Wingate By Wyndham - Syracuse

We had a nice, quiet, chilled out day. So relaxed, in fact, that I completely forgot that we had any plans, but finally realised we were going to Scott's parents (pre-Thanksgiving) when he had his coat and shoes on and I was still in my PJ’s.

Had my first taste of pumpkin pie and spent the evening chatting about all the Thanksgiving food preparations and what to expect tomorrow.

Waffles for breakfast again! Today we went for a walk up to a really pretty waterfall and had lunch by the lake in Ithaca, sandwiches with ham, cheese, pickles, salami and mustard (which I made btw). Then a little drive up to Scott's parents place with a detour around his home town, was cool to see the farm where he grew up.

Met Scott’s family and had fish and chips for dinner, just like home! Quiet evening in front of Fox News and making plans for the next week.

You know I love blogs. So, what better way to keep us all in touch and see the terrific things happening to the Vogel family? Post your events, travels and pictures to this blog for us all to see! Post often. Mom needs to know where you are, if you are all OK, and I want all the info over coffee each morning! I love you all!

... homes, especially on the lake, are immense, and gorgeous. We ate at a seafood place on the water in downtown, and the food, unfortunately was ordinary.

I did write my blog tonight, but the Internet connection at the hotel was not working, and there was nobody there to fix it. We went 10 miles in either direction looking for a hot spot, but on Sunday night we got nowhere.

All-in-all, it was a better day than you would have expected in the rain

... The fisrt seminar was wine and chocolate. The wine was made local and was therefore good, the chocolate was made local and was therefore terrible. It didn't even have cocoa powder listed as one of the ingredients; which as I learnt on a belgiun chocolate tour, does not constitute chocolate but rather just sugar and cocoa butter. We couldn't even finish the dark chocolate it was too gross. The second was better, "Ask the winemaker", that was ...

... of Alaska Fairbanks. They only do this on Wednesday afternoons in the summer (times change in the fall). It was very fascinating to see what the computer could do and to view the graphics with 3-D glasses. After that it was a quick bite for lunch and then onto the Georgeson Botantical Garden at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. As you will see the flowers were ...

... after about a half an hour, both herself and I were hungry, so we walked down the street to this pizza restaurant and got ourselves some true New York Pizza. We took it back to her house to eat and then I made her re-watch an episode of Entourage that I missed. We then continued to catch up on each other's life's, talking about work, school, guys, relationships, family, etc. Then we watched The Holiday, then Footloose, then I made her take a few pictures with me, where ...

... over the falls. Then it was on the road again in a pleasant drive threw farming country. We stop off in a couple of little towns on the way and stop and had a look at the a couple of locks on the Erie canal. Arriving in Syracuse early evening.

After the incredibly breathtaking and exhausting day I headed into New York State, again passing through customs. This one turned out to be the most vigorous searches yet; they entered the van and opened cupboards, wanted my registration papers etc. and questioned my intentions etc. It was a bit of a process after my intense day. Still I made it through and continued on taking the state highway (another toll road where you pay for the ...

... for most humidity and most bugs-- I went for a half hour run to the lake (with an hour long limp back since I got a narly blister) and got the oh-so-desirable windshield effect from the combination of sweat from the heat and so-thick-you-can-reach-out-and-grab-em cloud of bugs that I was running though. Yum. Also, most people here have clearly not been around enough color-- got the most, are you from Alaska and/or are you Native American and/or something other than ...