life | In Retrospect

On Tuesday May 26 we woke up in our room at the Inns of Aurora. This would likely be the penultimate day of our rest and relaxation this time around – the one day where we “sat around and did nothing.” We did, however, do something.

I started the day with a hike through the woods and fields above Aurora while mostly conversing with my father on the telephone. As it had rained several days prior it was pretty muddy, but it was a beautiful, still late-spring morning along Cayuga Lake.

The walk took me past a few of the Inn’s many properties including an old renovated farmhouse and the spa. After my walk we were scheduled to go on a coffee and croissants cruise on the lake but the boat captain called in sick. Not sure, but it’s possible he was just out too late the night before. Anyway, this activity was postponed until the next day.

The Inn recently changed their breakfast service. Instead of having breakfast available in the main restaurant they now have breakfast as counter-serve, coffee shop style, in the general store. And yes, they now have a general store that serves as basically a takeout place as well as a small gift shop. In addition they serve coffee, tea, juice, and breakfast snacks (artisanal breakfast bars) in each building within The Inn. Not sure if this is a decent substitute for those who want a hearty breakfast but likely it is what they have done to reliably provide breakfast in a place and time where it may be hard to entice restaurant workers for a sporadic meal service.

After breakfast we returned to the spa to enjoy their outdoor thermal suite. This was truly a blessing – the day was beautiful for lounging outdoors. We intermittently dipped into three different hot pools (99 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit) and I intermittently dipped into one cold pool (about 54 degrees Fahrenheit). It took me more than 90 minutes of plunging, sitting and reading, and relaxing to fully immerse myself in the cold. It was invigorating.

The hydro pools at the spa are not the best value. They come complimentary with spa services, but as we had our spa service the day before they charged us for a 90 minute pass instead.

This “forced downtime” actually forced us to have some downtime. We spent much of the afternoon reading on the porch. I was able to finish a few chapters of The Three Body Problem for the first time in a couple of months. And then for more “forced downtime” we took a ride to Long Point Winery.

There were three British cars at Long Point including mine (not shown above). This Austin Healy is pretty amazing and very well kept.

Long Point actually purchases most of their grapes from what I can tell, and most of their grapes are purchased from out of state. Usually I’m horrified by this – and in this case to a degree I am still horrified a little. However, they do a decent job especially with the Cabernet Franc they grow – it has a great finish and decants well. Their Zinfandel (California grapes) is also well made and a lot deeper expression than many California Zins. For this reason I decided they’re actually a mediocre vineyard with some amazing winemakers – and in a beautiful setting as well.

After the winery adventure, The Boss piloted The Beast to the Village of Skaneateles where we would meet my uncle and significant other for dinner.

Skaneateles sits on the north end of Skaneateles Lake which is maintained in a pristine fashion to serve as the water supply for the City of Syracuse. The only reason I have really spent any time in Skaneateles is because my mother, and thus my uncle, grew up there. My uncle moved there before he can remember (I believe he was less than a year old) with my mother’s family when my grandfather’s company moved from New Jersey. Now, Skaneateles is a combination between upscale bedroom community for Syracuse and resort community surrounded by farmland.

We had dinner at a pizza and Italian place in the village before heading back to the municipal parking lot.

Where we parked had a view of this house. My uncle said, “You know that’s the house where we grew up, right?” Yes, this is what my mother refers to as the State Street House.

As the light faded, The Boss piloted us safely back to Aurora, two lakes over, past farms and fields that remind me of growing up on a farm in that part of New York. And thus everything became complete.

The weekend after Halloween seems to be when everything changes around here. The leaves start to fall, slowly, so now there is routine raking; it‘s decidedly chilly at night and jacket weather still in the daytime; and finally the garden starts to die off even if there is no frost yet. Days are simply too short for tomatoes to grow quickly. Oh, and it is 63 days until the next great adventure, but more about that later. For now, we spend the days working and preparing for winter.

I‘m trying to get to a state where what I eat is sustainably healthy. In other words, I‘m avoiding fried foods and some things that are unhealthy for me (emphasis on some as there is still a lot of Halloween candy in the house). For breakfast I had a bowl of cereal, orange juice, and a banana. Lunch was P.F. Chiang‘s General Tso‘s Chicken, delivered. I should have ordered the lunch portion but I accidentally ordered a full dinner portion. As a result, I now have a stomach ache, something that isn‘t good because when I get a stomach ache from chicken it tends to linger on for a day. And finally, dinner just has not happened yet. I‘ll probably have something healthy when I get home like some fruit, maybe an apple or two. Definitely not candy.

Today was a mixed day of reading cruise blogs, work meetings and training (we‘re taking sales training that requires role playing), and yard work. I‘m actually rebuilding the surround to my garden bed, something which requires sawing 4×4 lumber to fit. So far I have managed to build more than half the new bed without sawing anything other than wood. And then there were a couple of meetings regarding my kids‘ mental health and a visit to the hospital for one kid who is on a mental health side quest. That‘s the way he puts it – it‘s a side quest. I‘m content with that statement and I am also looking at this current incident as merely a setback. We will be back to normal before long.

For me, Mondays are the busiest day of the week. Whereas at one time I would come home and collapse on Monday, instead Mondays are now fast and furious and extend from waking up early to an evening piano lesson, first one for my daughter and then one for me. I finally get to relax after dog walk around 9:30pm. The nice thing about this arrangement is it allows me to not contribute to society on Tuesday and Wednesday nights guilt-free. It also gives me a sense of accomplishment, the piano playing part at least. We‘re going on nine years of piano lessons for my daughter and about eight years for me. She is by far the better player once she learned how to learn and once my friend Jessica learned how to teach her. She does indeed have a very interesting way of learning.

Anyway, the conclusion here is I am focusing on the day to day for another sixty days along with some travel preparation here and there, and I am fine with this (I rarely focus on the day to day for this long). I am fine with this as we are embarking on a fairly significant adventure in January. We also have some other draft plans for adventures over the next three years akin to accomplishing a good portion of our bucket list in this time period. What we hope to accomplish is something that truly amazes me as we have built a life that allows this, yet we also have already accomplished so much.

For this reason I decided to start writing about it. I am focusing on a format that I think will work when the time comes that we are traveling. My draft, for now, is five paragraphs or five quick sections. I‘ll start with an introduction to the day to kick off what I have been thinking about.

Second, I‘ll main sentences of body. I would start with what I ate or what our meals looked like. Especially when traveling I feel this is something we focus on a lot because food is such an interesting part of culture – as is drink. In a quick day this can be a paragraph but in a busy day or a day with a “foodie adventure” it can be more. After the food I will talk about major events from the day. And then I‘ll scroll to the evening. Hopefully this will be when I gather my thoughts for the day but it may be more likely to do that on the following day. Anyway, this is when I will begin to understand what the day was about.

And then a conclusion. So what? What did it all mean? Was it a good day? Yes, honestly it was. No, not everything is going as planned, but today was a good day.

May 26 – in the Finger Lakes

First Monday of November