Rochester Trip, Part One

This past week I made a trip to Rochester, NY - officially dubbed "The All-America City" and "The Flower City." True. It's filled with Americana and flower shops, but I also found a whole slew of salons, sidewalk cafes, and, oddly enough (or is it just a sign?), a LOT of Toyota Matrixes (which I've offically dubbed "The Best Car in the World" because it's what I drive and I love it).

Virtually all the old houses are embellished with creeping vines. This is one on Park Avenue, a quaint little street not far from Chris's apartment. I took many more of these kinds of photos, and it's fun to play with the sepia-tone setting on my photo editing program because really, all of these buildings look like something you'd see in some old photo album. It could have been taken in any decade and it would still look like this. But this is what you get if you take the photo in 2007:

 

Honestly, this street is just littered with cute places to eat. I can't stand it! Chris and I spent a good 5 minutes that evening pacing between a couple blocks on Park Ave., unable to decide which outdoor table was cute enough for a freshly reunited couple to dine, or which cuisine suited our fancy. The hardest decisions to make are the ones when you know that whatever you choose, you probably can't go wrong.

 

One morning we got to go to the Public Market and I practically drooled all over the colors, fragrances, freshness, joie de vivre, and bounty of delicious offerings. I wanted to tap people on their shoulders to ask if they realized how lucky they were to have this available to them three times a week. For one dollar I got a cup of unadulterated cider and a donut fresh with glaze. For another dollar I got a baskets-worth of green peppers. I gave a man 25 cents and got a cactus pear, a variety of fruit I had never seen before in my life. It pricked me, but as soon as I cut it open, I forgave it because of its beautiful color of red and strange, sweet taste.

 

This red was even more startling in person. You just scoop it out and enjoy.

 

More vacation photos to come. It's so great to return from a vacation and just be in a good mood about everything. I feel like I can accomplish so much right now and I'm not even worried about losing momentum. Oh, and did I mention how beautiful the fall colors are right now? I'll be sure to keep taking pictures before they go bye-bye. But tonight I have so much to do: Dirty Sexy Money comes on in an hour and I've already missed the first two episodes. I also need to continue in my struggle to understand DPNs. I also decided over the last week that my new hobby for the fall shall be baking bread, so that's my next topic of research, and I'll be sure to share my progress. Phew.