downtown Rochester, NY

...heading to the Red Wings game!

I've grown to really like downtown Rochester. I don't know the city too well, except for a couple cafes, shops, and main streets from when I lived in the area... Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch and Lomb were all founded in this city!

A bit of a view from the bridge...

Times Square Building with wings atop!

City Hall building-castle:

Side of a church:

yearly visit to Camp Stella Maris

Each summer when I am home in Rochester, NY... I make a trip out to Camp Stella Maris. I went to CSM as a camper growing up and then was on staff for 6 years. Camp has helped to shape me into the person that I am today and a visit home wouldn't be the same without Camp.  <3

My friend, Courtney, and I went out together... and then Jenn met us there... we don't know many people at Camp anymore -- but our good friend, Tom Weaver, is still there full-time and Adam Bell is the Camp Director (he began the same summer that I did!).

Funny enough... this visit brought many staff members saying that they felt like they walked into a 'flashback'... finding me, Courtney, Jenn, and Tom sorting the mail... and two staff members told me that I was their very first counselor at Camp! Very cool.   : )

A couple views of the waterfront on Conesus Lake:

Mondo still reigns at Ballfield!

Courtney, me, A-Bell

The out-sourced pros for sorting the daily mail! (Ha!)

Courtney, Tom, me, Jenn

I was his counselor his very first year at Camp!

He was a junior camper -- seven years old. It was summer of 2003...

...this is his 2nd year on staff now...

...and now he's going to be a freshman in college in the fall! Whoa.  : )

hiking with Mom and Dad at the Bluffs, NY

I enjoyed the walk along the bluffs in Chimney Bluffs State Park with Mom and Dad. Hot day... fun hike.

I see a Mom!...

...more hikin views! at the Bluffs, NY

More views along our hike in Chimney Bluffs State Park:

hikin views! at the Bluffs, NY

Chimney Bluffs State Park ...gorgeous. Below are some photos taken along our walk along the bluffs.

Incredible. I didn't know that this was so close to my hometown! (Less than an hour's drive.)

And a couple other 'views' just for fun:

falling trees at the Bluffs, NY

The walk along Lake Ontario in Chimney Bluffs State Park was very nice... even on a super hot day. The trail is right along the edge of the cliffs at some parts and said edge is continually making its way further and further back. Some of the trees (roots included) looked as if they had very recently fallen (collapsed!) off the edge... landing at the bottom along the water's edge... and many of the trees still grow this way!

This one fell the wrong way! Yikes.

Chimney Bluffs State Park, NY

While my brother, Lenny, and his wife, Lexey, were home in Rochester a couple months ago, they visited Chimney Bluffs State Park with my parents. I had never heard of this state park before their visit!

Mom and Dad took me there this past week too. It's really great. I never knew that we had bluffs like this so close to us... right along Lake Ontario! We parked in the lot and then walked about a 3-mile round-trip to (and along) the bluffs and then back. This is my kind of a 'hike'... flat!!

Mom and Dad:

View of the bluffs from the start of the hike along Lake Ontario:

Let's go!