Rochester- Sunday, June 29, 2025

      Friday was Scott's last day of school this year and Saturday we had Emily and Josh's wedding to go to.  Julie was chomping at the bit to do something vacation-like.  She's been sitting patiently at home since early May waiting for her knee to heal after her surgery and now.  She's not 100% healed yet, but she is much better than she was, has been able to drive for a couple of weeks, and was ready to finally get out of the house.  She chose Rochester, partly because it was close and partly because she remembered some things from last year that we wanted to revisit.

     Our first stop was Ontario Beach Park on the west side of Rochester in Monroe County along the Genesee River.  We knew that there was a cute splash pad and play area there that Abby enjoyed last year, and we had said that we wanted to return to it sometime.  Abby loved it this time and ran screaming with glee as she dashed from point to point.  She loved the small water slide this time, especially once she mastered getting to the end of it without tumbling off.  She didn't like that same water slide very much when we were here last year, but she has grown into it.

     After she was done there, we had her dry off and change back into dry clothes and went to the nearby carousel.   It is the Dentzel Menagerie Carousel and dates to 1905.   We knew from last year that she could not ride it in a wet bathing suit, so we were ready this time.  We bought a pass for 12 rides, though later Julie discovered last year's pass that still had punches left on it.    The three of us- Julie, Scott and Abby- rode together the first time, though Julie sat on one of the carousel's benches to rests her leg.  Scott and Abby rode the second time, and Abby was excited to be able to ride the "unicorn".  The girl who was operating the carousel today was great.  She had bubble guns and would shoot waves of bubbles at the riders.  We all got a kick out of that.

     It was getting later and we were getting hungry.  Julie chose a place for lunch that was right along the Genesee River.  It is called the Pelican's Nest and has a wharf that boat can pull right up to.  It was a little expensive and service was a little slow, but Julie loved sitting out in the breeze watching the boats pull away.

     It was the middle of the afternoon by the time we were done there, and we decided to look for our hotel.  It ended up being the one we were at last year, next door to a Cracker Barrel.   We brought our stuff to the room, and of course Abby was ready for a swim.  Since it was the middle of the afternoon, we had the pool to ourselves.  Scott found Abby a couple of toys that had gotten sucked into the filter.  She called them hidden toys and kept them for her tub at home. 

     After the afternoon swim, we found that the sun and the cool water had drained all of our energy and we were all dragging.  We managed to make it out to the Cracker Barrel nearby to look through the gift shop there, and then to McDonald's for dinner.  We also made it into Target where we bought some necessities, including a new "floaty" for Abby because she has outgrown the own she has been using.  We came back to the hotel and welcomed the chance to rest and relax.