E.Upstate NY — Something More Project

I have something controversial to say…it rains a LOT in New York.

Maybe it’s coincidence, maybe it’s typical fall weather, maybe the clouds are following us, but we spent over 2 weeks in NY & I honestly can’t remember a day where it didn’t rain for at least part of the day. & most days, it’s a constant drizzle or sometimes a constant hard rain. Just unrelenting moistness in the air! Trust me, I tried drying my towel outside way too many times; all failed attempts ending with a wetter towel in the morning.

I am and have always been affected by the outside weather on my inside mood. I definitely struggle with staying positive in the winter, much like I struggle keeping a smile on my face after 3 days stuck inside Ruby due to rain. It drives me just a little mad - but so does 1 day inside, let’s be honest. It’s just a little different being “stuck” inside a Ruby-bus vs our actual house.

BUT we’ve worked through it without any perma damage on our relationship.

I really loved upstate NY, as miserable as the above 2 paras may have made it seem. We were definitely tired of the rain, but the non-rainy parts of the day were wonderful. I’ve already showed my admiration of the Adirondacks in my previous post, but the Finger Lakes region was pretty high up there as well.

Finger Lakes aka wine district of the East -

We spent a long weekend around the Finger Lakes, really just Cayuga and Seneca. This area of upstate is very fertile, specifically known for it’s grape growing! We started our tour in Ithaca, pretending to be students at Cornell for the day before starting up the lakes. And then met up with my east coast bestie and her bf for a weekend split between winery and waterfall hopping.

There are SO many wineries in this region. I just did a quick google & it claims over 100 wineries, plus the breweries and distilleries. There are “wine trails” on the west side of Cayuga Lake & the East side of Seneca Lake which probs is where the densest # of wineries exist, but honestly they are just everywhere. So, we did a little researching, took some recs from friends, and were on our way.

Day 1: We started at Six Mile Creek Winery - one of the oldest wineries in the region - with a quick tasting to get our pallet set for the weekend. Beautiful views off the back deck; overall a pleasant experience! We then were able to hit up one more before they closed down for the evening - Frontenac Vineyards. This place was pretty meh - wine wasn’t that good & it was SUPER small. It just didn’t have as good of vibes and environment as some, but is definitely a smaller ran establishment which can be nice to support too. We then stayed at one of the vineyards on the Cayuga Wine trail - Cayuga Ridge Estates. They are a Harvest Host member! Since they close so early, we had the place (nearly) to ourselves and carved pumpkins and played some games. :D

Note: I am not claiming to be a sommelier - take my critiques at face value. (also…just learned that word this weekend).

Day 2: we started the day with some light hiking at Taughannock Falls SP, featuring a large waterfall. There are SO MANY waterfalls in this region & these lakes are giant and very deep with many streams emptying into them. The skinny finger on a map is deceiving. After the falls, the place we stayed at had opened up , so we got a bottle of carbonated wine (maybe cranberry something?) for some mimosas which was really delicious mixed with a little OJ.

We then headed to one of my favs of the trip - Buttonwood Grove Winery. The atmosphere here was great - a huge backyard and patio set-up with a fire, chairs, and a beautiful view of the vines and Cayuga Lake. It’s just a big open building with lots of windows and natural light - my kinda place. They were also harvesting grapes, so we got to watch them put the grapes into the compress! It did start raining and getting pretty chilly here (PS) I do NOT recommend their hot chocolate wine - but it does taste exactly like a tootsie pop - like the kind where you find the Indians for good luck if you like those), so we moved on to Lamoreaux Landing Wine Cellars on Seneca Lake. This was all of our FAVORITE wine of the tour. We did tastings here, and I even tried a 2013 bottle of Merlot (classy betch) which was pretty tasty and also out of my price range. Highly recommend their wine! We headed to find camp after this stop & had a longggg fire in the woods; YAY for no rain!!

Day 3: we didn’t actually hit up any wineries on day 3. We went out for b-fast in Watkins Glen & then headed to the SP in town (also Watkins Glen). We did some hiking along the gorge which was GORGE-ous, but also super busy. If you aren’t into crowds, I recommend hitting this place up on a weekday or off hours because it is not that enjoyable of a trail to do on a Sunday afternoon. Fairly skinny & SO many people stopping for pics every 3 seconds. But this is where we wrapped up our wine tour!

Tips for touring -

With COVID, nearly all wineries we went to reserve indoor seating for tastings. SO if it’s cold or rainy out, plan or dress accordingly!
Book tastings in advance, if you don’t want to wait
Shocking to us, most all of the wineries close between 4:30 - 5:30pm, no matter the day of the week.
They were harvesting grapes when we were visiting (~end of October), so we got to see observe some of the harvesting process which was neat.
We also got to pick some grapes and try them right off the vine!
Nearly all wineries are dog friendly!
SOME wineries (depending on their menu) allow you to bring food in. We made a charc. board at one place!

Seriously, you could spend so much time exploring all of these places, but 5 wineries in a weekend was as much as we fit in. We also didn’t get to any of the breweries, cideries, or distilleries, but those are definitely plentiful in this region as well.

Post-Finger Lakes -

We started bee-lining out of the area after our friends took off on Sunday. We actually ended up making it to Niagara Falls by mid-afternoon! I think this one speaks for itself, but definitely worth a stop. We didn’t do any of the paid tours, but if you just want a good view for a good a$$ pic, go into the Maid of the Mist store and pay $1.25 to get on the observation deck (or sneak in through the exit…), but the views from that extra overhang and 20ft in height is WORTH it. Canada was still a pain in the ass to get to, so we ended up only viewing from the American side.

After some walking around Goat Island, we got back in Rubes for some more hours on the road. And that’s been the story of our lives since! We made it through FOUR states on Monday - started in NY—> corner of PA—>part of Ohio—> into Michigan. We did give ourselves a little break from the road with our day off this week - spent a chill morning at camp at a state park (still changing colors in Michi!), did a little hot tub relax, and just took the day slowly. It was definitely needed!