Drill Bits

One of Cappy's 'catch phrases' is, "Well,...you know da drill...". For instance, even tho we know for the last month that folks have been patiently waiting to see the pictures from Rochester, NY, the reason they haven't been forthcoming a whole lot sooner, is the same ol' excuses...I won't bother you with the same old premise...suffice it to say, "You know da drill".


Sooo, on with the story. We got to Rochester on July 17, the day before Dan's birthday and got our hands on our gorgeous, newest grandbaby, Chase Steven.

What a precious little 'chunk' he is. He's an identical speciman of his Dad. I've seen this baby before, 40 years ago. I named him Dan. Chase doesn't lack for attention, either. He's got two older sisters to dote on him, and two older brothers to pester, just as soon as he can get his footing.

After we arrived at the airport, picked up our snazzy rental car...a cream colored PT Cruiser...too cool, we got our luggage stowed at what Cappy referred to as the Red Roach Inn. When I lived in Rochester, I never had occasion to stay there, so didn't know how primitive the 'digs' were. It was a place to stay, and we slept well, and that's all I'll say.

But anyhow, we hauled on up to Dan and Jennifer's house and sat outside watching the kids play, squabble, tattle, and just have all around kid fun while we waited with Dan until Jennifer got home from work. Presently, her two sisters and brother, with girlfriend, showed up. What a nice bunch of folks. (If my photo editor wasn't giving me major fits, I'd be able to post a lot more, much better pictures for Ya'll.)

When Jennifer got home, we all went out to dinner at the Dinosaur BBQ in the heart of downtown Rochester. Well, this was right up Cappy's alley. They had a big pit outside smoking away, also,picnic tables outside, inside was rustic and full of character and characters. (Especially when we all filled da joint.) They had a Tuesday night blues band tuning up that were pretty darned good. Cappy had a discussion with one of the waiters about their Yankee definition of Cajun spices. I dunno, we might end up sending them a sample of ours, to make his point. We all loved the food; authentic Cajun-flavored, as adverstised, or not; it was good. Lots of fun was had by all, and it was especially nice, since Dan had taken great pains to get us seated next to the window overlooking the Genessee River near the falls. We ate, we laughed, we had a wonderful time!

The next day after we had dosed ourselves awake with coffee, we went to visit Mr. Ed and Jean, who only lived about ten minutes away. They are busy people, and just because they retired, doesn't mean they slowed down any, at all. If I didn't know better, I'd think they were busier than ever. And from previous posts, you may well know how much fun they are and how dearly we love them. (They 'fussed' at us cuz we hadn't stayed with them rather than at an hotel...it was just that we hadn't really decided to go until practically the last minute. We just didn't want to make anybody have to rush around getting beds, etc. ready for us.)

We went back to Dan's house and watched the kids again, as they 'entertained' us on that water slide, then got ready and went out for Dan's birthday dinner.

Pictures follow and are pretty self explanatory. Hmmm, thinking about it all again...Jen's siblings didn't show up until THAT day and not the day before. It was just Dan's family and us,...still, there were 8 of us at that Dinosaur BBQ. NOW...the day I'm referring to, where his sisters and brother with girlfriend showed up, was on Wed...Dan's actual birthday. Whew. I hope I got it straight.

There were three carloads of us who showed up at the Arigato restaurant.

The 'chef' amused himself by throwing wads of rice into each of our mouths, or attempting anyhow, while he waited for his wok to heat, before he put on his 'show'. He also dished out humor with a Japanese flair, but later we learned that he was really from Kentucky and his native accent was really "hillbilly". (At the time so much rice was landing anywhere but in our mouths...on the floor...on the walls, on the seat behind us, I was thinking, gosh, the place looked so clean if that was their usual practice. And it did look clean at the time. Now looking at the walls in the pictures...hmmm.) It was fun, tho'.

We had to get up and back on the plane for five a.m., so we left for the hotel around ten that night. We took our grandson, Robbie John aka "RJ" home on our way. He's involved with the young volunteer firefighters in his school, so he was so proud to put on his uniform and show it off for us.

Oh...and speaking of Robbie John, he was half-embarrassed, half tickled at the 'sign' on the men's bathroom door at the Japanese restaurant, so I told him I'd take a picture of it for him and post it here.

I guess this is as good a place as any to close out our story of our jaunt to NY, by showing the picture of that sign, and say, "The End".