BACK TO NATURE...

We spent 4 days in Ithaca, visiting our favorite haunts and also trying new places. One of our first things to do was to go check out the property. We were so surprised to see that it is covered with wildflowers and puffy weeds! What a change from May! There's a new house going up so people are starting to move along. We sprayed the poison ivy that's along the stream that runs along the road.




We ate at our favorite restaurants... Viva Taquria, BoatYard and Maxies Supper Club and also added the Americana Vineyard Cafe for lunch one day. We went to Six Mile Creek for a concert on the deck and met Dave and Kayrol, who were really nice.

We swam at the campground and took a hike to Taughnock falls which is always pretty. There was a wedding going on which was really nice.
We took a ride to Cornell to look at the gardens outside of the Plant Science building. I wanted to know what a plant was called that we've seen in many gardens and felt sure that we'd find one in the gardens there. It turns out that it's a Bee Balm, Oswego Tea. Well, we didn't but what we found was more interesting! As we're strolling along, we came across the coolest Alliums (onions) . We started taking pictures and saying how we have to get the seeds for these things. The colors were beautiful! It wasn't until we started taking close ups that we actually realized what was going on. Look at the stem!! They spray painted the flowers! We stood there laughing so hard at how stupid we were to think they were really growing in those colors!!! We stayed on Saturday for a while to see the Dragon Festival where they (different teams from colleges ...Yale, Harvard etc)and also teams of alumni which looked to be in their 50's) race Dragon boats. It was a lot of fun to watch.

LOT'S GOING ON ... FATHER'S DAY WEEKEND!!

L-A's parents were so kind to offer us their house in Greenport for the Father's Day weekend. They told L-A to WARN us about the peacock. HUH?? a PEACOCK????? PJ and I got out there around 8:00 Friday night. We quickly unloaded the car and then went into town to find a place to eat. We found a fun looking place, The Chowder Pot, where you can eat outside, overlooking the water. Everyone was wearing their WINTER COATS! It was so funny. But there we were in shirts and shorts! We were expecting the food to be better. We both had the same comment about out dinner... pretty tasteless. Oh well.

Saturday morning AT 6:10, I was awakened by this LOUD sound like a childs squeaky toy. I was like... What the heck is that?!! PJ knew. It was the PEACOCK! It was next to our car doing it's mating call !

It was so funny. There's a female peacock in a pen across the street. I couldn't believe that there were actual peacocks on Long Island. (I spoke with 2 guys from our volleyball team that grew up in the next town and they said there's a lot of peacocks in the area! Who knew!!!)

PJ and I set out to find a place with fresh coffee instead of making it in the kitchen. We found a country store just down the road that made the best coffee (Island brand). We went to a few garage sales and then back to the house to get our bathing suits on. We spent a few hours at the beach. We were the only ones for the longest time! We found some really pretty shells too!

We then went to Bedell Winery. It was a pretty place but too snooty for us. And $5 for 4 tiny samplings was just ridicules to us. I guess though, that it was a fair deal considering that they charge $8 for a glass of wine! Scott and Alyssa were to join us at night after Scott's hotdog eating contest at Shea Stadium that night. Chris arrived in time for dinner. We went to the SoundView Inn restaurant. Chris and I both enjoyed our stuffed Flounder. The weather was changing and the thunder was starting so it was time to head back to the house. But first, we decided to go to a Lighthouse in Mattituck. The stairs to the beach were easy going down but NOT on the way up!!!

PJ and Chris showing off their retro threads!

We didn't get the awful storm that went across Long Island but Scott was stuck in the middle of it. He came in 5th place in the contest (18 1/2 hotdogs in 8 minutes) which was great. Here's a video of the contest. Scott's all the way to the left with the hat on.

http://hometown.aol.com/beautifulbrian43/page9.html

Him and Pete stayed for the Met's game but it was delayed because of the storm so they decided to leave. They got stuck on the LIE in a flood! Scott was standing ON THE DIVIDER and the water was up to his ankles! Cars were floating with water up to their windows! People were backing up on the grass to get to the last exit to get the heck out of there. It took him 2 1/2 half HOURS to go about 100 feet! Him and Alyssa decided to stay home Saturday night and get up early and drive out to us on Sunday morning.

As soon as they got to us, we had to leave to get to the Mattituck Strawberry Festival because Scott was in the Strawberry Shortcake eating contest! Those 'eaters' are just so weird! One, Ed Cookie Jarvis, wore a cloak as Chris and Alyssa called it. It had a silk screen of him eating a house and all of his eating stats screened onto it.

