[Written Thursday, April 18]

When last I typed we were sitting in Starbuck’s and contemplating another try at the park we couldn’t find to see waterfalls. We found our way to the park. It was the same one we’d stopped at, but maintenance crews were in front of the trail entrance so we didn’t see it. That and the trail entrance was not marked well at all.

I won’t bore you with all the details. Just most of them. I’m hoping the pictures will complete the image of the incredibly steep grassy hill we had to climb just to get to the trail. Oh.My.Gosh! I felt like a billy goat and I’m pretty sure I bleated a few times.

Nope. The picture doesn’t do the climb justice. It just looks pretty. But it wasn’t.

Thankfully we both had really good hiking boots on.

Once on the trail we made our way up to the first lookout so I could get a picture of a waterfall.

Do you see it?

Yeah. Me either. Well, maybe a little bit.

It was pretty disappointing. But we endeavored to persevere and hiked on up to the next lookout. I really liked this lookout because: A) there were chairs; and B) there were benches.

Okay. I realize there is not a picture of the benches, but I was actually sitting on a bench when I took the second photograph so it’s kind of the same thing.

There was also a waterfall.

If it wasn’t for all the nature around in the form of trees we would have been able to see it much better. But it was still better than the first one. So my “view a waterfall” criteria was fulfilled.

Did we turn around and go back? Of course not! We still had some geocaching to do. This geocaching is a dangerous business. We had to break the rules and walk past the “Park Boundaries” signs. But that’s how Todd and I roll. We’re rebels that way.

We looked and looked and looked some more with no luck. So we headed back to the trail, but on a whim Todd thought to look one more place and voila! There it was.

Thankfully the car was parked downhill. At one point I told Todd we should just roll down the grass like when we were kids and he kindly offered to hold my camera, but I decided I’m too dignified and mature to do that. By the time we climbed into Raven (that’s the name Katie has given her) we were hungry so we drove down to Naples for something meaty like a cheeseburger or steak! We ended up eating nachos at the cabin. And they were delicious!

At the beginning of the week the weather people said today would be rainy. It was not. Windy, yes. Rainy, no. So after several rounds of Rummikub on Todd’s iPad, a game that I am NOT addicted to, we decided to head back up to the north end of the lake and hit a few more geocaching spots on the way. So we did. And we found two more. Even better than the two geocaches we found was the restaurant that served mozzarella sticks and cheeseburgers after.

And this abruptly ends our third installment of the Anniversary Trip

[Written Wednesday, April 17]

I’m currently writing from Starbucks in Canandaiga. It has wifi. We needed a fix. That and some Starbucks goodness.

So we didn’t hit any antique stores yesterday. Oh, we saw them. They’re everywhere. It was overwhelming. I felt like a kid at Disneyland with no E tickets. Which won’t make a lick of sense to a lot of people, but trust me when I say it’s not a good thing.

You see, it’s like this. There is a particular item I am looking for. It’s not a small, put-it-in-a-bag item. But it’s not a huge, we-need-a-moving-truck item either. I’m looking for a washstand or a small cabinet to use as a vanity in our powder room. Our new car is significantly smaller than the old car and I realized, much to my dismay, that even a small cabinet or washstand won’t fit in the car with everything else we brought with us. So why even look? What if I found the perfect washstand? What then? I have a budget and even if it was within the budget, the shipping would probably bust it.

Todd thought he had escaped unscathed. Antique shopping isn’t anywhere on his list of top 5,000 things to do.  But he only dodged the bullet this trip. Pennsylvania has no lack of antique stores either… (this is the part where I laugh maniacally, but I don’t know how to write that.)

Yesterday was rainy and we had a very lazy morning. We finally got out and drove up Canandaiga lake and found our way to The Muar House Cafe and a delicious lunch.

It was rather windy and cold and, frankly, a beautiful day for pictures. So I got some.

We also went to Wal-Mart. Yes. You read that right. We came to upstate New York so we could go to Wal-Mart. Actually, we needed some groceries and a particular computer cable and we thought we could kill both those birds with one Super Center stone. We got the groceries, but no cable.

And then we stopped in here. What we’ve come to think of as “Our” Starbuck’s. We needed the wifi to download a couple books on my Kindle and to look up some information. Todd also wanted to download a couple carving videos.

