Earlier this month, James and I joined several of my sorority sisters and their significant others in the Finger Lakes region of New York to celebrate Kayla and Josh’s wedding. Kayla is my “big” in our sorority. We have this habit of dressing, looking, and acting alike so it was no surprise that Kayla ALSO ran off into the woods to get married. Unlike James and I, her and Josh aren’t planning a big reception so this was our time to celebrate. PLUS Kayla and Josh live in California so I don’t get to see them that often. It was absolutely refreshing to have a bunch of us under one roof just like it was in college…except with boys…and a baby…that’s also a boy.
James and I drove up Friday after work. We stayed in this huge, old (haunted) Airbnb in the middle of nowhere. Everybody was arriving at different times and by the time we arrived, everybody that was already there was settled into bed. James and I went to our room and got a decent night’s sleep except for the part where Jess, Phil, and their baby arrived at 4 am and James didn’t KNOW anybody else was arriving in the middle of the night so he thought a ghost baby was out to get him. Whoops.
Saturday morning, I woke up to the wonderful sound of my friends chatting away downstairs. I found my way to the living room and promptly dove onto the antique couch they were sitting on. After a bit of catching up, we all sat in the large dining room to have breakfast together. I wish the weather was a little bit nicer – there was a large covered porch off the dining room that would have been perfect but it was chilly.
After breakfast, we headed into Corning to pick up Irene and visit the Corning Museum of Glass. Several of wanted to do the “make your own glass” session but we just didn’t have enough time. We went through the museum and saw several demonstrations including glass blowing. After the museum, we grabbed lunch at Mooney’s which I guess is a chain that they also have in Buffalo? Half of our table ate like adults and ordered sandwiches and the other half of our table ordered giant platters of mac and cheese…you can guess which end James and I sat at.
For the afternoon, we visited one of the many winerys bordering Seneca Lake – Lakewood Vineyards. Some people will come to the area and rent a party bus and do an entire wine tour (saw a few of those during our travels) but we stuck with just the one winery. The lady serving us was so nice (she reminded me of Maranda’s mom) and she gave us plenty of extra samples. We purchased a bottle of rose wine from the winery.
Since we had such a huge lunch, nobody really wanted dinner. Also, the weather turned out nicer than predicted (for Saturday only) so we sat around the bonfire drinking wine and eating junk food including roasted marshmallows. Once it got too dark, we went back into the house and played the Harkin House favorite, Quiplash, before heading to bed.
Sunday morning we had to check out of the house pretty early but we came downstairs to find that everybody had surprised Kayla and Josh and James and I with wedding cakes and cards! Irene even played “Happy Wedding Day to You” on the piano – if you’re curious it 100% sounds like “Happy Birthday to You” haha. After enjoying cake for breakfast, we quickly checked out and parted ways. Some people went straight home, others went to visit family and friends in the area. James and I went on our own little adventure which I will write about separately.
Until our next adventure!
The Harkin Chronicles 