Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Wineries and Beach Parties

Laura:
August 27 was an excellent day! We began by touring two wineries near Seneca Lake with a bunch of my med school classmates. The wineries were about an hour southeast of Rochester in the Finger Lakes region of New York state.



We visited the Three Brothers and Zugibe wineries on the east side of Seneca Lake. Three Brothers was a neat because they have three different wine tasting venues, each with their own personality, and a beer tasting room. We purchased a tasting passport ($10/person) and were able to try 5 different wines/beers at each station (~20 samples total). A great buy! The wines in the dive bar and girly tasting rooms were INCREDIBLY sweet. Not really my cup of tea, but some people like that stuff. The ritzy wine  room had a broader variety of wines for tasting and were definitely the best on site. We bought a bottle of "Jazz Infusion" - a blend of Chambourcin, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Pinot Noir. Delish!

We also really enjoyed the wines at the Zugibe Winery. For the minimal fee of $3, we were able to taste any 5 wines off a large list. Excellent wines once again! After finishing the tastings we relaxed outside and chatted with my med school pals for quite a while. The weather was a little balmy, but the company and view were both perfect! Always nice to sit down with my classmates outside of school and just relax (while we still can).  

Good wine, good view, and great friends!
After a lovely afternoon at the wineries, we started to make our way back to Rochester for some more fun. One the way home we were in desperate need of lunch, so we stopped at a little road-side food stand in Geneva, NY to get some hots, mac salad, and cones (hot dogs, pasta salad, and soft serve ice cream).


Mmmm...Moosetracks!
Our final event for the evening was a birthday party for two of my classmates at Marge's, a little bar located on the shore of Lake Ontario. Marge's is the greatest little bar I've ever seen! You get your drinks at the bar inside and then walk out the back of small building for direct beach access to Lake Ontario. We arrived just in time to see the most glorious sunset!







Alex
This ended up being a real nice day.  I only want to add that at the second winery a cup game came up, involving a lot of rhythmically slapping the table, flipping cups, and passing them around in a circle.  Some people knew the cup game, and others were fascinated and wanted to learn.  Next thing I or anybody else knew there was a drumming circle of cup players going.  I was able to get my camera and shoot a quick video before the flash mob of cupsters finished.