Weekend Update
For the rest of his life, Elliott is going to start being really nervous around his birthday. This past weekend was the third year in a row where I organized some surprise to commemorate his being alive. Two years ago, his friend Serra came to visit. Last year, I whisked him away for chicken bbq and a trip to Lowes. This year did not disappoint.
The first surprise:
Erinn! Erinn and I had engineered this trip for the past couple weeks, and unlike the Serra surprise, Elliott had absolutely no idea she was coming to visit. She texted him Friday morning to say she was sorry, she hadn't put his presents in the mail yet so they'd be late. Elliott being who he is immediately felt guilty for not having gotten her birthday presents (we'd given her gifts, I just picked them out and paid for them...). He texted me asking what her favorite flower was; luckily he didn't send her a bouquet of Calla Lilies, as Friday evening when the doorbell rang, and I yelled "Get that," there she stood.
We were very cryptic about the next phase of his birthday weekend. Saturday morning, we were dressed and waiting outside at 11:00 AM. Elliott was very confused and annoyed since a) we weren't telling him what was going on, b) we had to wait outside, where it was probably already in the 80s, and c) what the hell were we waiting for. When who should pull up, but...
Sue! Wait, why was Sue here, and why was she getting to drive Erinn's car? Elliott still didn't really know what was going on, except that Sue was skillfully chauffering us down unfamiliar roads. That is until we came to a T i n the road, with a broad lake before us and a sign that read "Seneca Wine Trail."
Pretty, isn't it? So with the freedom to drink all the wine we wanted, thanks to our Designated Driver, Sue, we visited 7 wineries, ate lunch on a deck facing the lake, tasted oodles of different wines, tasted several different cheese dishes as well (we were fortunate enough to go during a Wine and Cheese festival event).
We only went to our last winery to hand in comment cards/raffle tickets, but once there, tasted the last drops of wine and enjoyed time on a beautiful balcony overlooking the lake and the vineyards.
We drove home by way of Trumansburg, and stopped at Not My Dad's ice cream where we all got cones and ate them at a picnic table. While we ate, a young boy of about 6 or so ran around the corner of the building, stopped at our table and struck a fighter pose. We looked at him. Said hi. He goes "Hiiiyah!" and does another karate move. Then stands and talks to us for a few minutes. "I have rocks in my shoes," he says. Erinn asks if he wants to sit down and shake them out. "That's a lame idea," he told her. Then sat down and said "I lied, that was a good idea." He was fantastic, and has inpired me to use the word "lame" far more than a twenty-something should.
Following a day of wine, cheese, and sun, we joined Elliott's chemistry friends for a dinner/bar night to wrap up the day.
Sunday there were no surprises and I tried hard not to nag Elliott into doing something he didn't want to. We ended up going to some more friends' apartment for a cookout where we gorged on the free (to us) food and shared a bottole of "Grape-ful Red" wine from Tickle Hill winery, which every one agreed was tasty.
The end.