Michael

XC Skiing at Bear Swamp

February 17, 2007 by Michael

The past week has been so cold, snowy and windy that it has made it difficult to get out in order to enjoy the opportunities for skiing that this weather has created. But today was the day. It started off rather chilly, around 15 degrees but as the morning progressed the temperature rose into the mid 20’s. Put that together with blue skies and bright sunshine, it made it into a perfect day for XC Skiing.

I loaded up the car and headed out to my favorite spot, Bear Swamp. Bear Swamp is a State Forest at the South end of Skaneateles Lake, near Sempronius. It’s a beautiful area and has a lot of trails. So much snow had fallen the past week that the access road was actually impassable for vehicles. I had to park along side the road with lots of other people and had to ski about .2 miles to reach the trailhead.

Fortunately there had been some snowmobilers and snowshoers out tromping around on the trails otherwise it would have been a bit more challenging skiing as the snow was so deep. Unfortunately I don’t have backcountry skiis, which float up on the show a little better than my skinny touring skiis. All in all it was an incredible day skiing and here are a few photos that show you what it was like.

The snow continues in Upstate New York

February 16, 2007 by Michael

I’ve had so many friends and family emailing and calling. They all want to know exactly how much snow has actually fallen here because Network TV has been painting a pretty bleak picture.

Well, most of the worst weather has been to the North East of Camillus. Places like Parish, NY, Oswego, NY and Pulaski, NY have seen in excess of 12 feet of snow in the last week. It’s unbelievable how much snow they’ve gotten.

In Camillus, just in the last couple days we’ve had in excess of 2 feet of snow. Together with the 25-30 mile per hour winds that we’ve been having, it has made some for spectacular drifts and lots of driveway clearing… like a couple times per day.

Here are a couple of hastily taken photographs…one out the back door looking towards the woods and the other out the front door. You can see that we’ve got a lot of drifting, snow on roofs, and plowed snow that nearly covers mailboxes. It’s great for skiing!

Now if the weatherman can be beleived, we’re supposed to see temperatures possibly in the 40’s next week. Could flooding be far behind if that happens?

Winter vacation in St Thomas (USVI)

January 28, 2007 by Michael

I look out my window today and see snow. Lots of snow. Not only that but it’s cold. Very cold. Did I mention windy? So let’s see… Windy, Cold and Snowy. Hmmmm. A week ago however, I was in St Thomas with my wife and some friends. It was sunny, warm and breezy. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the snow, I love to XC Ski and I love upstate New York because of the seasons we get… but I’ve decided that I also love St Thomas in late January. And I can’t believe it’s over. Just not fair.

Our group rented a beautiful villa called The Caribbean Countess. It was located on the North Side of the island overlooking Magen’s Bay in Peterborg. Renting a villa is really the best if you’re going with a few people. You get privacy and the total cost per person is not really much different than if you were staying at a resort Hotel. In fact you may end up saving money by renting a villa.

We had a really fun time exploring the island. One of the beaches we ended up at more than once was Coki Beach. It had great snorkeling and some excellent “beach food” served by very friendly locals. For more serious eating, we discovered some wonderful restaurants. For lunch, our favorite was Glady’s Cafe in Charlotte Amalie. Only open for breakfast and lunch, Glady’s had a nice atmosphere, excellent food and very reasonable prices. I’d recommend it highly.

For dinner, we found a couple excellent restaurants. In Red Hook, the East End Cafe was one of our better finds. Excellent service, a very nice wine list and great food made this Italian & Seafood restaurant a winner!. We loved the delicious homemade desserts made by Judy.

But the Gold Medal has to go to Mafolie Restaurant in Charlotte Amalie. Perched high on the side of a hill, it overlooks the port and provides a breathtaking view at sunset. A wonderful relaxed atmosphere with excellent service and food that is superb made this our favorite restaurant in St Thomas.

For a great milkshake with a kick (Amaretto, Baileys, Kahlua, etc), go to Udder Delite Dairy Bar. $3.50 will get you one of the best milkshakes you’ve ever had. Virgin milkshakes are also available. It’s right on the way to Magen’s Bay.

A great day trip is to take the ferry to St John. You can either take the vehicle ferry if you’ve rented a car and want to drive around St John or you can take the people ferry. They run every hour during the day. St John is much less developed than St Thomas and has pristine and largely empty beaches, great snorkeling and a much more relaxed pace since the island is 2/3 U.S. National Park.

Something to see on St John are the Annaberg Ruins, an abandoned sugar plantation from the 18th century.

Here are a few images from the trip. Some were taken on St John, a short ferry ride from St Thomas. The Anaberg Ruins were very interesting. The Sunsets and Sunrises were spectacular and the villa that we stayed in, The Caribbean Countess, was incredible.

Little Miss Sunshine

September 7, 2006 by Michael

Little Miss Sunshine View the trailer

Little Miss Sunshine, from Fox Searchlight Pictures, is the must-see movie of the year. It has to be one of the funniest but touching movies I have ever seen. One of the funniest parts of the movie wasn’t even a character, but a sound. I won’t spill the beans here but suffice to say, this movie is going to win some awards.

The movie stars Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano and Abagail Breslin as Olive.

Little Miss Sunshine introduces us to the dysfunctional family, the Hoovers. It follows their quest to get Olive, their young daughter to Redondo Beach, California in time for the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant by driving hundreds of miles in a VW mini-bus. You may soon begin to realize that this “dysfunctional” family may more accurately portray a typical family than you might imagine.

