Is there anything better than a summer Monday afternoon in a sunflower labyrinth?
Critz Farms is open every day. I’m sure it is pretty crowded on weekends, but today Janine and I had the place to ourselves. No one to criticize our need for a thousand potential photo ops except perhaps all the bumble bees. We both took a lot of pictures. It was really the perfect day because it was a bit overcast and much cooler than it has been lately. Sunflowers are beautiful!
Critz Farms is located on Route 13 in Cazenovia, New York (3232 Rippleton Road, Cazenovia, New York 13035). Parking is free. To enter the sunflower labyrinth, you pay the bartender in the Tasting Room. Cost is $5.00 per person. Less for children. See their website for details.
They are open Sunday – Wednesday 11:00 am – 6:00 pm and Thursday – Saturday 11:00 am – 9:00 pm. This is for all events at the farm. They have special festival days as well as farm tours, the tasting room (this is also a brewery!) and gift shop, a playground, and occasional musical guests. Check their website or follow them on Facebook for more information.
Fish Cove was voted Best in Syracuse by The Syracuse New Times. In addition, if you Google search best fish fry in Syracuse, New York, this restaurant is at the top of the Yelp list.
This is a takeout place with a small seating area – if you prefer to eat there (I ate at home). What a beautiful place!
Presentation – There is a queue. Then you order at the register and wait for your food. You can also select drinks and salad sides from a cooler. Everything is wrapped and placed into a plastic bag.
I saw the piece of fish before it was fried. It had been skinned, which I love, and it was made fresh, not pre-breaded. Once fried, the fish was weighed. It was priced by weight. Then the chef placed it in the bun and added the tartar sauce. He asked me what condiments I desired.
There was no line when I was there and I received my order in less than fifteen minutes.
Taste – It WAS the best! No offense to any other restaurant I’ve covered in this ISO Fish Fry series.
It was so good! Juicy, I guess? Is that the right word? The fries were beautiful. And the coleslaw was so finely chopped – the tiniest little bits. Fantastic! The PERFECT meal.
Restaurant Experience. – The restaurant was incredibly clean. Not a lot of customers when I was there at the tail end of a Saturday afternoon. There was a chef and a cashier. They were both very friendly.
OMG, the whole meal was under $9.00. The same order at all of the other places cost over $20.00.
I am in love with this place!!! <3
Location – Fish Cove is located at 158 Swansea Drive, Syracuse, New York 13206. It is in the Shop City plaza. There are two other locations – one in Liverpool and one in North Syracuse.
I just completed twenty-four new paintings. Encaustic and mixed media. 6″ x 6″ clayboard on 9″ x 12″ chalkboard/chipboard incorporating items I recovered last year metal detecting my yard.
I still need to title them, add the framing hangers, decide on prices, etc. My house is a mess as I process this monumental achievement (plus I have twenty-four other in-progress paintings to finish).
That’s a 21st century penny. Notice how quickly it deteriorated in the Fayetteville, New York climate. It could not have been out there for longer than a day or I would have seen it with my eagle eye coin finding vision.
Sometimes I find paper money on the ground. That’s right – for those of you from other countries who have heard that the streets are lined in gold in the USA. ‘Tis true.
I found a dollar! I am now up to $1.89 in found money for 2023.
The thing about antiquing at Madison-Bouckville Antique Week – the way shopping becomes another form of exercise. Four hours of visiting the various “villages” of tents is equivalent to about eight miles of walking/hiking! It is a lot of fun. You should go!
Madison-Bouckville Antique week continues through August 20, 2023. The dealers are open from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm every day. Here are my favorite finds –
If you haven’t heard the blue glass, butterflies and feathers story told by Abraham-Hicks, then I have linked it here for you. The inspirational speaker illustrates how the universe works in terms of thinking of these three things rather than any problems you think that you have. It shows you that you can manifest dreams by lowering your resistance.
Because blue glass, butterflies and feathers are typically three things you don’t care much about. If you think about them just a little bit and they materialize in some way into your life then…you know? It means you may be able to dream other things into reality. More important things. You just have to believe that you can.
I choose to believe because it is a beautiful sentiment. And it has worked in my life on many occasions. In fact, it worked today.
Janine and I hiked around the phenomenon known as Madison-Bouckville Antique Week. It is an annual event located on a couple mile stretch of Route 20 in Bouckville, New York. Thousands of dealers are set up in tents on both sides of the street. There are food vendors as well and there are antique brick and mortar stores too.
There was so much to see! And we had ice cream too. It was a perfect day! Thank you, Janine!
Madison-Bouckville Antique Week continues though August, 20, 2023. Dealers are open for business between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm.
