Three Beautiful Things 09/16/2021: The Box Arrived!, Hopshire Farm Brewery, Off the Interstate

 1. The box arrived! I have clothes! I have a duffle bag! Immediately, I tore open the box, opened the duffle bag, packed my things, and within minutes I was ready to hit the road. Before long, we did.

2. We headed north and west without a plan. We just knew we wanted to arrive somewhere within a couple of hours of Niagra Falls.  We knew we wanted to stop at a brewery. Debbie went online and located Hopshire, a farm brewery near Dryden, NY. She also decided Geneva, NY would work as a place to spend the night and reserved us a room. 

Hopshire was just the brewery we were looking for! It's a farm brewery set on a gently sloping hill with generous outdoor seating -- picnic tables scattered up and down the slope and far and wide. The temperature was mild. We found shade. And to top it all off, Hopshire offered a variety of tasty beers. 

We ordered a flight of five samples:

Haze in the Hollow a hazy IPA

Beehave a honey ale

Shire Ale a Scotch ale

Dragon Ash a porter

Near Varna a big American IPA

We relaxed, soaked in the the pastoral setting, finished the flight, and ordered 10 oz pours of the honey ale and the Scotch ale and shared them both.

3. Once we got off the interstate to wind our way to Hopshire, we were on state and county roads. We encountered a couple or three horse-drawn Amish carriages coming down the highway on the opposite side of the highway. I loved driving in this region of rolling hills, broccoli looking trees densely covering hillsides, and seeing one barn and silo after another.

Soon, we were in the Fingers Lake area without really realizing we'd done it. 

Geneva, NY is on the shore of Seneca Lake which we haven't really gotten a very good look at because we arrived after dark. 

For the record, I'll just say we made a misstep today.

We stopped in Seneca Falls, NY at a tap house for a bite to eat. The building was cool, an older brick structure. It was clean with very friendly service. We took a seat outside where we were very comfortable, but our food was lousy -- I never think or say that -- and the lager I ordered was really mediocre.

Oh, well. 

In all of our travels over the last several years, this is only the second time we've struck out badly at a place.