NY July 2011. Day 1.

Hey there, free time! Haven't seen you in awhile. Well this blog (and probably a few after it) will be about the family vacation to New York. So let's get on this.

*Day 1: The Leaving and the Arrival (aka Are you sure I didn't leave something on?)

Chapter 1: ...how many times do I have to tell you?
Up at 4:45am and scrambling to do my packing, which I majorly procrastinated on because I hate it, I snarfed breakfast hid my valuables in my closet between bedsheets and randomly under clothes on the floor. Yes, I left my room a mess so then if we did get broken into maybe the thieves would be discouraged and not bother. Luckily, no such thing happened so I like to believe my plan worked. As the sun is rising we hull our suitcases (my dad had the largest one, wtf?) into the trunk, wave the house goodbye and head over to my Aunts. After arriving at the Aunts we chat for a bit, figure out which way we're going and then head out on the road.

Chapter 2: Did we really just do that?
I had my first experience with CLEVELAND MORNING RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC! I probably would have been a tad more excited if I could actually see our car on the 6 o'clock news. I also had my first time through Dead Man's Curve. It's not as curvacious as I was expecting. I learned Ashtabula county is extremely boring. There's an inn, a porn shop, a gas station and a diner. That's about it. After hitting Pennsylvania we saw much of the same, minus the porn shops. After crossing the New York border I was getting more excited. Technically I've been to NY but I was 11 months so that doesn't really count.

Chapter 3: Really Grandma...again??
We stopped at a rest stop about 45 minutes after crossing the border. I picked up some authentic NY pizza and daaaamn can NY do pizza. Hopefully with our layover in Chicago next year I'll have enough time to grab some Chicago pizza too. I hit the gift shop and then we headed to the overpass. There's a closed in area of the rest stop that crosses over the NY thruway for pedestrians. It's tradition for my Aunt to get a trucker to blow their horn. In about 3 minutes we got a ton of horn blows from semi's and one from a smartass car. XD Continuing on we just get passed Buffalo and grandma has to use the restroom. *stop* Continuing on we just get passed Rochester and grandma has to use the restroom. *stop* Continuing on we just get passed Syracuse and grandma has to use the restroom. *stop* We arrive at our destination and grandma has to use the restroom.

Chapter 4: Shit, I forgot my tennis shoes at home.
Our first destination ended up being the Salmon Run mall in Watertown. Watertown is the largest city you will find in Upstate NY. It is home to the wonderful inventions of the safety pin and the pine tree air fresheners. Everything in Upstate NY has the Canadian flag and the American flag which I am personally a fan of. It's nice seeing "foreign" flags flown alongside ours.
So we stopped at this mall because my Aunt forgot her tennis shoes over 400 some miles southwest of where we were. She found her shoes and everyone was getting hungry because they didn't have pizza about 4.5 hours ago. We went over to a newly built Olive Garden across the street from the mall. I hadn't been to an Olive Garden with my family in forever and it was pretty nice to relax after being on the road for 8 hours and have great food.

Chapter 5: *Whack* Another spider.
After eating the real estate woman we're renting the cottage from tells us she'll meet us at the cottage to give us the keys and show us around. The cottage is located on Pillar Point which closest town is Dexter (we'll talk more about that later). Pillar Point is a peninsula that goes into Black River bay of Lake Ontario. Upon arriving at the cottage my dad was amazed at how close to the lake we were. Apparently all of those times of "Dad, the lake is right across the street" before we even left didn't strike any synapses. We spent about 10 minutes admiring the view and then the lady arrives. We enter the house walk around while getting lost because it was easy to get lost in the first night and then she leaves. The home is owned by some CEO of a company in Germany. Apparently him, his wife and son are only in the home in August and for Christmas. The caretaker of the home lives next door and doesn't like to wear shirts.
We start to get adjusted to our new living space for the next 4 nights. Things of this manner include:
1) Learning our running water is well water (sulfur water) and needs to be ran to get the main junk out for 30 minutes on each temperature. The whole time, you still smell the sulfur in the water and on your skin after washing with it.
2) Learning you're sharing the home with tons of spiders hiding in almost every corner.
3) Trying to figure out how the cable works.

Chapter 6: You might want to get that bug spray
Shortly after we get adjusted my Aunt Jane and Uncle Bob who live just outside of Watertown stop by for a visit. Out of all of my relatives in NY I know them the most because they stop in Ohio quite a bit during their RV trips. We chat while my Uncle Marty (husband of the Aunt who forgot her shoes) started a fire on the small shell filled beach in the front of the cottage. We pulled out some chairs we found in the garage and unwound after a long day not knowing the next day would be longer.