Silly Doggie & A Birthday Shout Out

I had to take Molly to the Vet to have her leg looked at again. She has been holding it up again which could be because while we were gone she was off playing with Lola a bit too hard. He gave me some anti-inflammatory meds to hopefully help, if not they may have to go back in. Anyways, so I got molly a pretty new leash at petsmart the other day and wanted to take a photo to show it off. Well I did it right before the vet appointment so she is looking and sitting all proper because she knows where I'm about to take her.

I just noticed that wire in the background. The roomba was getting stuck on something the other day, he must have been trying to eat up that cord and now its sprawled all over the floor.

I was getting ready to pour the new bag of dog food into the container and Molly was so excited about new food (even though its the same kind). She stuck her whole face in the bag and she would try to catch the food mid air as it was going in. So funny!

Also, Happy Birthday to my Dad! Hope you have a great birthday! While we were in NY we picked out (with the help of mom) and installed some new light fixtures for their kitchen/eating area for his birthday.

Before

After! Much better right? Except for the neighbors behind us thinking there is a red light special going on, but we like it!

Picking Apples in North Georgia

I've been wanting to venture into the North Georgia Mountains to go to one of the apple orchards, pick my own and get cider for a while now. We scheduled a date with some of my work friends and were hoping it'd be fall type weather the 2nd weekend in September. Well, that did not work out and it was 90 degrees. Not ideal for this activity, but we had fun anyway. So we headed up to Hillcrest Orchards in Ellijay.

There were many activities for us to participate in. We watched the pig races and were so surprised with how many other people were there watching.

All the pigs had cute names, such as Elvis Pigsley, Arnold Schwarzenhogger, Donald Rump, and Tammy Faye Bacon.

We went on a wagon ride through the orchards and into the woods. They had weird characters set up in the woods, if they don't make this into a haunted wagon ride during Halloween, then they are missing out.

They had a lot of variety of apples to choose from: Rome, fuji, golden, granny smith, etc..

 The funniest part of the day had to be when Leah tried milking Buttercup, the cow.

It took her a few tries, but she got the hang of it! I'll post the recipe for apple dumplings that I made with some of my apples in a few days. Thanks to Lacey for taking the photos for the day!

Seneca Lake Wine Tours

While we were in NY we decided to go on some wine tours on Seneca lake. Seneca lake is one of the finger lakes that we have about an hour from Rochester. We choose this lake because of number of wineries they have. I am not exaggerating when I say there are A LOT. Check out this map.

Don't all the lakes look like fingers. There are over 40 wineries on Seneca Lake, I stopped counting. We went to 6 different places, the first one we stopped at was 3 brothers winery and brewery. They had 4 diff. places where you could try samplings. For about $1-3 you can get anywhere from 6-8 tastings at all these places. Isn't that incredible? I was happy to go to my north Georgia vineyards and pay $10 for 4 tastings. Can we say ripoff?!

 Check out these views. This is what you saw from most every winery.

 Chris and Tim got thirsty and helped themselves to some beer out of the tap. This was taken from 3 brothers. This place had a diff. theme for each tasting buliding. The first was a barn with a huge tasting bar that was in a square around the servers in the middle, then you go to the brewery, then they have a nicer newer building with tables and views outside, but my favorite of the 4 was this pirate type dive bar tasting room.

They kept with the theme with these funny wine names. 

My favorite views of the lake came from Wagner.

If it was warmer out it would have been great to sit for a while and enjoy.

Here's a photo of my brother and sister in law with my brothers friend from college and his wife. 

Our next stop was Penguin Bay Winery. I love their sign and this is on all their wine labels. I really liked the taste of the wines here. They even had a bunch of champagnes you can try.

Here we are posing by the grapes and getting the nice view. 

Here is my mom and dad holding the grapes. I'll have you know, my dad did try a grape and said they were good. I'm not sure you're suppose to do that, but he did!

Close up view of the grapes.

Here is a view from the bottom point of the lake that Marla stopped and got for us. While they were stopping for photos here is what we were doing.

Yup, that's David crossing traffic to get a tasty treat.

He stopped at this house/small bakery and got cannoli's! I don't like them, but everyone thoroughly enjoyed them. I got fried pickles earlier at 3 brothers. Mmmm

The wineries came in all different styles. This one was in an old barn.

Look at this cool wine bottle Christmas tree. Everyone start saving your bottles.

