An Afternoon at Seabreeze Amusement Park

I promised the boys this summer I would take them somewhere special...well when my work announced an employee discount on Seabreeze tickets, it was decided! Jacob is still a bit too small for Darien Lake rides, so this was the next best thing for him to still enjoy it.

The week that the tickets could be used was a very busy week for me, and there was only one afternoon I could take them. Of course it was right after I worked a night shift. Such is the life! I took a short nap and got up early so we could head north up to Rochester. The park is right on the edge of Lake Ontario. We also had strong storms forecasted to move in that late afternoon so I kept a close eye on the sky!

We easily found a parking spot then quickly entered the park with my tickets. We started strong and the first ride we all 3 did was the wooden roller coaster Jack Rabbit. I thought it was pretty fun and not as rough as wooden coasters tend to be. However Jacob is slightly terrified and did not enjoy it haha. The boys went on to right a few others in that spot, then we just worked our way around in a circle hitting all the rides.

While Brad rode a scarier ride, Jacob rode this balloon ride by himself! Such a big boy.

Jacob ended up riding this one twice by himself!

This was another smaller coaster they had, and Jacob really enjoyed it so he rode it again by himself after riding with Brad while Brad rode other rides.

The storm moved in with a vengeance bringing wind gusts and cold air! We stayed up until the very last second when it started raining. It was perfect timing as they rode the rest of the rides.

It was a really fun park and the boys had a great time. It was just right for their ages and had a great variety of fun vs scary rides. The size of the park is not overwhelming and you can easily ride everything within a couple hours if it's not super busy. I highly recommend!

Checking out the Rochester Public Market

For awhile now I've been wanting to see this market. I've heard great things about it, and I love public markets so we finally had a perfect day to go last Saturday! Nick and headed out there around noon for lunch and shopping.

Once we first got there (and finally found parking) we first circled through the vendors to see what all was there, and what our lunch options were. I enjoyed a few free samples along the way!

We first shared an arancini (fried rice ball) and a water, then made our way to an empanada food truck and each got one of those. Delicious! We passed a bakery where I got a HUGE croissant for only $1, and Nick got a chocolate muffin. After we finished our food, then it was time for produce!! I had my eye on several things to get and all of the prices were amazing!!

I ended up coming home with a 10lb bag of shallots, a bag of potatoes, a bag of peaches, a bag of apricots, a ginormous zucchini, eggplant, bell peppers, and a head of garlic for planting my own this fall! I will definitely be back.

Camping and Hiking at Watkins Glen State Park

This park is a beautiful example of central NY and it's amazing geological features! The breathtaking gorge was formed by glacial movement and waterfall recession over many centuries. In the past century the state has developed the area into a state park with easy to navigate trails within and around the gorge, as well as a large campground and Olympic-sized pool.

This was the boys first time there and they were very surprised by my announcement of a camping trip! We met my hiking buddy Ken there to share our camp site and set up during a short bout of rain.

After setting up we went to the pool to cool off but of course just as we got there another small storm moved in with wind and heavy rain! It only lasted about 5 min so thankfully we just waited it out under the shelter, then headed into the pool for a couple hours of fun before dinner time.

Ken cooked us all some delicious cheeseburgers while the fire got started to roast marshmallows and make smores for dessert.

We had some heavy rain off and on overnight that interrupted our sleep, so when I got up early the next morning I had to snap this pic of the boys still passed out!

After a delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast we got ready to go hike the gorge!

For lunch we headed back to the campsite and cooked up some grilled cheese sandwiches. Then we decided to take a drive around the area to Montour Falls to see a few more beauties!

This one is a great roadside fall with a small parking area right in front of it.

This larger fall is right behind some houses with a small public area right in front to sit and view it. Imagine having this in your backyard!

This next one is Eagle Cliff Falls. There's a short trail from a small town park that leads to the falls. Very pretty and scenic! The boys had fun splashing a bit.

The park had a great old fashioned playground so the kids joined some others and they had fun for about an hour before we headed back to camp.

The day had gotten cooler so it was a bit too chilly to swim again so instead we got the fire started early! This night we cooked chili dogs over the fire followed by more marshmallows and smores to end the last night at camp.

We all slept a bit better that night, and woke up to a beautiful sunshiny day! We had a simple breakfast of oatmeal then packed up camp and headed home in time for lunch. The boys caught up on some more sleep on the way!

I think they had a fun time! More adventures to come.