Two's Better Than One

6:38

6:49

6:53

It's a sunny morning, what else, although it appears to be clouding up.  It's already a warm 71º out and will get once again into the 80's later in the day.  There is, however, some cool weather predicted by the end of the week, with a high in the 60's.

Yesterday was a carbon copy of Saturday, hot and humid, with an occasional breeze for relief.  For us, it did not seem like a Sunday, perhaps because we have not yet gotten into our routine of a walk around the Chautauqua Institution.  Its season, however, is over, so gates are open for everyone during the day.  After coffee, neither of us were sure what to do.  It was warming up, obviously, and we didn't want to walk, so I decided to get some exercise and put my bike in the car and drove over to Bemus Point for a bike ride.  I was shocked at how warm it was by 10:00 in the morning but my ride was surprisingly pleasant, much of it in the shade of trees and there was also a decent breeze.  I met a few other bikers on Lakeside Drive, a few dog walkers in the Long Point State Park trails but that's about it for a Sunday morning.  When I got back, it was close to noon and Evie wanted to get breakfast over with, so she made our bacon, eggs, and bagels, and we watched CBS Sunday morning, hosted by Charles Osgood for the last time, as he is retiring...a sad day because we really like him. The program will continue and has yet to name its new host.

We then spent the rest of the day as we should on a day of rest.  We rested, either inside or outside, depending on whether we could stand the heat.  Evie could and I couldn't.  We did have a goal in mind.  We were going to go out for dinner, so we did not have to worry about prepping or getting dinner ready, which is always nice for Evie.  It was obviously a warm day on the dock but around 3:30, the wind picked up and Evie thought it felt like she was sunning along the ocean, as the waves rolled in, bringing with it lots of the seaweed that's been sitting on the bottom.

Around 5:00, we both showered and headed off to Pine Junction, one of our favorite restaurants, about a 20 minute drive.  I had read on Facebook that they were having an 'end of the summer' ride for motorcyclists.  We thought it would be fun to be there, to see the bikes, the bikers, perhaps some Trump supporters.  Well, when we got there, nary a bike stood in the parking lot, just lots of cars.  We sat down at the bar, a beer and found out that the bikers were there earlier in the day, around 1:00 and we gone by 4:00, alas.  We stayed for a beer, struck up a conversation with a guy named Tony, from Edinboro, who we talked with the last time we were at the Pine Junction bar.  A nice guy, we ended up talking about a new restaurant on Findlay Lake, also owned by the the Pine Junction family, called Brigadoon.

Restaurant/Bar #1, Pine Junction With Tony

Both he and the waitress raved about its pizza and a spinach salad, so we decided to try it out and drove 10 minutes to Findlay Lake.

Craft Beers At Brigadoon

The restaurant has a nice terrace, looking at the lake, but we decided to sit at the bar.  We recognized the bartender because she also works at Pine Junction.  She, too recommended both the pizza and salad, so that's what we ordered and both were great, the salad with a special grape seed dressing, spinach, blueberries, cranberries, and greens.  The pizza was thin crust with artichokes, mushrooms and spinach.  We talked with another guy who lives in the area, loves the food here, and had driven there on his motorcycle.

Restaurant/Bar # 2, at Brigadoons

It was a good choice, to hit two restaurants rather than one, and we were home early enough to see the final episode of our much awaited HBO series THE NIGHT OF.  (Spoiler Alert) The ending, for once, did not disappoint and was filled with tension all the way to the very last shot, as we feared for the young man accused of the crime.  It looked as though he was going to be convicted although the prosecutor was aware of new evidence that might have exonerated him.  Fortunately, the jury ended up split, a mistrial was called and the prosecutor was the able to refuse a new trial.  Thus, the young man was able to go free.  This was TV at its best, compelling and real, with little fluff or exaggeration.