Finger Lakes Wine Fest 2011!

Wow, only two weeks late. Impressive on my part. A few weekends ago we headed out to the annual FLWF. As you recall from last year, this is becoming a new tradition. As I mentioned a few posts ago, the line up of people changed signficantly (triple the amount from last year!) and we had a blast. A quick recap....

Kasey and I

Me, Crystal, Kasey & John

Most of the gang, minus Keith (who was taking photo) & Kansas (who we lost)

The festival technically runs from Friday - Sunday and you are able to camp the entire weekend. This was entirely too much for us (we were a good mixture of Momma's and well, just not binge drinkers), so we only went up for Saturday. We all met at Crystal's house as it was a local meeting spot and was close to the Thruway. There were 12 of us, so we were able to condense ourselves into two large vehicles (a van and an explorer that both seat 7). This was plenty of room for all of us, our bags, the tents and the grill. It is about an hour and a half to Watkins Glenn and the ride went by quickly. When we got to our campsite (around 10:00 in the morning), we hurried to set up our tents, get organized and then we walked over to the festival.

Just like last year, it was hot & sunny but surpisingly it was not humid. We had a great time, tasting new wines, samping delcious food and just enjoying the sunshine. Although we didn't stay in our group of 12 the entire time, I still feel like I got to chat with everyone.

The festival ran from 10-5, however we were only there for about 4 hours (which was plenty, let me tell you!). Before the festival closed, we headed over to the Beer Garden. To me, this was kind of a "bust" and I know it was our fault but we got there around 4:30 and as I mentioned, the festival closed at 5. You pay an additional $10 to get in (which is definately worth it), however, most places only had "1" or "2" beer selections available and some were shut down completely. To me, it was a complete waste of $10 and I feel like the nice guy at the door should have informed us of this beforehand & it would have swayed our decision to attend that area so close to closing. Eh. You can't win em all....

After the festival, we headed back over to our campsite to cook some food and relax for a bit. We grilled up some burgers and drank some beer until the sun finally went down and we were able to socialize. We met some neighbors, got together various games of flip cup, kan jam, frisbee, etc. and just hung out for the rest of the night!

Sunday morning we woke up early, packed it up and headed home! I had my little crew of hunter, buckley and trevor waiting for me and were more than ready to head over my mom's for some swimming! Great end, to a great weekend.

Also, since it took me so long to post this, it actually brings us to POCANOS WEEKEND :). That's right, tonight after work we are packing up and venturing out to Pennsylvania to the annual Pocanos trip! 5 dogs, 2 babies and several crazy adults all in the woods? Sounds fun to me!