Onto the Fingers Lakes and an Oops

WE are still going east but still in New York. Keuka Lake State Park is in the Finger Lakes area. Keuka Lake is one of  the long thin lakes that give the area its name as the lakes look like fingers. We like the campground though we got off to a bad start. This area has had a lot of rain and we didn't realize that our assigned site's grass was so soaked that we got stuck in mud that was under the grass. We tried to put pieces of wood under the tires to try to get ourselves out but weren't having any luck. Fortunately a nice guy named Steve was just driving his fifth wheel through our loop and said he would come back and try to help.
He was able to pull out how fairly easily. Another lesson learned. Check out the site more thoroughly before backing into it.

 It is a very pretty area. We don't have lake views but lots of trees and plenty of sitting room outside.
The lake is at a lower elevation and the views from there are of some vineyard covered slopes.

This is a big wine area and we did a little wine tasting. Saturday we drove around the area and stopped in at a dog friendly winery called Prejean Winery.  Later I was reading about the winery and found out that the owners had actually lived in San Francisco and often went to the wineries just a short drive from them in Napa and Sonoma. This kindled their dream to someday have their own winery. Years later they moved to the East Coast and one day realized their dream, starting a winery in the beautiful countryside of the Finger Lakes.  The wines we have tasted have been pretty good and we bought a few bottles. Their pricing is very reasonable, much cheaper than California. In fact, their tasting pricing at this winery was only $2 for five tastes and that went towards the cost of the wine we purchased. Plus they were having a sale on one of the wines, 2 for 1 and the fact we bought 3 bottles with the fourth free, we got a discount and so only paid around 25 dollars for the four bottles which also included the tasting for both of us. Our last wine tasting in Temecula was 20 dollars for a tasting of 6 wines and the wines much more expensive.

The drive around Keaku and Seneca is very scenic and more lovely old houses and lots of farm land and produce markets. We stopped at a small produce market I had read about in one of  the blogs I follow where I also had read about their stay at Keuka Lake SP and Sampson SP, our next spot. We bought some blueberries and cherries and I went back the next day for some peaches. In the same blog, Watsons Wonders, she had a recipe for chicken tostada with a blueberry and peach salsa, and I copied her idea for that too. It was really good. Love fruit salsas.

Town of Penn Yan

We have a few hiking outings planned over the next few days which will be in my next post.

A cooking lesson, a museum and La Bufadora

I am still catching up on our Mexico adventure. One of the activities available was a cooking lesson from one of the chefs from the Estero Beach Resort restaurant. The chef showed us how to make chili rellenos. We got some good tips. We then split up into groups and put together some enchiladas and each couple filled up a plate with an enchilada, tostada, chili relleno and rice and beans. It was fun and we got more food than i would have thought. We will have to remember to do this type of thing in the future.

 

The Estero Beach Museum was a wonderful small museum with an outstanding collection of folk art, ancient fossils and shells as well as a pictorial history of Ensenada The museum also contains Indian Artifacts of the ancient indigenous tribes of Mexico, such as the Olmecs, the Aztecs and the Mayan.We had a very informative guide and really enjoyed our time there.

 

 

 

We climbed aboard a bus for another adventure. We again have Sofia as our guide. We drove to La Bufadora, the blowhole. A natural attraction, where sea water spouts up to 70 feet up into the air. Got some nice pictures and the rainbow in the water spout was a nice surprise. We had been here many, many years ago but don't remember the market place and restaurants you go through to get to the blow hole. They have really made this a tourist attraction, which is fine. We had a nice lunch at one of the restaurants on the top floor with great views.

 

 

On the way stopped at one of the orphanages some of our group had been looking at to receive money we raise while here through an auction, donations and other money raising ideas. The gentleman who runs it was originally from San Diego. There are about 50 children here. It is a very nice place and the children are so sweet. They put a lot of importance to education and there are a number of the older children who are attending college. What a heart warming experience. The dresses the girls are holding were made by one of the ladies in our group. Some of the money we raised ended up being used to take the people running this orphanage shopping for groceries.

