Photo Friday: Dinosaurs, Hippies, Wieners and Breaking & Entering . . . All In One Post!

This is Part 2 of my extended family trip to the Finger Lakes, where I show you what we did that didn't involve waterfalls:

While the adult children enjoyed a wine tasting at Castle Grisch Winery, my husband and I stayed with the grandkids to enjoy the winery's very strange outdoor display. I believe it's part of a light show at Christmas, but it did not disappoint in July.

As you can see, the dinosaurs were enormous. The kids enjoyed going inside the dinosaur eggs for photos. Besides The Lost World, there was also an Asian themed area with a dragon and pagoda. All very bizarre but wonderful.

A trip to the Finger Lakes would not be complete without a trip to FLX Wienery, which specializes in gourmet hot dogs. My grandson thoroughly enjoyed his Peanut Butter & Bacon dog. I don't eat hot dogs, but didn't want to be a party pooper, so I ordered The Kraut, hoping the probiotics would combat everything else.

There are a number of dairy farms that have cheese tastings available. This farm was the Lively Run Goat farm, where you can feed the goats and eat their cheese.

My oldest daughter also took her kids to Shtayburne Farm Creamery where you can see how large the cheese flights were. Also, this cat was apparently a real pest.

One day, we drove to Corning to visit the Corning Glass Museum, which has the world's largest collection of glass. It was a unique experience, seeing glassware from previous centuries, along with famous artist's works, like this Tiffany glass window.

I think this was the world's largest punchbowl, or something like that.

The kids really enjoyed all the different glass demonstrations.

Another day, we drove to Ithaca to visit the Cornell Botanical Gardens. We had stopped at a different children's garden first, which was sort of lame. We should have spent the entire afternoon at Cornell. This was a sculpture in one of the gardens. The kids liked the herb garden the best, because they could smell everything.

One of my granddaughters turned 3 on the trip, so to celebrate, we went to the Spotted Duck Creamery, where you can visit ducks and eat their duck egg ice cream. This is the flight that I split with my spouse. People have asked if it tasted different and I will say that I did notice a slight waxy feel on the tongue, but no discernible difference in flavor.

Another place that some of the others visited (I did not) was the Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion. Kari, it was listed as one of the top gardens in the US, according to a link you posted a few months back. Honestly, my kids thought it was just okay.

What do my husband and I really go to the Finger Lakes to do? That would be wine tasting. We made it to 7 on this trip. We are slowing down. On our 25th anniversary trip to the Finger Lakes, we visited 25 wineries. There are 130 in all.

We finally made it to Silver Thread this time. It's a tiny place down a dirt road and sits right on Seneca Lake.

I did their Wine & Chocolate tasting and it was fabulous.

We also made it to Silver Springs, rated #1 on Trip Advisor. The owner and winemaker is quite the character and we had the pleasure of him pouring for us and spending 30 minutes telling us all about his wines and career.

Then there was the day that we decided to check out a new winery called Six Eighty. It was a last minute decision, without much research. We just plugged in the address to google maps in the car and followed it till it said 'You've arrived.' There was one of those tall skinny flags that wave OPEN next to the parking area. I walked up the steps to the building, opened the door, and walked in . . . to someone's family room?? There was a TV, couch and various shoes lying upturned on the floor. I did a quick U-turn into my husband and told him, "I think we're in someone's house!!!!" You might say we flew back down the steps and ran to the car. Once safely in the car, we were like WTH?? That's when we noticed the long driveway that wound behind the building and up a hill. Here's the view from the deck of the winery looking out at the house (orange roof) that I unknowingly broke into. As it was unlocked, maybe the charges would have been reduced to trespassing?

It will make for a fun family story for years to come. 

Which activity would you have enjoyed the most?