Disclaimer: This blog was written at a significant delay (December 2018). As in, the delay was so significant, that I don’t feel that I can accurately represent our time at this location in story form. So, I am just going to post photos I captured here and then ramble about some of my clear memories of the place via some bullet points.
How did I get so far behind? Well, there was a summer visit from a nephew, and also a giant party in Rochester that needed to be planned for. But, also, if it comes down to blog writing or sleep – I will always choose sleep. So anyways, back on the blog game. But in abbreviated form until I catch up to the present day.
Jake and I spent 16+ combined years living in Rochester, NY – and somehow, neither of us had ever ventured up to Hamlin Beach State Park. FAIL.
Hamlin Beach is beautiful. And because we needed to be in Rochester by late July, but wouldn’t be moving into our temporary apartment rental until August 1st (surprise! We ditched Dyna and spent 3 months in an apartment with unlimited, high-pressure hot water!), we decided to give Hamlin State Park a go. NOT A FAIL.
- Upon arriving in the greater Rochester, NY area, we set-up Dyna quickly, then headed to feed on some Garbage Plates – a fricassee of foods combined perfectly, which would likely appease even the lord’s palate. Andy went to college at SUNY Brockport, and Hamlin is pretty close to Brockport. He was stoked to show his son around his old stomping grounds – and especially to feed him the meal of the gods from the Plate joint that he frequented during his younger (drunker) years.
- Jake had to leave the morning after plates were consumed to spend 4 days in DC for an all-hands meeting at work.
- I had to drive back to my hometown to help my dad out for a day and was able to swing by Dexter’s house and grab his bike to bring back to Hamlin for him to use during his final few days in Dyna.
- Dexter and Andy held down Dyna, fed and loved on Lucy, and apparently made friends with the neighbors and hijacked their evening fire – joining them for beer and s’mores.
- Dexter learned to ride a bike! After asserting that he would not be riding his bike without training wheels, ever, he unexpectedly changed course, removing the training wheels from his bike himself. He then hopped on the bike, yelled at his father and I for ‘tipping him over’ while we held the bike seat as he attempted to ride without trainers, and then successfully took off and rode his bike without trainers like he has been doing it his entire life as soon as we let go of him. Within hours he was jumping off of curbs and attempting to pop wheelies. Yay?
- Dexter, Andy and I made a trip to the other side of the Greater Rochester Area to spend a day at Seabreeze Amusement Park. Our sister, “smelly Aunt Kay who tricked us” met us there after she got out of work. She was given this name by Dexter after a misunderstanding in his belief that she would be at Hamlin Beach State Park the moment we rolled in. He loves his smelly Aunt Kay. Anyways, it was a really great day. We missed Jake (and his ability to ride the spinning rides so we don’t have to). There was one big ‘oh crap’, when Dexter got the guts to ride a horrible people flinger ride that Andy, Kay, nor I could be suckered into, solo. He was good to go and strapped in, and we mistakenly heckled him from the side-lines, and he lost his nerve just as the ride began its awful undulations. Wanna feel like a shitty child raiser? Do that. Luckily, once the ride got into full flinging mode he was overtaken by laughter – likely a primal response to his body thinking he was being flung from a cliff. He survived, he was proud, and we learned never to heckle a child who is braver than any of us adults again.
- We stopped by Donuts Delight, home of giant monstrosities of sugar laden goodness.
- When Jake returned from DC, Dexter was stoked to demonstrate his new bike riding abilities for him. The town of Brockport has a free bike lending library, so we once again headed into the town of my brother’s college memory – this time to ride bikes down the Erie Canal Towpath family style. Sadly, Dexter grew tired of this activity after about 10 minutes. He lucked out and we had to turn back after only a few miles of riding as storms were imminent.
- After over a month rolling around as a crew of 4 plus cat, we had to accompany Dex and Andy back to their home (a few hours East). We spent a final few days deep cleaning Dyna and packing up our stuff so that we could move into a short-term lease apartment in downtown Rochester, where we planned to stay until mid-October. Dyna was strangely quiet. And I had to use Dexter’s scooter to take the trash down to the dump by myself. Sad.
- On August 1st, we formally ‘ditched Dyna’ at our friend Jeffy’s parent’s home in Brockport, NY. We packed Lucy into the Jeep and headed to downtown Rochester. Because guess what?
We’ll be spending the next 2 months in Rochester, NY enjoying unlimited, high-pressure, hot water planning a wedding. Our wedding. It’s getting officially official guys!