Happy Halloween!

The past few weeks have been incredible here with the fall leaves and all the Halloween decorations on every house and corner. They decorate much more here than anywhere I have ever seen and it is fun to drive by and see what everyone has done. Here are a few examples:

Almost every house has many pumpkins on it either on all the steps of the front porch, on the walkway, or even lining the roof.

And then there are the leaves!!! Here are some of the magnificent colors we have been seeing the past several weeks. I thought the reds were amazing, but near the end of the color changing, I have decided the oranges were even more breathtaking. Enjoy....

I had to throw this in because it was just across the street from where I took the first several pictures and it was breathtaking to say the least. This is the St. Lawrence Seaway at Morristown, NY which is one of the little towns we work in during the weekends. Amazing!

This is the Erie Canal which is right behind our apartment (less than a block away). Palmyra was considered the Queen of the Canal Towns in her hayday.

Most all my pictures are taken as "drivebys". I get some really funny ones with poles right in the way. Phil will say, "NOW" and then I will shoot and it's a gorgeous tree stump. It is amazing that we get as many good ones as we do.

Last weekend was our last free weekend and since we are pretty settled we decided to drive through the country side and see what we could find. On Monday we went to Naples. (I know you are thinking that's quite a drive, especially the part across the ocean) Naples, NY which is only about an hour south of here. It was beautiful because we actually saw something besides green, lush countryside and rolling hills with quaint farm houses (yes, our life is pretty tough here). The road to Naples had mountains and lakes! Ok, for you mountain snobs who think mountains are 14,000 feet, these were mini mountains, but very beautiful with the finger lakes in between the ridges. When we got to Naples we found an amazing fruit stand. Here is a blue hubbard squash. (I think it could inspire a new film entitled, The Squash that Terrorized Naples!)

My favorite beau buying me flowers. We have planned to get a flowering plant for our apartment but they were always expensive. We are glad we held off. This one is beautiful and was only $5.00.

Any kind of apple you would ever want. We have discovered Honey Crisp and they are now our favorite!

But the crowning jewel of the area is their grapes. The area is all vineyards (might be where they got the name Naples). These were not just grapes. These were GRAPES! I have never tasted grapes like these before. They are not what we get at the grocery store. We bought one of these tubs and felt like we had died and gone to Heaven!

The restaurants in the area were all advertising grape pie and then I saw this at the fruit stand. It was $10 so we didn't get it. But someday I will go back and have a piece of grape pie.

Another vineyard

Here is a vineyard (one of many) over looking Canandaigua Lake one of the fingerlakes.

On the bank of Canandaigua Lake

I have never been one to take pictures...but I am starting to really like doing it. I think this is, as my high school students would say, WAY COOL!





On Sat. we went to Rochester. It was time to see the big city near by. On the way (it's about 30 miles west of us) we drove through Egypt and several other small towns. (That's just my way of name dropping so you will be impressed. But yes, there is an Egypt, NY also.) I did not take any pictures of Rochester because it was well,....a big city. But what I really wanted to do is see Lake Ontario which was about 20 minutes farther North.

It's HUGE! How did anyone know it was a lake instead of an ocean! There is no way to tell (at least as far as my little brain could figure out) that it was just a lake.

Quite impressive picture, even if I do say so myself. Jeff, thanks for making us buy this camera!

One of these days I am going to have a blog of all the wonderful houses that are everywhere. This was on a little tiny road that had a small community on the lake front. I imagine we were not suppose to be there as it was probably private, but the road less traveled is ALWAYS where I seem to want to go. This is the house and then across the street is.....

this................ more Lake Ontario......tough life for them isn't it. We had to turn around because it was a dead end road and a few neighbors looked at us questioningly, so we just waved as if we were their next door neighbor's long last aunt and uncle. After all, we do look pretty harmless.

more lake...

This was another isolated community....you ask, How did you ever talk Phil into driving there? (He is not quite as adventurous as I am) The answer was easy. He had been to the eye doctor in Rochester and his eyes were dilated... Thus, I am driving.


This was really fun. If you look closely, the building on the left is actually a light house. When I saw the little sign saying Light House Rd. I had to take it.

That's the lake on the back right side. What a life these people must have.

We are not only having the most amazing experience spending all week in the temple, but it is also an adventure of a life time and we are loving it! Thanks for coming along with us through the blog.