Lilac Adventure

I guess I am learning. Which is, apparently, a good thing to do. Occasionally.

Mom wanted to go on an adventure that she remembered having done before. When before, was not, is not, clear to me. My main desire was to fulfill her desire, despite my misgivings. Mom had memories of going to the Lilac Festival in Rochester. Just the kind of thing that she hates nowadays. Oh well, who am I to deny her when it is in my power to grant her request? And I felt it was part of her birthday extravaganza...

So, we headed off to Rochester, eventually. I think we got out of the house around 3. Great. Not a timely start, but life is like that sometimes. Rochester, for those of you who don't know, is a small city about an hour away from Geneva. About half the size of Raleigh, NC. I haven't spent much time there. More there, than Syracuse, I think for some reason. Not sure why that is. Syracuse is also an hour away. As is Ithaca (of the three, I have spent the most time in Ithaca...). Anyway, we got there, thanks to the GPS and directions from the Lilac Festival Website. And it was crowded! I had thought that it would be less crowded on Friday than on the weekend. We drove around for about 10 minutes looking for a place to park. The handicapped parking lot was filled. And the streets were filled with cars. We finally found a place, which felt like it was miles and miles away from the event. Luckily, it wasn't.

The event had two parts - one was Highland Park, the other was the Festival Area that consisted of stages and all the little booths of food and the like that are, for some people, the important part of the occasion. Neither of us was interested in the booths - we just went for the flowers. Well, it turned out we had stopped advantageously. Very near a back entrance to the park. So, taking our time, we walked there and through the park, finding benches upon which to rest frequently. The lilacs had mostly come and gone. The park was pretty though - and the hills not too devastating. Mom struggled through with little complaining, relatively. We chatted with people here and there. Smiled at dogs and children. Looked at the plant life. And eventually made it through to the other side. I plunked mom on a picnic table bench and got the car to pick her up! We survived with almost no acrimony on my part! Yippee!

Before heading back to Geneva, we went to Old Toad for dinner. A British style pub in Rochester - it has been around for 20 years! Who knew?! They import some of their staff from the UK which is a nice addition. Good selection of beer. I had a decent hamburger - mom's roast beef sandwich was not optimal. The beer I had was a double IPA brewed by Custom Brewcrafters in Honeyoye Falls, NY. Not too shoddy, actually!

So, another fun day. Yippee!

Oh, and I took the plunge and paid the iPhone developers fee. I think the game is in decent shape - now it needs testing and some cleaning up. I haven't decided whether to sell it or put ads on it. From what I have read, free apps with ads make more money in the long run than apps that cost money without ads. Sigh.

Yes, I know these are tulips and not Lilacs

Pretty

Peony?

Mom taking time to smell the lilacs - this was the most in-bloom bush

Is that a smile?

Cool tree!

When taking the picture, I didn't recognize the patterns...

Dinner place

Some beers to check out

Dinner!