Par for the Course

One of the minor motifs of this summer so far has turned out to be miniature golf. A couple weeks ago we were flipping channels one evening after dinner and we happened on Holey Moley, a tongue in cheek reality show where contestants compete for 25,000 bucks and an ugly green plaid jacket on an extreme mini golf course.

If they had me at mini-golf, they kept me when the first player got knocked off the green not once but three times as she tried to run through giant windmill to take her second shot. I couldn't stop laughing, and we have giggled through several episodes of the silly show since then.

There was a time back when I was in my twenties and lived at the beach that I played miniature golf all the time. I wasn't great, but I was pretty good; my best score ever was a 33 on a par 36 Putt Putt course. I still enjoy the game, and I would play more often if there was a convenient course and some willing competitors in my life.

Today, those conditions were met. Heidi, her mom ,and brother, and I set out for a local mini-golf course. Oh, the competition was tough, but I hooked my pinkies together the way my golf instructor showed me in college, lined up the heels of my flip flops, and used the siting feature on my club to sink most of my putts. In the end? I know I was the winner in both rounds we played, even though the other players claimed we "weren't really keeping score."

Too bad there weren't any giant windmills.

Only So Much

We spent the afternoon on the Roycroft Campus in East Aurora, NY.  Founded in 1895, it was a community of artists and craftsmen and part of the American Arts and Crafts movement. Today it remains an artist cooperative and is a National Historic Landmark. We ate lunch on the shady porch of the Roycroft Inn, a beautiful setting with unfortunately mediocre food.

There were many lovely things to admire in both the Inn and the shops, though, and among them were several versions of a William Morris quote that I heard long ago, but had forgotten. Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. 

Considering his words, I did a quick inventory of just a few of the many, many possessions we have in our home, and while most of them fit well in one category or the other, we left East Aurora with no more than what we owned when we arrived.

Go Go Go!

For the past few days I have been gleefully posting screen shots on social media of the perfect weather we have been having up here in Western New York. Well... today brings the first 90+ degree heat of the year for this area and all its attendant issues. It's too hot to play outside and there's nothing to do inside.

What's that you say? Vacations are meant for relaxing?

Don't be silly!

Cornhole anyone?

Souvenirs

Sometimes it's not enough for me to simply walk through a beautiful place. On beaches I search for shells, shark teeth, and sea glass. On hikes in Maine, it's a hunt for blueberries or the smoothest rock. In corn mazes I have been known to gather husks and fashion dolls as I navigate my way through.


And today it was wildflowers. There were so many different blooms and blossoms in the fields and meadows on the farm where we took Lucy to run and swim, that I picked a sweet little bouquet as we walked in the sunshine serenaded by larks and red wing blackbirds.

International Sensation

On our visit to the falls last Christmas, we spotted a small sign that we had never noticed before. Pedestrian Walkway to Canada, it read, and the die was cast. Heidi's brother Mark and I agreed to bring our passports this summer so that we could WALK! to Canada.

"Can Lucy come?" was Heidi's only question, and a quick internet search revealed that yes, indeed, dogs can walk to enter Canada along with their human travelers.

Today, our plan became reality. Under perfect, 80 degree blue skies, the four of us trotted gleefully across the Rainbow Bridge, passed the international border marker halfway,  and breezed through immigration to Canada. There we strolled through well-manicured parks and along stone walls lining the river gorge up to Horseshoe Falls where the wind blowing from the US sprayed us with a steady mist.

Along the way, fellow tourists speaking Cantonese, French, Italian, Spanish, and English asked if they could pet Lucy, who was smiling and prancing her way through her first International visit. Two hours later we returned to our native land, a little tired, a little sun burnt, but joyful, too.

Sunday Drive

We wanted to spend some time outside with the dog, so I Googled a few hikes and found one that seemed promising about 20 minuted from Heidi's folks. The way was fair-- along country roads with open fields, farms, woods, and water. The weather was perfect, too, low 70s and all sunshine and blue skies, so we rolled the windows down and blasted the radio.

The park was an abandoned farm with wooded trails, a rushing creek, and a waterfall, and we followed winding paths up and down little hills, past old stone walls and granite ledges. Back at the car, I checked the map to see exactly where we were, and it turned out to be just 8 miles from Lake Ontario.

Well, a great lake waits for no one, and so we turned our car north toward Olcott Beach, a postcard perfect town with a lakefront park, a jazz band playing in the bandstand, and a tiny amusement park crowned with a vintage carousel. Another lovely hour later, we turned toward home, just as happy as we could be.

Beating the Heat

It took 394 miles north and two carwash-worthy rain storms for the temperature to drop from 93 to 77. Here in Buffalo, it's still pretty muggy, and as we walked the dog through the 9 PM twilight of Heidi's childhood neighborhood for her last outing of the evening, I couldn't help but notice all the wide-open windows.

The houses here were built back in the 1960s when air conditioning was a luxury not many of the working families here needed. That's still pretty much the case, despite climate change. For the few hot days and nights, people here resort to window units that are hauled out in June and put away in September, some propped up by homemade braces made of 2 x 4s, or good old-fashioned box fans leaning against the screens and turned all the way up to number three.

A quick dip in the above-ground pool in the back yard right and an orange popsicle before bedtime might help you sleep, too.