After our adventures in town we headed back to the cabin. It was cold! But a lovely cold. The kind of cold that requires flannel pants, a hot drink and a cozy fire. So that’s what we did.

This morning we woke up when we woke up to a beautiful blue sky with only a tiny smattering of white clouds here and there. We decided to go find some waterfalls for my camera and found this overlook with a great view of the beautiful blue lake on our way.

It was also a geocaching cite so we did a little investigating and found this:

The coin is a marker that the particular geocacher (Medicine Man) puts in all his finds. He’s a pharmacist and avid Lord of the Rings fan. The writing on the back of the coin – or maybe the front – is in Elvish. (How does one know which is the front and which is the back of a coin?)

After our little interlude at the overlook we carried on. We had taken the map we found in the cabin, but it’s one of those exaggerated cartoony maps and we couldn’t find the park we were looking for. So we just kept going and made our way back to Wal-Mart. Because we really like Wal-Mart. And because Todd bought two pair of shorts yesterday but when he took them out of the bag at the cabin he realized they were extremely large and not at all the size indicated on the hangers. So he ran in to exchange them and then we ended up here at our Starbuck’s.

Taking advantage of wifi, I was able to see where we went wrong with the directions to the park with the 1.2 walking trail and three waterfalls. It’s now 3:30 and who knows what we’ll do. Maybe we’ll go back or maybe we won’t.

Todd and I went away last month and I wrote a little something for the blog each day with the intent of posting when we got home. As you can see from the date of the entry, I didn’t do it. Better late than never?

[Written Tuesday, April 16]

Todd and I are off celebrating our 25th anniversary. Technically we won’t be married for a quarter of a century until June, but June is full of things like Katie’s graduation and college orientation and a visit from Todd’s parents and the like. Try as we may, we just couldn’t figure out a good time to go away in June.

For a long time we talked about going to Scotland for our 25th anniversary, but our 25th anniversary year is full of things like Katie’s graduation and college orientation and a visit from Todd’s parents and the like. So we did the next best thing. We took a trip to the Fingerlakes region of New York. It’s actually kind of like Scotland. It’s hilly and mountainous and green with a creek and right now it’s raining. When I think of Scotland I think of hilly and mountainous and green with a creek. And rain. So yeah. It’s just like we’re there. Except people drive on the right hand side of the road here.

As I type this I’m sitting in a screened enclosure that overlooks the green going down to a rather boisterous brook called Trout Run. A tree covered hill slopes up from the other side of the creek and there’s a trail that leads back into the woods. It’s overcast and cool and rainy and peaceful and beautiful and refreshing. I love the sound of the wind in the trees and the fall of a gentle rain. And the smell? Fughettaboudit. Like heaven in a spray can, especially when you throw in the scent of coffee wafting from the cup on the table next to me.

Todd is taking his first nap of the day on the comfy sofa next to the cozy fireplace while Jack Johnson is playing on his computer. I think I may finish this up and go curl up in the overstuffed chair for my first nap of the day.

I am enchanted.

Another great thing about this week and where we are is that we have no cell phone service and no internet connection. I had already determined to turn off the wi-fi mode on my computer, but now I can’t be tempted to check out Facebook for a “few minutes”.

The drive up here was gorgeous and it was a beautiful day for a road trip. And you know me. I love me a good road trip! I always find it interesting when traveling either north or south this time of year to see the difference in the vegetation. Trees were in bloom in Virginia last week when Todd and I went to see Taylor, but not so in Pennsylvania. This last week things just seemed to pop open, but the farther north we drove yesterday the less in the way of blooms we saw. It will be interesting to see how that has changed when we leave on Friday.

Our plan for these five days is a lot of nothing. It’s supposed to rain most of the time we’re here and that’s okay. Yesterday we were able to take a nice little hike through the woods across the creek and I got tons of pictures. We need to get to the grocery store at some point today and I’m hoping to hit an antique shop or two in the process. I figure a rainy day is as good as any to look at old furniture.

As of right now, tomorrow is supposed to be sunny so we hope to get some geocaching in and see some waterfalls. Thursday is another day of rain and thunderstorms so we’ll just hang out here at the cabin with a warm fire going all day and Friday we’ll head for home.

Of course, by the time you read this we will already be home. I’m just not keen on advertising that we’re going to be gone for a week while Katie is home alone. That and I can’t post anything from a place with no wi-fi.

So you’ll just have to check back tomorrow to see if things actually went as planned…