Labor Day Weekend at the Finger Lakes...

We spent the long weekend in the Finger Lakes. The Finger Lakes are about a 3 hour drive from Albany and is New York's wine region. We rented a house with 3 other couples on Keuka Lake. It was an incredibly fun weekend and we feel very lucky to have made some really wonderful friendships here in New York.

One of our friends has a neighbor that is a wine distributor so he set up a private tour at Glenora Winery with the winemaker. It was fascinating to listen to him explain all that goes into growing grapes in the area. Obviously the climate has a huge impact and it's not surprising that New York does not produce many good red wines. However, I did find a few that were fantastic- they just cost twice as much because there is such short supply. They have about a two week period to harvest red grapes before they have to worry about frost. Although Adam is not a wine drinker, he also enjoyed the tour and found the science behind winemaking especially interesting.

These are Gevurtztraminer grapes. The winemaker let us sample a few off the vine and they were so delicious. I'm not a huge fan of Gevurtz wine but the grapes have a spicy taste that is very unique. I was tempted to grab a bunch and go buy some brie.

We spent the day touring different wineries and taking in the spectacular views. I can only imagine how gorgeous the area is in October when all the trees change colors. The weather was perfect while we were there, mid-seventies and no humidity. I am serious when I say this, everyone should experience fall in New York. I will drive this message home over the next few months!

These are my girlfriends- Toyin, Fahmida, and Ryan.
Jeff, Reh, Adam, and Doug- a little male bonding.
Here we all are- such a fun group! These are the people that help us cope when we find ourselves missing all of you back home. And these are the friendships that will bring us back to New York for many visits in the years to come.
Jeff's mom watched Gavin while we went on the wine tour and then Gav joined us for the rest of the weekend. He's getting so big and loves being the center of attention. We had a great time skipping rocks and splashing around.

P.S. Notice that Gavin is finally starting to look a little bit like me!!