Careful What You Wish For

Cold, Misty, Windy -- Not Exactly a Kodak Moment

Before leaving Central New Jersey the weather had been downright summery on both Tuesday and Wednesday with temps in the sultry high 80's. So Jake & Stone were anxious to find some place cooler for a pre-Memorial Day trip away. While visiting their daughter over the years at her college in the Rochester (NY) area, our couple had grown  increasingly fond of the region, and this seemed like a good time to re-visit. Surely it would be cooler up north by Lake Ontario. On arriving Thursday morning, they found the weather to be similar to that they had hoped to escape, but things were soon to change....

Thursday, May 23, 2013 -- The drive up to Rochester was typically uneventful, and the views from I-81 near Cortland, NY, were as peaceful and panoramic as they remembered from their previous trips. The weather was warm and windy, but rather pleasant all-in-all for their first planned activity -- a walk through Rochester's Highland Park.

The Colossus Magnolia

Despite their several trips to Rochester, Jake & Stone had never visited this historic park, laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted (of Central Park fame), which includes a little reservoir and a conservatory where tulip bulbs were on sale for $2 a bag full. The 155-acre park is a planted arboretum highlighted by a large Japanese Maple selection, many horse chestnuts, and over 35 varieties of magnolias, including the Colossus Magnolia. But the park's fame rests mainly on its over 1,000 (not a typo!) lilac shrubs which are the focal point of the annual Lilac Festival. And though the festival had ended the previous weekend, there were still enough lilacs in bloom to fill the breezy air with hints of its perfume, and our duo had a wonderful stroll around this hilly, most-worthwhile urban park.

Near the park is the Distillery, a good enough place for lunch, and most likely a very good place to watch sports on the many TV screens. After lunch Jake & Stone checked into the Rose Garden B&B, which proved to be a good B&B, though our couple was disappointed in their small room (the Asian Orchid room), as it was without a closet or an available outlet for a computer or phone, and had virtually no table space. The other rooms looked bigger, but then for $115 a night Asian Orchid was not a bad deal. The host and hostess were very accommodating, the public rooms were nice enough, there was a very homey front porch, and the breakfasts were very good indeed.

Though the room was small, the bed was big and inviting enough to seduce Stone into a little afternoon read-and-nap while Jake took his bike for a ride. The B&B enjoys a good location very near Maplewood Park and its large Rose Garden. Right off the Rose Garden is the Genesee River Trail, which Jake rode downstream for a couple of miles despite rain forcing him to hunker down under a bridge for about ten minutes. This part of the trail was quite nice, and offers a cement spur down (rather steeply) toward the river which leads to a pedestrian bridge over the water with good river views. On the other other side of the river (up steeply again) it's possible to quickly bike to the Seneca Zoo, which looked inviting to Jake, who had the will but not the time.

Rochester has a storied place in minor league baseball that dates back to 1899. The current iteration is the Rochester Red Wings, the Triple-A farm club of the Minnesota Twins, and on this night Jake & Stone went to see them play the Charlotte Knights at Frontier Stadium.

"Fan" is short for fanatic (aka: crazy?)

The Weather-Channel-promised cold front had only just started to change the weather when they left the B&B for a pre-game dinner at Nathaniel's sports bar. (They preferred the Distillery's ambiance, though the food at Nathaniel's included a surprisingly tasty catfish dish.) But by the time they had settled into their box seats ($12 each, game-time purchase, 6 rows behind the first-base dugout), the cold front was manifest. By the third inning, it was cold, windy and starting to seriously mist. Our duo persevered, seeking shelter when the mist became rain for a couple of innings, then finished the game standing here and there around the stadium in search of leeward wind barriers. The game concluded happily for the several hundred fans left in the 9th inning, with the Red Wings winning 4-3.

Wanting to reward themselves for persistence, Jake & Stone went looking for a place to have a drink. The streets of Rochester were wet and dark, even the main avenues. Finally, through a mist worthy of Sherlock Holmes' London, they spied the Hyatt hotel, which provided shelter from the storm, a good looking bar and even better looking martinis. "Well," Jake said, clinking Stone's glass, "we did wish for cooler weather." They smiled and drank up.

Friday, May 24, 2013 -- Rochester was a 19th-century American hub of industry, and the city's business

Lower Falls

depended greatly on the Genesse River which provided the power to
run the mills and factories. Indeed, the river still provides hydroelectric power to much of Rochester. The Genesse River also provides Rochester with several picturesque waterfalls as it flows through the city. The most dramatic waterfall is the Lower Falls, which can be viewed by walking over the Driving Park Avenue Bridge.  An excellent view of the river as it cascades down the High Falls can be seen from the pedestrian bridge that starts right off Platt Street and crosses the river to the base of the Genesee Brewery on the other side. Jake & Stone weathered the windy and slightly misty walk, enjoying the virtual solitude on what is usually a busy tourist sight.

