Hope Lake Lodge in Cortland, NY

Hope Lake Lodge is a hotel and waterpark, located in Cortland, NY (not far from the NY Jets training camp) offers the perfect place for a family retreat.

Hope Lake Lodge is not only an award winning beautiful hotel, it's also the home of Cascades Indoor Waterpark. The entire area around Hope Lake Lodge is a recreation area. In the summer they offer zip lining, ropes courses, hiking, fishing, and all kinds of other fun activities. In the winter they offer skiing, tubing, snowboarding, snowshoeing and more. On top of all that the rooms and suites are huge. Here is a picture tour of our suite at Hope Lake Lodge.
Not shown in this living room photo is a full size coach that folds into a bed.
You can not see the ski storage area from this picture, but along the wall facing the dining table is a ski storage nook.



It was nice having the sink area separate from the shower area. It made getting ready quicker.
I loved the fitness room. They provided towels and water. There were 2 or 3 tv's in the room.

Cortland, NY is part of the Finger Lakes not far from Ithaca, NY.

Montezuma Winery

Do you have a favorite wine? How about a favorite winery?

Montezuma Winery is hands down my favorite winery in the Finger Lakes. It is part of the Cayuga Wine Trail. I was actually there three times last month!  While I wine taste the kids play outside in the fenced off grass area next to the building. I can watch them through the window while I do the tasting. I usually have a soccer ball or frisbee with me to keep the kids happy. Besides all of the fun unique knick knacks they sell, they make fabulous wines. My current favorites are Fat Frog Red, Diamond, and Camper's White in that order.

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Inn of the Finger Lakes

Inn of the Finger Lakes is located in Auburn, NY near the Cayuga Wine Trail. It's a perfect location for travelers coming to enjoy the Finger Lake region. The pictures are from the room we had with one queen bed. The room was pretty small.

• Deluxe Complimentary Continental Breakfast
• Well-equipped fitness center
• Complimentary Hosted Evening Wine Tasting, Monday - Friday 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.
• Free high-speed wireless internet access throughout the hotel
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Seneca Lake State Park

One of the best things about New York state are their parks. They keep their parks in excellent condition. Seneca Lake State park is lovely. You can see from the pictures that they have a huge playground with bathrooms right next to it. There is also a substantial sized
splash pad next to the playground. We only paid $7 to get in, which was $1 per person. On the weekends you can use the beach and swim in the lake. They only have lifeguards on the weekends.

National Museum of play in Rochester, NY

While on our very long road trip adventure this summer we found ourselves at the National Museum of Play, also know as the Strong Museum in Rochester, NY.  This museum was awesome.  We stayed all day until it closed.  It is for children and from the their website I thought it would only be for little kids.  When we got there however I realized what a poor job their website does, because my nine year old had a blast!  This museum had an entire area full of mind bender/hands on puzzle things, even the grandparents had fun in this room!  It was very challenging.  I wish I had gotten a picture.  My kids spent an hour or two in there.  Here are some pictures of the museum that I did get.

The farm area complete with an ellaborate chicken egg harvesting set up.



They have a "sand" area.  It is not actually sand, but instead tiny little pieces of plastic or something like that.  You don't get dirty!


They have a dress up area along with a stage.

This was an area that you had to find up stairs that had a giant chess board.  I was pleasantly surprised to see how much my kids played with this.  I didn't think they would be that into it.

This is near the Sesame Street zone.  These are pipes that make music.

This area was good for older kids.  This is a ball contraption and I would be embarrassed to admit here how long it took myself and two other grown ups to figure this thing out and then explain it to my kids.  I'm just going to focus on the fact that we did figure it out!

Cayuga Lake Wine Trail

     On a recent trip to upstate New York I had so much fun exploring the Cayuga Lake wine trail. It is the longest running wine trail in the US.
     We started the day out in Auburn and headed down to King Ferry Winery. Although not my favorite it was my kids favorite. While the grownups enjoyed a tasting, my kids happily played in the kid area complete with toys and fish!!  What is better than a kid friendly winery?  (Apparently on this wine trail some days are family days.)
     From there we were headed further south to Ithaca, New York. We planned to take the kids to a science center there but it is not open on Mondays. We did see the outside area and it looked awesome.
     With very disappointed kids we went to Stewart park.  An old park with equipment not often seen these days. The kids had a blast!  My favorite part of this park was the grown up porch swings.  ( I don't know what they are called.)
     After wearing the children down we continued on. We went up the west side of the lake back towards Auburn, since there are more wineries on that side.  Before we made it to another winery we got distracted by another fun playground and a waterfall at Taughannock Falls State park. This place has a very new playground with new equipment we grownups had never seen; so of course we had to test it before the kids tried it!  (For safety purposes...right??)






     Now that we are all worn out and dizzy we decide to hike to the Taughannock waterfall. This seems like a good idea because the man at the gate told us it was an easy 8th of a mile. Turns out that he must have meant .8 of a mile. Huge difference especially with a three year old. Thank goodness it was a good waterfall.


     Now that we are done being side tracked we are ready to hit one winery after another. First up Americana Vineyards. This place was awesome and so cute. Their wine was good and their fudge did not disappoint. Even better she gave me a military discount of 50%!!!!!!  I didn't know she was going to do that or I would have bought a lot more.  I wish we could have tried their cafe.


     From here we continued to push on to Thirsty Owl. They were closing up so we didn't get to do a wine tasting here, which was disappointing since this is the winery my sister's boyfriend was most looking forward too.  He swears their Riesling is fantastic, but I guess I will never know:(.   Despite our disappointment we gather ourselves up and headed onward to another winery which will remain nameless since I hated every wine I tried.

     Last. but not least Montezuma winery. It is no over statement when I say we have save the best for last. This is my second favorite winery in the nation but my favorite wine in America. Their Diamond wine and Fat Frog Red is the best I have had.  I find myself day dreaming about a glass of Fat Frog red since I ran out.

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Free Books for children - Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

Dolly's Imagination Library (Photo credit: MrSchuReads)

The Imagination Library is a program that can be found in various communities throughout the United State and I think a few other countries. You can enroll your child in the program if it is available in your community. Your child will receive a free book in the mail every month until they turn 5.

From their website: In 1996, Dolly Parton launched an exciting new effort to benefit the children of her home county in east Tennessee. Dolly wanted to foster a love of reading among her county’s preschool children and their families. She wanted children to be excited about books and to feel the magic that books can create. Moreover, she could insure that every child would have books, regardless of their family’s income.So she decided to mail a brand new, age appropriate book each month to every child under 5 in Sevier County. With the arrival of every child’s first book, the classic The Little Engine That Could ™, every child could now experience the joy of finding their very own book in their mail box. These moments continue each month until the child turns 5—and in their very last month in the program they receive Look Out Kindergarten Here I Come.

Unfortunately, I do not have this program in my community but my brother lives in Auburn, NY and they do have the program there.

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