This summer we trekked north again to our family vacation spot on Cayuga Lake, one of the finger lakes in upstate New York. Not much changes there, the people come and go, every year the family number seemingly gets lower and that is in a word, tragic. It is however a known reality. Regardless, our time on the lake and IN the lake is always relaxing and fun!
This year we were lucky enough to work with Chevy and they provided us with a free ride there. Chevy loaned us a 2010 Traverse LTZ. This SUV was fully loaded with XM Radio, OnStar Directions and Connections (navigation), a ceiling mounted DVD entertainment system complete with two wireless headsets for the back seats(!)*cue angels singing*, and a TON more! Wow, what a ride this was, the DVD system alone made the trip so peaceful and enjoyable with our two toddlers that I've decided a portable dvd player is a must have before vacation 2011.
While at the lake we did the usual eat, swim, play and swim, eat, swim, nap, snack, swim, eat, swim/play routine nearly every day! It was glorious! I got to run on the lake road (awesome view the entire time and wow cooler temps really help... this muggy hot crap we've had for the last 6 weeks NEEDS to move on... my running is suffering)... The kids had fun, Chris and I had fun, the Grandparents had fun and so did the aunt and uncle even though they are lucky to still be able to pass said crazy toddler back to said responsible parent when things get a little out of control. Everyone lost a bit of their hearing due to said crazy toddlers but in the end I think everyone enjoyed the company of each other. The kids became much more comfortable in the water, although proper swim lessons are in order next Spring!
One afternoon the grandparents suggested that we take a few hours and hit up some winerys alone! Yippee! The kids were napping and Chris had done a little googling and found an interesting place to check out called Three Brothers Wineries & Estates. It featured three wineries and a brewery! Jackpot! We called the OnStar navigation operator, gave her the street address and she beamed the directions to the car! We listened to some hilarious comedy on the XM radio and the navigation system broke in when it was time to change course. It was GREAT! I had never used OnStar navigation before and I was quite impressed. It's easy to use and 100% hands free. That's a big plus!
The wineries were a HUGE hit! Three Brothers features three wineries as I mentioned already, there is the top of the hill, high end winery, there is the middle of the road, having some fun in the back seat winery which featured sweeter wines that would easily get ya tipsy if you split a bottle with your husband and there is Bagg Dare.... fashioned after a backwater town on the bayou complete with pirates(?), hoochies, rusted out trucks and misspelled words (lol). This was some hooch! but good hooch at that! I usually like a fairly dry red wine and these were not even close, but who doesn't like sweet cold alcoholic beverages on a hot summer day? We enjoyed it and had some fun trying new wines and talking with the folks that work there. We even bought a few bottles to bring home. Let's just say that stuff is pretty dangerous!
We also stopped at Americana Winery on the way back to the house and it offered very good dry wines that we also enjoyed. We had a good time talking to a guy there too - he reminded us several times that "this is America you can do anything you like!" Love it!
One morning we took the kids blueberry picking - it was super fun, here's a little video you can watch from that adventure:
Picking Blueberries from StartPoint Media on Vimeo.
By Friday it was time to pack up the car, take one last swim in the lake, have some lunch and hop in the Traverse for our trip back home. On our way out of town we stopped at Lively Run Goat Dairy where we took a tour and tasted some cheese! They had some kids who were 13 weeks old - SOOO cute! We brought home some YUMMY French Style Chevre goat cheese too!
Our drive home was a little less enjoyable due to toddlers and their potty habits and the monkey see monkey do mentality of a JUST potty trained 2 1/2 yr old... let's just say a 7 hour drive with 7 stops... NOT the best combo.
Fall is just a few weeks away, soon Max will be back in preschool (3 days a week this year), I'll be back in school for the semester and we'll have a normal schedule again. I think we all are in need of a little structure after our summer of fun!
This post is a bit of a hybrid post, a round up of our family vacation and a review for Chevy. They gave us the Traverse for the week with a full tank of gas and in return they have received some tweets mentioning Chevy and Traverse while we were on vacation. The opinions here are all my own.
