A Scientific Summer!

My summer classes finally ended yesterday and since I’m bed-ridden under 3 blankets, I would like to tell you about how strange…ly hilarious  one of them was.

I took classes for two summer semesters and took two classes each go around. The first semester, I took an environmental science class due to a requirement I had to fulfill and it was hilarious. My class had a total of 6 kids in it…me, 5 boys and one elderly woman who wore a fleece pull over, ski coat, knee socks, long pants and what I can only assume were gloves that belonged to a mime. She of course plopped down next to me, but THANKFULLY decided she was a bit warm with her layers and took out one of those paper fans I assume the sell at the Kentucky Derby and started violently fanning herself. Propelling air into my face and causing my notes to blow wildly about the table we shared. She didn't last long as she wholeheartedly disagreed with the idea of being environmentally friendly and her two simple reasons being “God will take care of it” and “They did none of this in the olden days so I think we’re okay”. She had a lot to say on the matter, but things took a turn when she was 100% convinced that there was a science machine in a book she read that could control the weather and make it rain whenever you needed/wanted. I held my tongue on responding until my professor moved on because I almost asked her if the book she was referring to was “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs”.

This class also took three field trips- one to the middle of the woods to count and identify trees, one to a wastewater plant and then to a garbage plant. Thank God we car-pooled to the woods, because for the next two field trips, I got so lost and ended up being like 45 minutes late to each one….and almost had to ask for directions at a strip club that happened to be hiring. Luckily I didn't have to go inside because I just turned around and asked the state police down the road….which makes me wonder a little bit about that placement of establishments.

At the wastewater plant, I missed the part of the tour with the waste and the water together which “was the worst smell ever” according to one of my classmates. We went on the tour of the water purification and as we saw it being routed back into a river, and I figured the tour was over…. WRONG. We still had to see where all the sludge (aka a county’s worth of shit) went to. I should have taken the sign when the tour guide opted out of going to the room because my body was NOT prepared for what happened next: vats upon vats of fermenting sludge…right before my eyes and nose. It was the worst thing I have ever smelled. I gagged a little, but one kid responded to the smell by laughing, another by saying “yep, that’ll  grow some hair on your balls” to which another kid laughed, his shirt slipped off his nose and he caught a whiff, bolted out of the room and vomited. Absolutely hilarious. Hilarious until we all exited into the lobby and all realized the smell has soaked into our clothes and hair. I excused myself to find a tub of acid to bathe in, when I found the mother of all employee bathrooms complete with designer soaps and perfumes and showers with complimentary towels and things. At least the plant allows the employees the opportunity to cleanse the shit smell before leaving.

The trip to the garbage plant wasn't nearly as eventful except for having Breaking Bad’s very own Hank as our tour guide, complete with the slight bite of racism to whatever he says.

Somehow, after failing 3 quizzed and taking a final where I was only mildly confident in 4 of the 100 questions I answered, I pulled out an A-.

None of my other summer classes quite compared to the intensity of the science class, but I did take two levels of sign language and made friends with a 30 year old bouncer who is going into nursing at the same school I go to. He gave me a free fake ID of a person who looks absolutely nothing like myself and then asked me to go to Denny’s with him at 6AM. Overall though, the class was filled with hilarious people but he was a stand out  for sure… because 9 times out of 10, I had to teach him sign language and he had a full on melt down when he found out he couldn't take ASL 2 this summer. You can see my final project for that class HERE. 

Well, I hope you enjoyed a little taste of my summer, and I’ll blog again soon 

My first adult-type outing!

This is exciting for me. I feel like an actual adult. I recently went on a long weekend road trip with one of my best friends from high school to Ithaca, New York. It was a 6 hour car ride to stay with some friends for a weekend of going to the zoo, taking a lot of group selfies and eating GIANT s'mores. BUT, the best part of the weekend was when my friend and I broke off on our own and went wine tasting on the finger lakes. I had never considered myself a wine drinker, and I still don't, but I can say that I learned a lot about wine, tasting it and for those who are interested in doing the same, here is a guide to the day we had!

Since we were staying very close to Ithaca we started our tasting journey in Ithaca at Six Mile Creek. It was so local and lovely, a perfect first stop for a rookie such as myself. As we tried our first wine, my friend, Kate, filled me in on her super sophisticated wine tasting rating system.

If we loved a wine, it got a big smiley face with its teeth showing and potentially some hair. If we liked it a lot, but weren't in love, the wine earned a smiley face with optional eyebrows. If we were indifferent, it got a straight line for a smile, if we were erring on the side of not liking it, it got a slanted line, and if we hated it.... big frown.

At Six Mile Creek, I tried 3 white wines, a red and two sweet wines and overall the wines were pretty good. I decided that I prefered the sweet wines and didn't care for the red wine at all. I also decided that my mom would enjoy the white wines I tried, but didn't end up buying anything. My friend bought a sweet wine that she and I agreed was the best of the tasting.

 This was the view from the parking lot... it was amazing.

Before we went to the second winery, we took a quick pit stop at Taughannock Falls on Cayuga Lake to see a gorgeous waterfall.

Our next stop was just up Cayuga Lake at a winery called Frontenac Point. It, in short, was amazing. The people there, both employees and patrons were unbelievably nice and the atmosphere was so relaxed. There were dogs running in the back and the inside was intimate and friendly. We each bought a bottle of wine for our mom and dad, respectively, and most of all received a lot of help as to where we should go next on our tour. There were locals tasting wines who pointed out some of their favorite spots as well as the employees who told us about some of the things that other wineries had to offer. We definitely stayed there the longest and felt most comfortable asking questions and asking for pictures out back. Both Kate and I HIGHLY recommend this winery to anyone who may be new to the game and/or looking for a lot of knowledge and an unbeatable atmosphere. 

