days Inn), and clean. They had a complimentary gym (that I didn't use) and continental breakfast. That night, we went to the Waterloo Outlets. It's this huge 100-store outlet mall in the middle of nowhere. I just got some gym shorts and a workout shirt because I had forgotten to pack pajamas.... The outlets closed at 9, and we headed back to the hotel. I didn't realize there was a 24-hour Coldstone right down the road, or we would have stopped there. :-P We went to bed early since it had been a very long day of getting drunk, and everyone was exhausted.

I'll post day two soon. This post was long enough, and the second day was just as eventful!