Adventure, Coffee, Beer, and Fun!

This Saturday was a good one. After teaching my yoga class, my wife and I headed out for a little adventure. There were three places or events that we wanted to hit and we made all three. It was a really good time.

The first place we stopped was one of the local area businesses called Finger Lakes Coffee Roasters. They roast their own coffees, and make some wonderful different blends and flavored coffees. My wife especially likes their Jamaican Me Crazy, so that was the main goal. When we got there, the shop was basically empty. As soon as you enter the place, that wonderful aroma of fresh coffee all but knocks you to the floor and demands that you have a cup. We filled out bag with Jamaican Me Crazy beans, but my wife wanted to look around. She mentioned some Chocolate Almond coffee and one of the girls working there mentioned that it was her favorite. We bought some of that too. By this time, there were several more people and while we waited to pay for our coffee, I noticed a sign advertising “Funky Monkey”. I ordered one.

A “Funky Monkey” is coffee, chocolate syrup, a banana and milk. I suppose the monkey part came from the banana. I will say this with a shot of whipped cream on top, this was one Funky drink! I loved the thing. My poor wife hardly got any since we just bought the one to share.

I do want to mention that I realize that three of the four pictures are a little out of focus. I took them with my mobile phone and the blurry ones were after the tasting! A tribute to the goodness of their beer!

The next stop on our little itinerary was the Custom Brewcrafter micro brewery. The building itself is not what I would call, visitor friendly, not that it was bad, it just looks like a big barn. As you walk in the front door, the tasting room is rather large and I think they could have filled the space a bit better, but we were welcomed by a very friendly employee who told us a little about the place and explained how things worked. We bought a tasting card, three bucks a piece for six tastes each and off we went to the bar.

Having never been there before, we weren’t quite sure how things went, but it didn’t take long to have our first tasting in our hands. Living in the finger lakes area, I am used to wine tasting. The people who helped us with our beer tasting were every bit as knowledgeable about their beers and helped us to enjoy the subtleties of each brew we tried. We took the tour of the facilities and I was impressed by their operation. We bought a growler, a half gallon jug, of their Scotch Ale. It is very good!

The last stop was the Fairport festival. Fairport is a town right on the Erie canal. It is quaint and has lots of interesting shops. During festival, the main street is blocked and the place fills with craft people, food booths, and music. We listened to some rock and then some very nice jazz. I was a little disappointed with the festival, mostly because my wife, after complaining for three years that we haven’t made it there, really didn’t want to stay very long. We looked at some crafts, listened to some music and were gone within an hour. I especially wanted to take one of the boat rides down the canal. The ride lasted about a half hour and only cost six dollars a ticket, but Mick didn’t want to go, so we didn’t.

I understand if you think this was not really an adventure. It wasn’t climbing the Matterhorn, or rafting white water rivers, but it was a great day out, the weather was beautiful and the people we met were wonderful. For me, that’s an adventure worth having.