Waterfalls and Italian Cheese

We arrived in Hamlin, NY Monday evening at our good friend Dan Cariello's lake house.  The gorgeous house, built by Dan's dad, sat on a huge plot of land overlooking the lake.  After a long day of driving on Monday we were greeted by cold beers and a hearty dinner (including Rochester's famous "white hot dogs") which we enjoyed on the back deck.  In addition to Dan and his parents, Jonathan's brother, Daniel, and family friend, Joel, also made the drive up from Virginia to enjoy Hamlin with us.  After dinner the boys attempted to catch some fish but soon gave up their efforts and retired to the bottom floor of Dan's house where his grandparents live.  Both of Dan's grandparents are deaf as a consequence of childhood illnesses (one from Scarlet Fever and the other from Pertussis) so getting to know them was very engaging.  Kate was able to recall the ASL alphabet and loved going around the apartment with Dan's grandmother as she showed her tons of family photos and recounted tales of her life in her native Sweden, her three sisters and her mother who lived to be 97.  Dan's grandfather enjoyed telling the boys about his extensive history of playing sports and especially his impressive accomplishments in the bowling alley.  They will be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary this year and we had such a great time hearing about their rich lives together in spite of the communication barrier between us.

Tuesday we enjoyed a trip to the New York side of Niagara Falls.  Dan bought us all tickets for the Maid of the Mist which is a large boat that takes you into the center of the falls.  Before boarding the boat they outfit you with large blue ponchos to protect you from the mist.  It was quickly obvious that those ponchos spared us from being soaked!  The falls were huge and when we got up close on our boat ride you could barely see anything in front of you but a huge white cloud of water.  The currents were super rocky and made for a pretty perilous boat ride.  It was amazing to hear about the people who have survived a plunge over the falls, including a 65 year old woman who went over the falls in a wooden barrel!  Talk about a life story!

In our ponchos before boarding the Maid of the Mist

After exploring the falls we went back to Hamlin and got ready for a night out with Dan's friend, Dominic.  Dominic's family immigrated from Italy and have started an Italian pizzeria/deli in the town.  The restaurant has done quite well for them and they now have a gorgeous house on many acres that includes their own vineyard, orchard, gardens and even a pod of sheep for their own supply of lamb (as Dominic's dad said, none of our animals are pets).  We were welcomed into Dominic's home by his parents.  When we arrived, his mother was lamenting that she had nothing to feed us and then proceeded to pull out cheeses that were made in her home town in Italy and a loaf of homemade garlic bread.  If that was "nothing to feed us" than it was the best nothing we ever had!  Dominic's father then brought some wine up from his basement that he had just made using the grapes in his vineyard.  After enjoying  great food and conversation we headed across the street to a local bar and had a great night including DJ Daniel funding a night's worth of tunes from the bar's jukebox.

On Wednesday we went to a park called Stoneybrooke that was about 40 minutes from Hamlin.  We walked about a mile down a trail and then came out of the woods to a huge stream with a substantial current.  We walked up the stream against the current and came upon a 20 foot waterfall.  The boys each took a turn diving into the freezing falls while Kate decided to skip that adventure and photograph their craziness.  We continued to walk up stream, enjoying two more huge waterfalls and eventually ended up at the head of the trail where we started.  Before we left for the park that morning Dan's grandfather had given us money to buy dinner so Dan ordered take-out from two different Italian restaurants and we returned home bearing a gigantic pizza, 50 chicken wings, calamari and some sort of friend artichoke dish.  We indulged in all of this delicious food and then went to bed, worn out and satisfied.

Joel, Daniel, Dan and Jonathan at Stoneybrooke

We got up early Thursday morning and hit the road for Maine.  We made a quick stop on the way up the coast in Freeport, Maine (home of the first L.L. Bean store-now open 24 hours!) so Kate could engage in some outlet shopping and then continued on to Thomaston.  Kate spent every summer of her childhood in Maine and 10 years ago her parents purchased their retirement home in Thomaston, Maine.  They have yet to sell their house in Virginia and officially move to Maine for good so for now they enjoy it on long weekends and for most of the summer.  The weather is amazing here and we have spent much of the day relaxing on the front porch, enjoying the cool breeze and waving to neighbors as they stroll by.  Can't get more relaxed than this!  We have also been doing a little bit of 4th of July preparations.  Thomaston puts on a huge 4th celebration complete with a parade in the morning, a festival during the day and a fireworks show at night.  Kate's mom is on the 4th Planning Committee so has been busy with all of her duties.  When we arrived last night she greeted us with "Volunteer" T-shirts and informed us we were signed up to sell raffle tickets on the big day!

This weekend we're looking forward to enjoying the Maine weather with some hiking, kayaking and biking through the local seaport towns.  Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!