Finger Lakes, NY

About a month after Malcolm was born, I was feeling way too cooped up at home. I had spent way too much time at home waiting for Malcolm to arrive and then adjusting to our new family member. In a very last minute decision, we headed to the Finger Lakes region of New York to get out of Ohio. We'd never been to the Finger Lakes before, but heard they were really pretty. Sam was even able to turn it into a business trip by having lunch with one of Wiley's Finest's brokers who actually lives in southwestern New York.

Fox Mulder driving the car

We drove to Erie, PA in the evening and spent the night. The kids were so good in the car until after dinner. Inga was getting a little fussy so we played games like let Foxy drive the car. 

My breakfast dates

The next morning we drove to the town of Hammondsport at the bottom of Keuka Lake to have lunch with the Wiley's Finest broker and his family. The Finger Lakes is full of wineries similar to the Grand Traverse area in Michigan, but these wineries have been here for much longer (100 years plus). We ate lunch at the Bully Hill Vineyards. It's a rather quirky place, but the restaurant was pretty good and tolerated children very well. The wine was decent and super cheap. It was a gorgeous day and the winery grounds were very nicely landscaped.

Inga and Daddy enjoying the sun.

Keuka Lake is at the bottom of the hill below the cars.

 We actually stayed near Canandaigua Lake, which is closer to Rochester. We went to the public beach at the north end of Canandaigua Lake and has a picnic lunch. Inga had a fun time playing in the water and building sand castles. Malcolm slept in the stroller the entire time.

Enjoying his afternoon nap.

This girl loves to swim.

Perfect day for boating.

Sam and I were really wishing we'd rented a boat except Malcolm is a little young for boating. Next summer he'll be old enough, but one month old is a bit too early for wake boarding.

We left the beach and went to a park along the lake to find a waterfall. The region has lots of waterfalls on all the creeks that enter the lakes. When we got to the park, we realized the trail to the waterfall had been removed probably because it was too expensive to maintain due to seasonal flooding. That didn't stop us for hiking, but we didn't walk all the way up to the waterfall. Inga had a blast hiking and creek walking. I did a lot of creek walking as a child and really enjoyed introducing my daughter to all the fun.

It was a short trip and the next day we drove home. We ran into some really gnarly traffic on I-90 due to construction and a semitrailer catching on fire! Malcolm was such a good little traveler.

The Finger Lakes are really beautiful. Actually, the far western end of New York is beautiful and very sparsely populated. It is similar to the Traverse City region of Michigan minus the sand dunes. The wineries are suppose to be better, too, but we didn't really do any wine tasting. Definitely worth a second visit, but we'd need to rent a house and a boat next time.