 

Speaking of the auction, it ended up being very successful. We had donated an extra sea eagle we had and it went for around 275 dollars. It is a lot of fun . We bid on and got several things, including a bottle of wine. There were also several food items, including a homemade banana cake that went for 49dollars. As we say, it's for the children. There were several other new money makers. 50/50, in which you buy tickets and then a ticket is selected and the winner gets half of the money made and the rest to charity. I think the winner gave their winnings to charity. The other money maker was when several people volunteered to jump into the unheated pool for charity. Around 300 dollars was made from this. All and all, just under 7,000 dollars was made and will be much appreciated by the recipients. There was also a bunch of clothes donated that will go to those in need in the Ensenada area. We had a good time in Ensenada including at the resort with happy hours with every one or at some one's site. One day, we had A nice lunch at the resort restaurant with some of our group sitting outside enjoying the great weather, which had warmed up the last few days. Our last night was another great dinner at the restaurant with everyone in attendance. We had decided not to go farther down due to a motorhome issue we had. More on that on my next post. We got up early and headed out with another couple. We had decided to go through the Tecate border which is smaller and turned out to. Be a good idea. We drove through the Valle of Guadalupe, which is a large wine region. Joe and I had driven there one day for some wine tasting. We had a nice conversion with the gentleman who ran the family owed winery, Vina de Liceaga.

 

I'll leave you with another great sunset from Estero Beach Resort. Hasta la Vista, Ensenada.

 

 

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A Road Trip and Days at Jobaba Hills

We have been enjoying our time at Jojoba. As I mentioned in the previous blog, this is a co-op and so we have started some volunteering. I am volunteering at the Mail Room. You just sign up for when you want to work. You can work as much or as little as you want. Joe has gone to some budget and marketing meetings. We went to a pizza party for those who are currently volunteering for the recycling in the park and for newbies such as ourselves. We take care of several of the recycling areas, which are separated into glass, plastic and aluminum. Only CRV labeled items are allow. We will take the items to a recycler center and money received will go towards things for the park. There is a lot to do here. One of the things we joined was the Photo Bug Club and our first assignment was photos of drinks. There was also an outing to Bates Nut Farm where there was a big pumpkin patch for Halloween. It is in Valley Center and the drive there was nice going the back way with great scenery. It is here in the Escondido area. We went on a weekday morning and were surprised on how popular it was.

There are some farm animals, several stores as well as many pumpkins.

Lots of cute seasonal decorations, some of which I ended up photographing and using for my photo bug group assignment.

I also took pics for our drinks assignment when we went to Borrego Springs with Nancy and Terry. We had a lot of fun and had no problems finding drink pictures as we ate out most of the time. We stayed at the American Legion which as free boondocking there for veterans, which Terry is. We attended several dinners there, which were good. As part of Borrego Days, which included a parade. We only watched a little of it before meeting Terry and Nancy at Carmelita's, Mexican restaurant in town.

Below a picture I took for my drinks assigment and what I did to it on the computer.

AT the Christmas Center Park, where they have the Farmers Market, they have booths selling things, games and other things for kids and a beef garden for the adults.

There was a car show where one person had a little ghoul show up. It is the Halloween season and I added a frame to add to the spookyness.
Another day we ate at the Red Ocotillo in the Palms Hotel where we ate at last winter when we were in the area boondocking.

Terry and a friend

We ate out at several other restaurants which were very good, including Carlee's and Casa de Zorro. One day we took a little drive and stopped at one of Terry and Nancy's favorite boondocking spots down the road from Rockhouse Rd, where we stayed the last few times we were here. We met some nice people staying at the spot Terry and Nancy call Dad's. People have added a path of rocks to this site which circle around the camping site. Pretty cool.

The weather has bee wonderful with mostly sunny and warm days. So nice after lot of cool days during our summer in the Pacific NW. Temecula is wine country and we finally got to a winery, or at least a winery restaurant. We went out to lunch for our anniversary to the restaurant at Callaway's.Great views and great food. We had appetizers, ceviche and duck confit tacos along with the recommended wines. You could have a full glass or tastes, which were about 3//4 of a glass.
Well, that is it for now.

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