Road Trip and Back

So I'm back. And yes I was able to renew my work visa. Yaaaaay! It was almost too easy because the border officer dude did not give me a hard time at all and the process took only about 10 minutes. I'm thankful. And yes, the Americans will have to put up with me for another year.

I love road trips and this one, although short, was one of my favorite ones. My friend, we'll call her E-gurl, I discovered, is a great road tripper pal. The drive up to Niagara Falls held a myriad of interesting conversations, most of which centered around Reformed Theology. Over the last few years, I've been grappling with the 5 points of Calvinism. My good friend Jonny, is a self-proclaimed Calvinist with whom I've had many spirited "discussions" about this particular doctrine. Coming from an Arminian background - I grew up in a Baptist church - I've never really challenged the doctrine that I grew up with, until I started going to a Presbyterian church and becoming friends with people like Jonny and E-gurl, who are quite strong in their beliefs around the 5 points of Calvinism. They are both able to articulate the 5 points so well and back it up with scripture that it is making me start to believe in this particular doctrine. I need to do some more reading and studying of scripture on this. Who knows, I may turn out into a Calvinist yet!

We stayed at this quaint bed and breakfast in Niagara-On-the-Lake where the proprietors are nothing short of amazing. It was my second time staying at this place and it was of course even better than the last time. The owners remembered me from the time before - it was like visiting a dear old aunt and uncle. And the breakfast? Scrumptious.

Monday evening we ended up hanging out around the walk by the falls. It was a nice, warm, breezy evening with sprays of cool droplets coming from Niagara falls. I've been to the falls a few times and it never ceases to amaze me - I can see God's handiwork in this wonder. We truly have an amazing and creative God! I didn't think that we would spend as much time on the walk way than we did. There was this band, Renegade, giving a free concert by the falls and playing some cover tunes. Most of these cover tunes swept us back to junior high and high school days where Bon Jovi and Journey classics had us itching to do some head banging. :D People watching along the walk was also a huge hit of the evening. It was good times.

One of the fun things about road trips are the spontaneous, unplanned, by the seat of our pants, type of sightseeing. Niagara-On-The-Lake is wine country and I'd have to say that this was probably the highlight of our little road trip. We had no plans to visit any wineries, but the different vineyards we drove by kept calling out to us, slowly drawing us in. So we did a little wine tasting here and there, visiting about four different wineries. Most of the wineries charged a small fee for wine tasting but somehow, E-gurl and I were never charged. It's funny what a little flirtation could do. E-gurl bought 7 bottles of wine, while I bought four -a Muscat, a Dry Riesling, a Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Merlot. Yeah, yeah, call me a lush.

On our way back to Philly yesterday, we took a detour through Ithica, NY, taking the scenic route driving by one of the finger lakes, Cayuga Lake. I drove by this area a few years ago and fell in love with the lake and the little college town of Ithica. We made a planned stop at the Moosewood Restaurant, which as been "acclaimed as a driving force in the world of creative vegetarian cooking." The Moosewood Collective has authored a number of great cookbooks, one of which I own and use quite often. I suppose I'm a granola girl at heart, but what's keeping me from being truly granola is my penchant for meat and chicken. I ordered stuffed peppers with a cold cucumber and beet salad - it was wonderfully fresh and filled with so much flavor. Must return.

After our Ithica "pitt-stop", the drive back up to Philly was pretty uneventful. E-gurl did most of the driving while I slept quite a bit. After spending two full days in a town where people were polite and friendly, returning to the city was almost a rude awakening for me. Living here for the last six years, I've become accustomed to the city attitude - rude and uncouth. Right from the moment we entered back into the city, I was subjected to some incredibly primitive and rude behavior, one of which included a racist remark coming from an ignorant white college student who just moved down the street from me. I won't even bother wasting my time writing about what happened with this little peon, but I will say this: I've been living on this very TIGHT-KNIT block for the last five and half years, where people seriously watch out for each other, and if this boy had any functioning brain cells, (which he obviously doesn't), then he better not be making enemies in this neighborhood.

Joy, welcome back to the city.