Scott wasn't feeling so great considering the 18 1/2 hotdogs he ate the night before! YUCK. A few of the guys were also in the hotdog contest. It was so funny to watch these guys. He was up against world record eaters! In the end, he came in fifth place, eating 8 3/4 pounds of strawberry shortcake in 8 minutes! He was just a 1/2 of a plate less than Badlands Booker! From a blog...

"New kid on the block 20yr old Scozzybone continues to impress as LI native put up back to back gems . 18.5 dogs at Shea and an astounding 8.75 lbs of strawberry shortcake. Without question the kid can eat. "

http://hometown.aol.com/beautifulbrian43/clinic.html

The stats are on there as well. That was so much fun to watch!

Each plateful is equal to one pound. They are weighed before the cream is put on top.

The guy 2 to the right of Scott is BeautifulBrian. He wrote this about Scott:

http://hometown.aol.com/beautifulbrian43/scozzybone.html

We left and went to Palmer Winery where they were having a Father's Day celebration. That was ok. We didn't stay long. We got back and took a walk to the beach with Scott and Alyssa. Chris already left!

Monday we left early, went out to breakfast and headed home, but not before stopping at Briermere's Farm to get a few pies!! Great weekend!

WHAT A SCORCHER OF A DAY AT BELMONT!!

What a fun and exciting day Alyssa, Krystal and I had at the Belmont Stakes. We started out at 8:00 to make sure we got a bench seat just past the finishline in the G.A. section with the 'fun' people. We sat there for about 5 minutes when the sweat started pouring out of us. With temps in the 90's and sitting IN THE SUN, we knew that this was going to be a long HOT day! There were over 90,000 people there!

We ended having a great time with the people around us. We couldn't have asked for better people. They were so interesting. Next to me was the CEO of UPS, the head of Security for UPS and a photographer for National Geographic and Sports Illustrated named Ike. He was by far the most interesting one. He had stories of his travels that we would never experience in a lifetime. He was on a scuba ship doing a photo story on hammerhead sharks near Ecuador, Galapagos Islands and Fiji. The captain of the ship ended up being a drug runner, the Columbian Navy was involved, a passenger was tied up and left on the bow, he had an uzzi pointed at his head and also met up with pirates. What a life! That's why he's now diviorced!

The other 2 middle aged men were hitting on the bimbo drunk girls all around us!

The 2 people in front of us were from Saratoga Springs and were so much fun. The guy was a pleasent drunk and she was just so nice and we got along great.

We took turns walking around to cool off and place some bets. I bet 3 races at one time towards the end. One of them was supposedly the Belmont Stakes race... #10. I bet $2 on each race to show. Later on I was talking to one of the guys next to us and he asked which race was the Belmont Stakes race. I said 10. He said "I think it's the 11th". I looked in the program and sure enough I bet on every horse in the WRONG race! He said that they may allow you to change it being that it's way before the race. I went back up and the nice man at the booth did change it for me. I went back to my seat and now realized that I had lost my sunglasses in the process! I looked everywhere and they were no where to be found. I must have been a fried brain at that point! Plus the plumbing was out because of low water pressure so I basically stopped drinking water too!It was nice to see the gardening crew with the blanket again. They are so proud of what they do! This is the first year in a long time that PJ helped put the blanket on the horse. He was on tv also! PJ brought Ike into the flower room and he took pictures of the guys finishing up the blanket and of the crew. He said that the pics may be used in National Geographic or Sports Illustrated! I would love it even if he sent PJ copies of the pictures.

Everyone was waiting with great anticipation to watch BIG BROWN capture the TRIPLE CROWN. It didn't happen. The jockey pulled him back fearing he was hurt and he came in last place. It was very sad.

We had LOTS of excitement and we came home with all of our money plus a few dollars more! Good Times!

AHHHHH.....THE SWEET SMELL OF THE BEACH ROSE

I have become very observant lately in my walking at the beach. Normally I'm just people watching, but lately, I'm noticing my surroundings more. As I approach Field 5, one of the things that hits me smack in the face is that sweet smell of the Rosa Rugosa's.... the Beach Roses. They are so fragrant and pretty lining the walkway. Most people probably don't take notice, just walk by going about their business. I actually look forward to 'taking my time and smelling the roses'!