Allsaints scarf, Marc Jacobs sunglasses, Faithfull the Brand dress, Rag & Bone boots, Soflea bag
Presentation – During Covid, the Glenwood Pines Restaurant changed the way they operated. No more waitresses – instead customers ordered food and drinks at the bar. This became the new normal. So, this is what we did.
The food was ready rather quickly. It was presented at the bar in to-go styrofoam with the option of dining in or out. It smelled so good – I couldn’t wait to taste it! We paid for it then decided to sit outside and enjoy the view.
I selected the haddock dinner, which was the fish with coleslaw and fries. Joyce had the fish sandwich and ordered onion rings to go with it.
Taste – Everything was delicious. The fish was very lightly breaded and not at all greasy. The fries were fine – not a huge portion. As for the coleslaw, it was mainly cabbage – no carrots or other stuff and it was rather flavorless in comparison to other coleslaws – but still good. I ate everything.
Restaurant Experience – The bartender was really friendly and the other customers seemed very happy. We had been directed to this particular restaurant by the cashier at Found in Ithaca. It is always smart to ask a local where they like to eat.
There was a condiment and napkin station by the front door – ketchup, salt, pepper, straws, etc. We collected what we desired.
We sat outside, as I mentioned. It was a beautiful day. The picnic table had an umbrella over it for shade, which was nice. My only complaint is that the seat was lower than it should have been. I don’t know – it was weird because we felt like we were little children or something, like we couldn’t reach our food properly. It was kind of funny. Once outside, we were on our own as far as needs. No waitstaff there to ask if we wanted anything else. When we were ready to leave, we picked up after ourselves and threw the debris in the garbage can. But we knew it was like that. The info is in plain site on two large signs by the front entrance. I guess if you are looking for something less casual, this is not your place.
Location – Glenwood Pines Restaurant is located at 1213 Taughannock Blvd, Ithaca, New York 14850. It has a breathtaking view of Cayuga Lake.
Call 607-273-3709 for more information including hours of operation.
Parking – There is a large parking lot. We were there around 3:30 pm and there were plenty of spaces. After lunch, we visited the Taughannock Falls. We drove past Glenwood Pines on the way home and the parking lot was full.
I was invited to a metal detecting party in Jordan, New York. This is not the first time I’ve ventured out of my own backyard to snoop around for treasure. I have a permit to detect on the beach at Green Lakes State Park but I only really did that once.
So, this was really fun. I met many of the people who post on the Syracuse Metal Detectives Facebook page and that was amazing! I love this hobby and it was such a pleasure to meet like-minded hobbyists who find a lot more cool stuff than I do because they have more expensive equipment and they are just better at it.
I did find stuff! Three pull tabs from soda cans, which are henceforth referred to as dream squashers because they squash the dream of finding coin. They give off a similar reading on the machine and so, it gets your hopes up, up, up….Squashed!!!!! So funny.
Elaine Smothers Peterson is the Jordan Village Historian. She invited us. She also provided pizza for lunch.
There were quite a few coin finds and other valuables! Mercury dimes and a Barber quarter.
This spot is part of the Erie Canal – a defunct part because it has been filled in and is now a grassy knoll/park area that still packs a punch of history. I’d never been there before. It is a beautiful town.
Found in Ithaca is another fun vintage store. I follow them on Facebook. Today I finally visited the store – I drove down from Syracuse and my friend Joyce drove up from Binghamton. We met there at around noon.
It is a multi-vendor situation with about 7,000 square feet of space. So much to see.
A lot of jewelry and decor items plus furniture.
One vendor had a bunch of Mexican Milagro pieces. They are said to carry good luck/miracle energy! We loved these.
Found in Ithaca is open Wednesday- Sunday 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.
Location
227 Cherry St Ithaca, NY 14850 Phone: 607.319.5078
If I had to pick a recurring theme in the shops, I’d go with the bird motif.
I also came across a bunch of these school bells. I wanted them all. I kept picking them up, ringing them and saying, “I wonder how many times this happens in a day?” Joyce said something like, “Probably a lot.” I guess it would get annoying pretty quickly if I had a collection of bells. Everybody and their uncle would want to ring them.
It’s always a great day when you see blue glass.
Vintage clothing and accessories? Yes and yes.
And toys.
The vendors are always on the hunt to find treasures to resell. This is definitely one of those places you must frequent. In fact, once I’d returned home, I checked their Facebook page and noticed several items I’d seen in the shop had been sold, mainly the furniture pieces.
I guess you should go in with an idea of what you are looking for then enjoy the serendipitous experience infused with nostalgia of finding it, something like it or something else that lurks in your vortex of material wants and desires. I ended up finding some leather remnants for my jewelry business. I’m not currently making bracelets and I didn’t need more supplies, but the price was right, so, yeah. You just never know what you will find. So fun!