High Falls View

At the end of the bridge going toward the brewery sits the Genesee Brew House, which includes a souvenir store, tap room, restaurant and "brewery tour." The quote marks are needed as the tour is not a  tour of the giant brewery next door, where about 600 people currently produce a whole range of Genesee brews, but rather a tour of a sort of mini-brewery that mimics the giant one next door. Jake & Stone took the 30/40-minute tour (hourly on the hour) and found it interesting if not particularly thrilling.

Time to Take Flight

Upstairs in the Brew House is the restaurant and our duo had a fine lunch there: shrimp soup and salad for Stone; bacon cheeseburger and chips for Jake. But perhaps the best part of the lunch was the offered flight of beers -- four tastings delivered on a wooden plank --  $7. Good food, good drinks and lots of fun.

With some hours to fill before dinner (and the weather still arguing against a hike or bike ride) Jake & Stone drove down to Pittsford where for old times sake they drove around Nazareth College, where their daughter --  Sweetness! -- was such a star. Then they went to see The Great Gatsby, which turned out to be much better than either of them had expected.

Dinner was also in Pittsford, at Aladdin's on the Canal. There they rendezvoused with a friend, now a professor at the University of Rochester, who had like Jake, graduated from far-away Boulder (Colorado) High School in 1965. (Strike up the "Small World" music.) The three of them passed a pleasant time beside the darkling Erie Canal over a bottle of wine, octopus salad, pine nut salad and beef, basil pesto with beef, pignolia pasta and shared desserts. All for under $100.

nota bene: for those of you kind enough to have read some of Jake's fictional work and think his work nice but sometimes "unnecessarily sesquipedalian," please see this book by his dinner companion and fellow BHS grad: Nilpotence and Periodicity in Stable Homotopy Theory. Suddenly, Jake's prolix prose seems almost simple, hunh?

With the night still young and the weather still rather inhospitable, Jake & Stone finished off the evening with yet another movie, the type of which (that is to say, "not block busters") they don't often see in suburban Jersey: At Any Price with Dennis Quaid. It was showing at The Little Theatre in downtown Rochester, a good place to see independent and off-beat movies.

Saturday, May 26, 2013 -- The weather was still cold and windy, but at least the sun was out. Jake had hoped to play golf at Ravenwood while Stone did some hiking, but they decided instead to do some husband-and-wife golf at Latta Lea E-Z Golf, a par-3, 9-hole course that measures about 1,000 yards.

Stone Taking it E-Z

Latta Lea turned out to be the perfect place for Stone to play as she is very much a beginner, and this course caters to those still learning. In fact, in front of them were two groups of four -- two (probable) fathers and their two young sons, followed by a mother/grandmother and three young girls. It was soon evident that the youngsters had never/rarely swung a golf club before, so things went slowly, which was fine for our duo, especially since no one was behind them. Stone hit two balls off every tee and then suffered the tutelage of Jake honing her wedge and chip play with three or four balls on every green.

Jake hasn't played a lot of quite short golf courses, but Latta Lea was by far and away the best he had ever seen. The overall condition of the course was very good, and though short, the 9 holes are set it a lovely park-like setting with water hazards and even challenging elevation changes. For what it offers, especially at a price of under $10 each, Latta Lea is highly recommended, and both Jake & Stone greatly enjoyed the morning.

Lunch View at the Pulneyville Grill

Latta Lea is in the northern suburb of Greece, NY, and as such it is less than a mile to Lake Ontario. Waterside dining is often disappointing as the food is often secondary to the picturesque location, but that is not the case at the Pultneyville Grill. Jake & Stone loved everything about this stylish, lake-view, upstairs eatery and bar on Lake Road in Williamson, NY. Their lunch of lobster fritters (the hit of the meal), shrimp cocktail, veggie wrap, BLT panini and glass of wine was the best meal of the trip. With a view of the nearside docks and the farside whitecaps on Lake Ontario, and a bill of around $50, it was a wonderful afternoon repast.

Stone at the Edge of Lake Ontario

Having taken the "express route" east (aka: Route 104) from Greece to Williamson, they drove back toward Rochester on the two-lane Lake Road. This route affords a nice drive in this orchard-dotted countryside, with Lake Ontario, and its many lakeside homes just about always in view. Jake & Stone even found a park that let them get up close and personal with still wind driven Lake Ontario.

Back at the B&B it was nap time, then back to Frontier Field for some more Rochester Red Wings baseball. It was still pretty cold, but the box seats were still cheap and close to the action, the Red Wings won again, and as a bonus, after the game the evening was capped by a fireworks show. As the smoke cleared from the field, a full moon rose over the downtown skyline. And the Man in the Moon seemed to saying, along with crowd, "Ohhhh!"

Driving home on Sunday morning, Jake & Stone realized that they would finally get the nice, cool weather they wanted -- at home! But they took solace in knowing that the weekend weather had been perhaps even more stormy in Jersey. And then, even in the cold, rain and wind, Rochester didn't disappoint.

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