Side Trips

July 1 – 2

To rid the boat of those darn eelflies I found it was a lot easier to simply hose ’em off. Only problem was we were on a “free” wall in Sylvan Beach. That means no power and no water. I did not want to use our store of fresh water (WB holds 200 gallons of fresh water) so I used raw water right out of the canal. WB has a raw water intake for rinsing with seawater. Worked great in getting rid of those pests but left the boat looking less than clean. First thing this morning, like 6 AM I washed the boat. Around 7 :30 I woke Debbie up for a day trip to Niagara Falls. She had mentioned many times she would like to see this area. Enterprise picked us up at 10 and we were off on the 3 hour drive. With the falls being located on the USA side, the best viewing is from Canada. We crossed the border and spent the afternoon viewing the spectacle.

On the Canadian side they have a zip line set up that must be close to 100′ off the ground.

This particular waterfall is the American Falls which has huge boulders at the bottom which have calved from the waterway.

You can barely make out the tourist boat in the mist. Tourists are issued red rain gear if they take the tour boat from the Canadian side and blue gear from the US side.

WOW! A shrine to SKYLINE CHILI??? No such luck.

Today we rented a big SUV and the Neal’s, Garbers and Rogers headed to the Finger Lakes area to visit wineries. With it’s cooler climate the Finger Lakes region makes well crafted Rielsings, and Pinot Noirs. I had a few unoaked Chardonnays as well that I thought were rather tasty. After quite a few samples I needed a break…

We had lunch in the little town of Geneva at the Waterstreet Cafe and the server highly recommended Three Brothers Winery. Interesting place. Two different wineries, one serving sweeter wines and the other serving dry wines. Plus a brewery.

Saw this wine. Notice the red wax running down the neck of the bottle? Maker’s Mark guards this practice jealously.

And to add insult to injury, this winery uses Brown-Forman barrels to age this wine in.

The tasting room guy said it was aged in Woodford Reserve barrels. Actually Old Forester barrels or maybe even Early Times Bourbon barrels. How do I know? Notice the “DSP KY 354” stampled on the barrel? That is the Brown-Forman distillery located in Shively, Ky.

Seneca Lake, the largest of the Finger Lakes.

Who da thunk it???