 The wine I bought for my mom, was called Seyval Blanc and Kate bought a bottle of their Stay Sail White.

 The people at Frontenac Point recommended that since we enjoy sweeter wines, to go to Lucas Vineyards. Both the employees and the local people there told us it was a "cannot miss winery for those who like sweet wines". When we arrived, we were not wholly impressed with the atmosphere, after just coming from Frontenac, but it was definitely an attraction. The gift shop was amazingly large and the wine tasting area just sort of blended in. The woman who served us the wine was very knowledgeable but not very engaging (which we have chalked up to her not wanting to deviate from her little spiel), and the wine was delicious. We were kind of bummed at how much we enjoyed the wines because of the atmosphere that went with it, but I ended up buying a bottle of red wine, no less, for my dad. The best part about the red wine was that I enjoyed it, when I generally have found I don't care for red wine one bit because it tastes a bit like going to church, which I have never really associated that with fine wine. The woman had explained that this wine was the "red wine for white wine drinkers". I didn't manage a picture, but the wine is called TUGBOAT RED.

We weren't planning on going to the next winery, but we are so glad that we did. The people at Frontenac told us that the view at Thirsty Owl wineries was alone worth the drive. My friend absolutely adores owls so I wanted to go to see if I could find something she may like, but when we got there the view was INSANE. It was breath-taking. I think Kate and I stood in the parking lot just staring at the view for upwards of ten minutes. We considered eating lunch at their bistro, but the wait was long and we were hungry. We decided to do a quick tasting and then find some grub. The wines were not something that we liked as a whole, but there were two in particular that I enjoyed. The first was called 2011 Snow Owl and the second Tailspin.

We realized quickly into the drive that we were in the middle of nowhere. Well, we were in the middle of Amish country. We decided this when we got stuck driving behind a horse and buggy along a massive field. Since we were so hungry and only had cheese-its to snack on, we decided to heed more of Frontenac's advice and go to Cayuga Ridge Winery for lunch. We were told that they had amazing pizza (of all things) that is made in a copper oven. We looked down the driveway at Thirst Owl to see a sign for Cayuga Ridge and were sold. They were literally across the grass from each other so we decided to take a gander. We sat outside at the lovely little restaurant with a full view of the copper oven they cooked the pizza in and we happened to be stationed next to the owners of the winery who were extremely nice. We ordered the BBQ chicken ranch pizza and it was delicious, and perfect to share. The prices were reasonable and the people very nice. It was definitely a place to go, even for lunch, without the wine tasting. 

 After a nice lunch, we decided to switch lake trails and go to Seneca Lake. The wineries were much closer together so we were able to go to more in a shorter amount of time. We were told (once again at Frontenac) that a place called Tickle Hill had dandelion wine and we decided that it would be an adventure to go. So we did just that. We were shocked to see how different it was from the wineries on Cayuga lake, up to and including the types of wines they had. We tasted a pineapple wine. The flavor is open to interpretation, but we really enjoyed the stark difference between the previous wineries. It was here that our tour plan changed again, as the woman helping us told us to go to Rasta Ranch, because it was unlike any other winery she's been to. We were intrigued...

I'm sure you can guess the type of atmosphere Rasta Ranch was. It was hilarious. The people were so welcoming, nice, and treated everyone like family. A girl was even celebrating her 21st birthday there- shot glass necklace and everything. We tried the wine... from jugs, laughed a lot and had fun exploring the shop bursting at the seems with handmade jewlery. They also had this cool tradition that you write on a one dollar bill and they hang it up around the interior and the next time you come, you have to find it. We of course wrote on one... we couldn't think of anything fun to write so we just did our names. There was also the fattest dog we had ever seen and its name, fittingly, was Buddha. We didn't end up buying any wine but we enjoyed the experience a lot!

Our second to last stop was Hazlitt Vineyard. Frontenac told us that this place was a lot of fun. We went as the day was winding down, so we may have missed the boat on that one, but the wine tasting experience was still different from the other wineries. Instead of crackers, we got popcorn, and one of the wines that we tried was served with chocolate (score!) The atmosphere was really relaxed and engaging, and we really liked the wine overall. We both kicked ourselves on the journey home for not buying wine, but were excited to know that you can buy it in Massachusetts! I, of course, plan on buying the Berry Bramble wine that was served with chocolate. It was probably the best wine I had tasted all day. Another aspect we really liked was that you could buy teeny tiny bottles for only a few dollars if you wanted, and they also sold the wines in pouches complete with nozzles.

Our last stop of the day was all the way around the other side Seneca Lake and we honestly only went for the name. Pompous Ass Winery was not a recommendation, but more of a we laughed at the name and just had to go. I wasn't wild about the wines, personally, but I knew my parents would have enjoyed them a lot more. Kate felt the same and bought her mom a bottle of Highfalutin red wine. I didn't try it, but it is apparently a medium bodied wine. 

 Overall, the day was incredible, aside from the fact that we consumed an unruly amount of food and liquid and were full well into the next day. We went to 9 wineries and tasted at 8 of them in about 7 hours. I felt so adult, so I didn't so much mind the bloat and cannot wait to grace another chunk of the wineries of the finger lakes with my rookie, wine-tasting presence.

PS- find me on twitter @kaitieryan or tumblr at kaitieryan.tumblr.com