Fall Back

I don't know what type of weather y'all had yesterday, but we had one of those fall days that thought it was a summer day. The temperature of 87 degrees broke a record in Buffalo and the stiff breezes sent syncopated shivers through the leaves of a hundred tree here in the campground. Closing my eyes the sound of the leaves reminded me of the surf pounding the shoreline which immediately relaxed me. I'll take days like that every day!

Arriving here on Monday Denny and I noticed signs for the "Apple Trail" on the last few miles before the campground. Ahh! Fresh apples, apple cider, applesauce, apple crisp...mmmm. Yesterday was the ideal day to pick apples, so off we went in search of the apple trail. Denny grabbed the oh-so-fashionable apple bag and off we went in seach of the perfect apples for sauce. I went for the tart Greenings, while Denny chose the Cortlands and we mutually agreed on the Macouns. Some of our favorite types won't be in until the week after we leave, but we're hoping to find an orchard or two in Pennsylvania next week. We'll eat apples until they come out our ears.

On the way home I convinced Denny that we really needed to sample some wines from this area, so we stopped in at the Warm Lake Estate Winery to do a little wine tasting. Warm Lake Estate has made a name for itself by specializing in pinot noir wines only. We left with a bottle of their 2004 Mountain Road Escarpment and one of Glacier Noir, which leans toward an ice wine-type of flavor. If you check out their website, read the section on the Niagara Escarpment, which explains why the geography is good for growing the pinot noir grape and how the winery uses "green" methods of growing and producing its grapes.

And boy, are there a lot of wineries in the area to check out!