Daily Report: The Sundowner

Bully Hill Vineyards is one of the Finger
Lakes great wineries, and they have a
nice, free, albeit quick little tour.I put in another 12-hour sleep on the comfy bed... heavenly. Slept in until 10:00 and then called Pui. I've been suffering from a light cold since arriving here in America... seems Pui back home has the same.

This afternoon, I escaped from the never ending flow of "things that must be done", and got to enjoy my vacation. I went with my Uncle Bob and his friend Marian out to the official tourist reason that this area of the country exists: Winery hopping.

The Finger Lakes region of New York is dotted with wineries, and a fair number of them have free (or $1 or $2) wine tastings. You just show up, and somebody pours you 10 sips of 10 different wines — all of them being sold in the nearby gift shop for $8 to $18 per bottle... but can be found for $30 to $80 per bottle once they leave the Finger Lakes region for more distant lands. You can also get a (sometimes free) guided tour of some the wineries.

We went to Bully Hill first, where we were served wine by an ebullient bartender who dosed out wine while cracking jokes and pimping his product. After that, we were off to Dr. Frank's winery where even-keeled Warren The Wino poured Champagne, Riesling, and some gorgeous Chardonnay. There were some red wines served after that, but they came and went in machine-gun fashion, knocked back like kamikaze shots at TQ2, and kind of got lost in the shuffle.

I bought a bottle of red wine for Stan, and a bottle of white dessert wine for myself at Bully Hill, and a bottle of Chardonnay for my mother at Dr. Frank's.

After that, it was back home for lunch, and then out to Corning to the lawyer's office so my mother could sign some papers. We met up with her fiancee, Paul, and had a beer at a local Irish pub.

Then, it was back home for dinner (a tasty bean casserole) with Uncle Bob and Marian, then sat around for a bit and chatted before Bob and Marian went back to their campsite (they have a big camper, which I have yet to see), Mom sat down at the piano to play some quiet night music, and I sat down to the computer.

(That's another thing that is odd about coming back to New York: Getting used to sunset at 9 PM, 3 hours later than Pattaya.)

Vinnie and his entourage are arriving later tonight, so I've lost my comfy bed to the VIPs, and am now relegated to a blanketless lumpy sofa bed with a scratchy couch cushion as a pillow.

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UPDATE:

Mike from the comments section in "Greetings From Urbania", reminds me that a picture is worth a thousand words, and I therefore bring to you "Urbania: Lilac Lane meets Primrose Place".