The screenplay is excellent. Alan Arkin is brilliant as the Grandfather and gives a performance that is absolutely hilarious. Greg Kinnear is the Father and is equally stellar. Paul Dano is Dwayne, the rebellious son. Steve Carell (one of the funniest actors around) has a delightful role as the Uncle and his understated comedic performance won’t disappoint you. Toni Collette, is perfectly cast as the Mother and the adorable Abagail Breslin plays Olive, perhpas the most normal member of the family. Her innocence and sensitivity is wonderful to experience.

This is a move that I plan on seeing again as soon as I can fit it in. It has a great soundtrack, consistent momentum and the last 30 minutes will make you want to laugh and cry, probably simultaneously (that was my experience anyway).

New York State Festival of Balloons

September 4, 2006 by Michael

My Labor Day weekend was spent with my wife and in-laws. Part of our time was spent in Dansville, NY for the New York State Festival of Balloons.

Our plan was to watch the balloon launch Monday night at 6:00pm. We arrived right on time and there were quite a few balloons being inflated, but due to the inclement weather only one balloon actually lifted off untethered. We decided to try our luck again the next morning.

The alarm went off at 5:00am and we hopped in the car and drove back up to the Dansville airport. When we arrived, it looked like the weather was going to prevent the launching again. We stood around for about 30 minutes waiting to see some activity where the balloonists usually prepare to lift-off. But seeing no activity we decided to call it quits and drive back home. Just as we had gotten back on the highway, we had second thoughts and figured since this was the last day of the festival, that maybe we should stick around for a little while longer. We turned around and we headed to McDonalds to have breakfast and wait a while longer. As we were discussing whether we should just drive back home if the weather didn’t improve, we overheard a few people saying that the balloons were launching. We went outside and were greeted with the magnificent sight of 8 Hot Air Balloons lifting off. Here is a photo of us (minus me. There is a reason I take the photos you know!) looking pretty at 6am in the morning.
Linda and my in-laws

And the liftoff of the balloons…
Hot Air Balloons Lifting Off

I counted 22 balloons in the air and there may have been as many as 25. It was really interesting to see how the wind currents took some of them in one direction while others headed off in another direction. Apparently the wind in Dansville can swirl because of the surrounding hills making things a little unpredictable.

After all the balloons had become airborne, we decided to leave. We soon noticed a ReMax balloon headed in the same direction we were going on our way back to Wayland, so we decided to track the balloon and took off on backroads trying to watch its eventual landing. Here is a series of photos which shows our adventure.
ReMax at altitude
ReMax in flight
Tracking ReMax in flight
ReMax coming down

ReMax on ground
ReMax deflating
Traditionally, when a Hot Air Balloon lands on your property, the crew gives the land-owners a bottle of champagne as a gesture of thanks for allowing them to land. As it turns out, the balloon landed within about 100 feet of my father-in-laws property. Darn! So close, yet so far to a bottle of champagne. It sure was fun watching the balloons and something you should consider doing in the future. the Balloon Festival is Labor Day weekend every year in Dansville, NY.

New York State Fair

August 31, 2006 by Michael

It’s been a busy week for me at the NYS Fair. Busy eating too much, walking too much and eating too much. This year I bought pre-sale tickets and parking passes in order to save some bucks… you know, so I could spend it on Fair essentials like food. I had the brilliant idea of buying the advance sale parking passes so that I could park closer to the main gate. Why I was thinking this I do not know. All I do know is that when I parked at the Fair using my parking pass, I ended up being directed to the absolutely farthest away parking spot available. I think I must have walked almost a mile to get to the end of the midway, than another 1/2 mile to get to my final destination, the Dinosaur BBQ tent. But I did finally make it and immediately had a Hot Sausage with peppers and onions. Yum!

After eating that way too quickly, it quickly became apparent that I was right across from where one of my favorite street performers was scheduled to begin his show. I’m referring of course to Hilby, the Skinny,German, Juggle Boy. This guy is hilarious and has a routine that appeals to all ages. His humor is very clever and although some of his jokes will skim right over the heads of kids, adults will end up howling with laughter. If you ever get a chance to see Hilby perform, don’t miss the opportunity. Here are a couple shots of Hilby taken at the State Fair on Thursday, August 31, 2006.
Hilby, The Sknny German Juggle Boy

After seeing Hilby, we walked a short distance to the Wine Court. It was nearing happy hour, so we decided we’d better taste a few wines and eat some cheese and crackers. After happy hour, it was a quick jaunt across the street to Chevrolet Court to see the Four Tops perform. They were just awesome. Click here to see a short movie of the Four Tops.

The show was about 40 minutes long. Every song was performed with great enthusiasm and they looked and sounded great!
The Four Tops

When the Four Tops had finished their show and since the fair is primarily about eating (from my point of view anyway), it was off to the International Food Pavilion for some Buffalo Chicken Gyros and a large piece of Baklavah. Belive it or not, that was topped off with an Apple Dumpling a la mode. Did I share any of this with my wife? Well, a little bit and rather reluctantly. Afterwards, we slowly made our way through food alley and past the Dairy Building. Wait a minute, did I say past the Dairy Building? I actually meant we walked into the Dairy Building so I could get my 2 glasses of cold, fresh chocolate milk while my wife got a chocotale covered banana. After that (with no room left in my belly for any more food), it was time to call it a day and begin the long trek back to the car and look forward to next years NYS Fair.