Stranger in Town

I have been away from blogging for the last several days because Mother and Father of Ken were here visiting. They were supposed to arrive on Saturday evening, but due to a demonstration of stupidity at the Detroit airport that can only be rivaled by the US Postal Service, they did not arrive until Sunday.

Now that the weather is a little nicer, they helped me with some yard work to improve the curb appeal of the house since it is on the market. We planted the flower beds, cleared out the dead stuff, and made everything look much nicer. Father of Ken also took care of several other small projects including fixing the sump pump, repainting the house numbers, and replacing the light bulb in the hall going upstairs. Here are the results of our hard work:

Much better. We're having a big open house this weekend, so the timing was great.

On Monday, Father of Ken had to take care of some business on the west side of Seneca Lake, leaving Mother of Ken and I to shop. We were quite successful.

On Tuesday, we went to the Episcopal church in Moravia, NY (where there is also a nudist colony that we did NOT visit) to see their carved wood sanctuary and stained glass windows. Our next stop was Auburn, NY and the Willard Memorial Chapel, the only extant chapel in which everything was designed by the Tiffany Co. After lunch, we went to the Cayuga Museum, which is also a historic home and a huge disappointment because they do not label anything. Imagine going into a really cool old home full of random artifacts including clothing from various time periods and a huge exhibit of photos and news articles about Vietnam with absolutely no explanation about what anything is, why it is there, or anything else. That was a bust.

However, I have finally succeeded in seeing the Seneca Falls Historical Society Museum after three tries. M and I tried to go twice in October, but had no luck. Mother and Father of Ken and I went on a whim on a Tuesday in April and we were able to get a private tour of the historic home in which the Historical Society is housed. The house is 23 rooms and we saw all of them--read all about the house on their website if you're interested in more information. As we were leaving, the woman who gave our tour told us to stop at Bellwether Cidery to try their hard cider. Delicious--we really enjoyed our tasting and brought three bottles home with us. We only drank one, but I'm saving the other two for when I move and we need a refreshing beverage ;-)

Wednesday we spent in Ithaca since Mother and Father of Ken had to get to the airport in the afternoon. We went to Cornell to see Sage Chapel and the Abraham Lincoln exhibit at the library as well as the Johnson Museum of Art. After lunch, we went to the new soda fountain at Palmer Pharmacy downtown before Mother and Father of Ken had to head home.

In all, it was a productive, relaxing mini-vacation for everyone and McKenna especially liked having house guests. She has been moping around for the past few days and gazing forlornly into Mother and Father of Ken's room.