The Distilled Essence of Summer

This past weekend was so lovely. After an incredible heat wave that has been hitting our area over the past few weeks, it finally rained a bit and there was a wonderful breeze. We headed to the finger lakes region of New York for a wedding and everything we did just seemed to exude the essence of summer. I wanted to just bottle it up and keep it for later..

We headed to Saratoga, NY on Friday and stopped along the way to do some antiquing and also for some free hot dogs and snacks at town celebration (always appreciated)

We went to the Yaddo gardens...

a Polo game ...

and then off to a tennis game with Serena Williams and Martina Hingis

On Saturday, we headed to a wedding near Ithaca. We stopped at the amazing Taughannock Falls..

at the wedding, the bride was walked 'down the aisle' by their precious pup :) Definitely a first I've seen...

guests playing a Swedish stick game called Kubb

After the wedding we wandered around seeing the sites, including the lovely Cayuga lake and some vineyards

We then discovered a lovely bed and breakfast right on the lake.. and watched the sunset...

The next morning there was a delicious breakfast awaiting us

and we just relaxed

and then we went out in the kayaks and in for a dip...

We then made our way north along the Cayuga wine trail, which has some amazing little wineries with some fabulous wine. I never realized how good the region's wine was. They are obviously not as great at the dry reds, but their Rieslings are fabulous as well as their more fruity sweeter wines and dessert wines.

We were also able to pick up a few wine barrels for our cellar... as well as some tips for growing our little vineyard that we just recently planted : )


Anyway, they say that wine always tells the truth. And if I could bottle up my weekend it would definitely taste like a happy summer.