Finger Lakes Fantasia

As I mentioned last week, K (the girlfriend) and I took a little road trip in celebration of her birthday. We took off to the Finger Lakes region of New York, where K's friends J and W live, along with her de facto niece, V.

J & W live on the mountain rising from the eastern shore of Keuka Lake, above the village of Hammondsport. As you might expect, they have a magnificent view off their front porch:


Excuse the poor patch job - that's an attempt to string together three pix in panorama fashion. You get the gist, at least.

K and I spent the first night in the area in nearby Corning, which is something like a small city. It's know as Crystal City because of its long connection with glass manufacturing. With that in mind, the next morning K and I headed off to the Corning Museum of Glass. Here's K, peaking out from behind an over sized version of the museum logo, to which I took an instant liking. I've finally figured out why - it's very similar to the stylized "Q" that IQ used in the booklet artwork for Subterranea!


In addition to housing a huge collection of glass art and exhibits on the history and making of glass, the museum has a hands on bit where you, the patron, can make your own bit of glass art. K took advantage of the opportunity to make a glass bead (which she'll incorporate into some jewelry project down the road).

So the studio was our first stop, where K picked out the three colored glass rods that would get melt into shape:


K (with an assist from her Austrian assistant/summer wage slave) flaming away at the base glass bit:


And here we have said glass bit, before it cooled down any at all. Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough to get a picture of the finished product before it took a sand bath for cooling. When K gets it in the mail, maybe she'll take a picture for me (hint hint!).


After the above craftiness, we moved on to the objects de art at the museum. A few of the more interesting pieces . . .. A formal gown made entirely from glass:


A large collection of glass knives, poised above an unsuspecting country town. I really like this one. I'm not sure what that says about me:


When K saw this one, she said it had to go on her wall. The least I could do was snap a picture.


After we finished up at the museum, K and I met up with J & V and wandered around Corning's "gaffer* district," which includes a bunch of shops and restaurants. It also includes a couple of interesting pieces of building art. A gratuitous raspberry face on one building . . .


. . . and a buffalo bursting out of another. That's the Rockwell Museum of Western Art, so it at least goes with the theme. Note the artsy touch of me taking a picture of K taking a picture of the buffalo.


That was day one. Day two we took in a large dose of the region's other main industry - wine making. The shorts of both Keuka and Seneca Lakes are just riddled with vineyards. We decided to head up the eastern side of Seneca Lake and sample the local wares (K and I sampled, J drove, and V provided astute commentary). The ones that we hit, that I can find online and remember were:

• Catherine Valley Winery
• Atwater Vineyards
• Chateau La Fayette Reneau
• Red Newt Cellars
• Rasta Ranch Vineyards
• Penguin Bay Winery
  

There was at least one more, but I can't find it online and we didn't buy anything there, so perhaps that doesn't count.

I'll admit that, while I enjoy a glass of wine now and then, I'm far from an expert. K and J (and even V, for crying out loud) would talk about each sample in the terms of the trade, while I simply fell back on a simple "like it / don't like it" duopoly. That being said, I appreciated a bit of honesty from one of the folks at Atwater when I admitted that fact. He explained that I was no different from anyone else and that all those medals they so proudly display are really just popularity contests that comes down to the same "like it / hate it" choice. Props to him.

At Chateau La Fayette Reneau, we went out on the back porch and J took this loverly picture of K and myself:


Oh, yeah, and we bought some wine:


If you're playing at home, there's (from L-R) Catherine Valley's Seneca Steamer; Penguin Bay's Valvin Muscat and Percussion (x2); Chateau La Fayette Reneau's Seyval Chardonnay and Curvee Rouge; Red Newt's Red Newt White, Red Eft, and Gewurztraminer; Atwater's Meritage; Chateau La Fayette Reneau's Pinot Noir Blanc (pink wine for my sisters in law); Rasta's Sweet Forgiveness; and McGreggor's Sunflower White (a gift from J&W for K's BDay).

Day three we kicked around "downtown" Hammondsport before heading back to K's place. All in all a nice restful getaway. If you really need to see more pictures, they're here.

* Like you, I once wondered, "what the fuck's a gaffer? Contrary to what these guys say, it's not someone who gaffs. It's the highest rung on the ladder of glass workers.