An opportunity for one of those quick trips I love presented itself last week. On the Friday before last, very late in the day (just before 5pm), a new claim came in. The damage needed to be inspected pretty quickly, so I woke up at 4:30 on Tuesday morning and caught an early flight to Rochester, NY via O’Hare. The area was surprisingly pretty once I got outside of Rochester (the location was about 45 miles east).
After inspecting the damage, the owner of the company took me for a tour of the area, then took me to her house, introduced me to her husband and three cats, and offered me wine and cheese.
They were really nice people and I had an excellent time with these people who were complete strangers just hours before. I treated them to dinner at an excellent restaurant they knew nearby, Relish. Before we headed out to the restaurant, I was given some lovely parting gifts, which included: a bottle of New York wine, a chardonnay which was actually quite a good (not too dry); two pounds of 4X (aged four years) New York cheddar cheese; and two jars of homemade jam (cherry/strawberry and strawberry). I was told that I qualified as a “315-er,” which means that I know how to relax.
After dinner, I had to drive back to Rochester to my hotel. Along the way, I took a road that followed the southern coast of Lake Ontario. I had never seen any of the Great Lakes apart from a bit of Lake Michigan from Chicago. It’s strange to see freighters on lakes. It’s also strange (to me) to be standing on the shore of a lake and not be able to see the other side. I didn’t realize how deep these lakes are…Lake Ontario is an average of 283 feet deep with its deepest point being 802 feet!
Rochester itself didn’t seem very impressive, but granted I didn’t see much of it, although my hotel was downtown. The hotel, the Crowne Plaza was disappointing. Clearly a remodeled Holiday Inn, the only redeeming quality was the bed, which was quite good. I would have much preferred being able to return Tuesday night and sleep in my own bed with my sweetie, but alas I couldn’t justify doubling the airfare in order to do that. Oh, well.
All in all, it was a pleasant trip.