10.04.2005

Da Finger Lakes..."STOP DA truck".

Cappy said he hadn't expected to see that New York State was so beautiful. All he had ever heard and imagined was that the whole state was paved and/or covered with parking lots. In Naples, on/near Canadaigua Lake, the town was setting up for it's Grape Festival. Cappy had been hearing about their grape pies for a couple of years from me. He and Dan each ate a small pie. Now they are sorry they didn't go for the whole pie. Cappy said that the bad part of trying grape pie is that now he's addicted to them, but can't get to them. (we'll see...) We drove around a few more of the Finger Lakes and stopped at a few of the wineries to sample and bring back some New York State wine to Louisiana.

One of the places we stopped had several of their bottles displayed high on shelves, looking for all the world as though they had been Olympic winners, festooned with all sorts of medals. It was definitly a 'high-dollar' place. We all bellied up to the 'bar' to sample. The lady was very prim and proper and knowledgeable about her wines to be sure. I've been a wine 'newbie' for at least ten years. I know nothing much about wines; my taste has never matured to begin asking for more dry wines, like "they" said I would. Dan wanted to sample Merlot, but Cappy and I wanted something sweet. Then we wanted something sweeter. Then something sweeter. The lady was finally at a loss, so I joked, "Ya got anything that tastes like Koolaid?" She might have guessed by our appearance, that we weren't the upscale clientele she was used to, so the question shouldn't have shocked her as much as it seemed to have. She composed herself, pursed her lips, raised one eyebrow, looked down her nose again, to see us further below than she had initially realized, then uttered, "Perhaps you would be better off visiting Bully Hill's winery". Well, dang if she wasn't right! We found Bully Hill, and boy! if those people weren't having fun! Large crowds were milling everywhere. Tour guides had everyone laughing. Big tour buses were parked everywhere. Inside the wine tasting was a mass of people laughing with the people who were serving them. They had the crowd repeating after them,"Bully Hill is Fine Wine" (bully hill is fine wine) "Napa is Auto Parts" (hahahaha) So, at Bully Hill we bought some SWEET wine. So there.

Cappy said this "Old boy" is one of his heroes. When we got to Canandaigua Lake this gentleman was sitting there fishing. Before he even really looked at the lake,Cappy walked over and struck up a conversation with this man, asking him what kind of fish he was looking for, what kinda bait he was using, etc. He learned that the man was in his 90's and came fishing everyday. I can't remember what he caught and what he used for bait, but Cappy walked away saying, "Man, that's what I wanna be doing when I'm in my 90's"

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous10:53 AM

    Thanks for bringing back some great memories for me. The summer after I graduated high school, I back packed and camped up there around the finger lakes. I loved Saranac lake the town of Lake Placid. Beautiful aint it?

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