The Classy Kraus' of Rochester

This is Air Bud.  Who's Air Bud?  We didn't know either.  We just tried to play basketball at Cobbles Elementary and he'd steal the ball...



Genesee Waterways Center in Genesee Valley Park in Rochester.  Megan's work helped fund a regatta called the Diversity Invitational.



While we were waiting for the regatta to start, I saw this crazy tree in the park.  A bit tropical looking for this area.



Crew racing!






Here's my crew boat.















I believe this is the boat Megan's work bought.  I could be wrong though...


 









First of all, there's a "Professional Disc Golf Association."  Second, the "World Championship" was going on.  Third, this guy had a disc golf cart.  If I were in Buffalo I'd say "For Realz?"



We're still celebrating our first wedding anniversary.  This time, we had a free night stay at the Hyatt Rochester because that's where our reception was (if you remember).  We didn't get the Presidential Suite this time, but we still managed to have a good time...



It's amazingly difficult to take a picture of downtown Rochester without getting it full of empty parking spaces.  It's the difficult position many mid-sized cities have.  People won't come downtown unless there is more parking than in the suburbs.  But, people don't want to come downtown because it is boring since they bulldozed all the retail space to make parking lots.  



Thanks Lindsay!  If you ever get the opportunity to work with her, you are very lucky!



Champagne and chocolate covered strawberries.  Oh la la!



Take note, to the Hyatt Corporation this is our official name.  



Goodbye Midtown Plaza.  This was a urban renewal project in the 60s that closed off a bunch of streets and made a huge, windowless superblock indoor mall.  For my Michigan folk, think the old malls in downtown Muskegon and Grand Rapids which met the same fate.  



Despite the whole Paetec situation, I think downtown is still heading in a much more stable and sustainable direction.  



Goodbye Robocop Architecture.



The old Sibley Department Store.  This reminds me of the Merchandise Mart building in Chicago.  Under the right management, this place could be the crown jewel of Rochester.



Dinner at Scene on Main in the Hyatt.  Since we got married, they renovated the first few floors of the Hyatt and it's pretty swanky (and "IT'S OUR WEDDING COLORS!" as Megan pointed out immediately).  I believe this was called "Scene Snax"


 
This is the flatbread 



The filet and fingerling fries.  I know it's in a hotel, but it is really super good food and you should go to it.  And, we happened to be there when the Tall Club had their convention, which meant that Megan and I were the shortest people there.


NOW FOR SOME BUSINESS:
BARKTOBER FEST 2011 is on September 24th in Egypt Park (next to Lollypop Farm) and I'm on The Dirty Dogs team.  So, please support me (and the homeless and abused animals of Lollypop Farm) by going to http://lollypop.kintera.org/ba​rktoberfest/mike to make a donation!


That's it for now.  Megan's trying to make a cake with Rachel...

Our First Anniversary With Bubby...

I got Megan a dog for our first anniversary!!!!  Not really.  I was going to Megan's theater party and almost hit him with my car.  In honor of the show she was in, Company, we named him after the main character Bobby.  His real name was Joyous and had quite an exciting day with us.



We decided to head to Turning Point Park in Rochester.  It's a pretty cool park and wish we could have spent more time there.  But, we had to return Bubby Joyous to his real home, which he was very happy to get to...



Megan and Bubby



At the Genesee River



More Megan and Bubby



a boat



Our Official First Anniversary Photo.  They are available for sale along with those of Prince Harry and Kate...


Talking about weddings, CONGRATS TO THE BRAMBLEWOODS!  Looks like it was a fun time in Michigan at Katie and Andrew's wedding.  Wish we could have been there to share!



What's in these boxes?  Bricks!  AND I'M SO EXCITED I AM GETTING TO INSTALL THEM TOMORROW!!!  We've had so many issues with weather and all that I thought that they'd never get in the ground.  Thanks to Zaretsky Landscaping, I'll have many, many happy donors soon!  YEAH!!!!!!!!!

Life and Times Along the Erie Canal

Noah and Frances should be back from Hawaii now. Hope you guys had a great time on your honeymoon!

We've been "spooked." I guess there's a neighborhood tradition out here in Penfield that you "spook" your neighbors by placing a bucket of Halloween goodies on their porch, a ghost on their door, and running away. Then you are suppose to do the same to two other neighbors. Much friendlier Halloween tradition than what I'm use to in the Midwest...

Bucket-o-Goodies

As I have some time on my hands these days, I was put in charge of the operation

I've been in Rochester about two weeks and I'm already making arts & crafts for the neighbor kids. I'm a minivan away from being a "soccer mom."

My niece, Rachel, getting ready to go spooking

Here we are spooking what turned out to be the home of the old guy from the movie Up. That's what happens when you don't know your neighbors.

Megan showed me around her office. She's the interim Executive Director of the Marie C. & Joseph C. Wilson Foundation.

Very professional

The Erie Canal in Pittsford.

The City of Rochester was sponsoring tours of the city called "River Romance" this past weekend. So, lots of free activities to introduce me to my new home. Although, I'm not sure what the "Romance" part was. Was it so I would fall in love with the river? Anyway, here we are under the Driving Park Bridge on the way to the Lower Falls

Driving Park Bridge

The Lower Falls

SINGLE RAINBOW! WHAT DOES IT MEAN!

There's a somewhat famous painting of these falls by Frederic Edwin Church at the Los Angeles Art Museum

The tour guide with a family from Webster, NY, which is just northeast of Rochester

The Middle Falls, which "are the most elusive attraction in all of Rochester" according to a father trying to engage his bored kids. Too bad they built a dam on top of them...

From the bridge over the Middle Falls on the dam

The Seat of Remembering and Forgetting. Not sure what this is really suppose to show. It's the faces and hands of kids from a nearby by school for the deaf. It looks like a representation of people stranded in hell. Maybe a mass entrapment of kids in carbonite with Han Solo?

The Charlotte Genesee Lighthouse at Rochester Harbor on Lake Ontario

Inside the lighthouse they have an interesting little museum. This depicts a local battle against the British. Apparently, the locals tricked the Brits into thinking they had more soldiers by having them march around a building several times. Or something like that...

Would you fight this guy?

Up the lighthouse!

Looking down from the top of the lighthouse stairs

Megan keeping watch over the harbor and Lake Ontario

Evidence I climbed up a 40 foot tower

Old railroad bridge

Lantern for the lighthouse

Ontario Beach County Park.

The beach use to have an amusement park. A few things remain including this Dentzel Carousel.

Carousel organ

Some woodcarving of someone

Someone I'm probably related to...

The very Art Deco Charlotte High School.

Checked out the Carl Peters WPA murals at the high school. They are about 19 feet tall and recently restored. They are very nice, but the photos don't do them justice as the lighting in the space was terrible

That's all I have for now. Back to job hunting and making some lunch...