The last stop was Belhurst Castle and Winery. There was a wedding going on so we got to see the bride and groom taking photos. This ends our winery tour. It was a lot of fun and if you are up in the area, check it out!

Food- Rochester, NY Style

Upstate NY has some great food that we always have to have while we are in town. First and foremost, I need to tell you guys about the Trash Plate. That is the name, and although it doesn't sound appealing, you can't knock it till you've had it. You have your choice of meat, mac salad, beans or home fries. You can get any combination of that. I got hamburgers with mac salad and home fries. It comes with a meat sauce/hot sauce type topping if you want it. It's not that spicy.

This is the menu. I didn't realize how many diff. meats you can choose from.

I realize it looks like a pile of throw up, but its good. 

 This is Davids. He got everything and anything on his. I could barely finish half of mine. 

Next on our list was Abbotts frozen custard. It is more whipped and soft than icecream. 

We split the vanilla m & m custard. So yummy!

We also had to get apple cider. Our favorite farm market at the end of our street, Hermans, didn't have cider until the day we left so I went to Schutts instead.

Yummy Cider!

One night for dinner we went to Perlo's (an Italian restaurant in East Rochester). The house salads came with black olives and almost everyone gave me theirs! So I had a black olive salad with a side of lettuce. Amazing!

David got the stuffed chicken.

I of course got the Chicken Parmesan.

My mom got the Haddock french, which is like a fish fry in a lemon sauce. It was really good.

Group table shot (Dad was working). 

Another must have item is Pizza! Every time we come up we have Pizza Wars. Basically, I love Marks pizza and my brother loves Pontillos pizza so we order both and just eat it and talk smack about why we like one over the other. Here we go!

Chris and Marla even took some Pontillos pizza and froze it to bring home.

Did I mention it turned into the frozen tundra when we were up there. It was a high of 62, but it felt like 40 and it should have been snowing.

 This was my meal. And I ate most everything but a few fries. Hence why I am on diet detox this week and only eating healthy foods and salads. I had a hamburger, pizza rolls and fries. 

David got a white hot and a red hot. He wanted to test them out to see which one he liked better. He voted on the red. 

Are you guys hungry yet?

Wegmans!

I couldn't wait to post on the best grocery store ever made so I moved it to today's post. It really is worth the field trip if you are ever in a northern atlantic state. The closest thing we have in Georgia is Whole Foods. Although I do love whole foods, but its way more expensive to shop there than Wegmans.

 We went to the Pittsford Wegmans, the mecca of all Wegmans. This is the largest one in Rochester, it has the biggest Market Cafe area with 2nd floor seating!  I'm getting excited just typing about it again.

Check out the view when you walk in. Just look at all that fresh produce! Sorry about all the people, but when its the best place on earth, its going to be crowded.

I love the flower section. There are so many wonderfully beautiful things to choose from.

Did someone say candy? I always tell people about the bulk candy section. We don't have anything like it here. You can go get a handful or a huge bag full and weigh it yourself and off you go.

Here is another view. There is walls and walls of candy! I took these for Leah. She loves candy and I've been telling her about this for a while now.

Here is their fancy do-it-yourself candy pricer. You weigh your bag, type in your number on the candy bin, and it prints you out a label with the price to bring to the register. So great and high-tech.

This is the market cafe. You can sit down and they'll cook you food, go to the sushi bar, Mediterranean bar, pizza shop, or get fresh seafood. They have anything you could imagine, you could eat here every night and never have the same thing.

Olive bar

They will even make you a burrito! I was excited, but this is a Pittsford only Wegmans thing.

Look at all this delicious food.

The desserts were incredible. Not only do they have a full bakery with fresh bagels, donuts, rolls, muffins, but they have these gourmet desserts.

We ended up going with the traditional, but oh so fantastic submarine sandwich. It was amazing.

In case you wanted another view, here is my sub with my wheat roll. Sorry about the oil shot, but you gotta have it. They bottle their own submarine oil (which is like a dressing) and you can buy it. Well that about sums up Wegmans. It really is the best grocery store ever made. Danny makes great stuff (Danny Wegman is the CEO). Fun facts- Wegmans headquarters are in Rochester, NY. It has been voted top 100 Best Companies to Work For since its inception in 1998, and has ranked among the top 10 for eight consecutive years. Food Network recognized it with its award for Best Grocery Store in 2007,and Consumer Reports ranked it the top large grocery chain in the United States in 2009.