I like to travel. I also like to do things at the spur of the moment, which is why at 9PM on Friday night, a mere 36 hours after moving into my new apartment in Hoboken, I booked a flight to Rochester to spend Labor Day Weekend with Dave.

I barely slept that night, in part due to my sheer excitement, and partly because I had to be up at 3AM to catch the 6AM flight up to Western New York. I got to Rochester, a little after 8AM and was beyond excited to see Dave. After a short ride to his house, I took a quick cat nap before we decided to go hiking up by the Finger Lakes. I am not as familiar with this part of New York, so I was absolutely stunned by the beautiful scenery as we made our way to Watkins Glen. These lakes were all so beautiful, and there was so much GREEN everywhere. It was quite a stark contrast to summers in San Diego and the city!  After an hour or so in the car, we made it to Watkins Glen State Park, where we hiked and walked around. I had never been to a gorge before, and it was like anything else I had ever seen. The rock was so intricately carved by the water over time, it was beautiful – I don’t know else how to describe it.

Following our beautiful hike through Watkins Glen, we went wine tasting at one of Dave’s mom’s favorite wineries, Fox Run. We tried a few wines, and came back with a box of bottles, some cheese curds, and smiles plastered across our faces. That was my first time officially wine tasting and I had so much fun learning about what I did and didn’t like. Turns out, my taste buds liked the cheapest and one of the sweeter wines available, which I was a big fan of.

On Sunday, we had a relaxing morning and then ended up going out boating on Dave’s friend, Q’s boat. It was the first time I had ever been on one of the Great Lakes and the water was so crystal clear. Our first stop in the boat was Irondequoit Bay (I still cannot pronounce it) and we climbed to the top of these sand dunes that overlooked the whole bay – it was absolutely stunning. That night,  I had my first real “Buffalo Wing” experience with the Evan’s family. Two things I learned, 1) There are lots of different wings flavors (I liked the sweeter wings) and 2) I still need to practice “Eating” them to the bone, as I leave too much meat on them.  The wings were so good and definitely reminded me of the impending football season – can’t wait to have real Buffalo wings again.

On Monday, Q, Dave, Caden and I hopped in a car and headed back to the city. I was able to score some pretty sweet Yankees tickets through work to surprise Q’s son, Caden. He was lucky enough to not only score a baseball after the third inning, but also A-Rod’s batting glove. All in all, it was easily my favorite labor day with some of my favorite people.

A huge thank you goes out to the Evan’s family for letting me stay with them on such short notice. I had a fantastic weekend up in Rochester and am so glad I was able to spend some quality time up in Dave’s hometown.