Mike’s Digital Laboratory

Today we attended the New York Ice Wine Festival.  And we did not have to travel far, just down the road and up the hill to Casa Larga. When it comes to U.S. wines it seems New York state is often playing second fiddle to California.  But the truth is we make some excellent wines here, and sorry California, you can’t make ice wine like we do.  The grapes are hand picked when they are frozen on the vine, when it is at least 20 degrees Fahrenheit. (-6C). Boy I have a lot of respect for those grape pickers.   Brrrrr and yummm.   Because the grapes are partially shriveled and frozen there is a very high sugar content in the grape.  The juice from these grapes ferments for about twice as long as regular grapes as a result.  This also produces a thicker sweeter wine, making ice wine an excellent desert wine.

My friend Brian (aka Charlie) Peterson is blogging while traveling in Singapore. Brian is an avid photographer and sends out an e-mail everyday with a new photo. I’ve been on his mailing list for years and it’s always a treat to open up the photo of the day.  Mostly the photos have been of local subjects (here in Rochester)  but lately Brian has been traveling and I’ve been enjoying a steady stream of images from France and elsewhere in Europe.  Now everyone can get a glimpse of Brian’s travels on his new blog.

Just before the Thanksgiving Holiday I attended the first ever Semantic Mediawiki users group meeting. I was lucky enough to have some good friends provide me with a room and a bed to sleep in.  (Thanks Joe and Shari!) The trip was great and aside from the business at hand I enjoyed some excellent homemade pasta and a killer game game of Settlers of Catan .  However the most amazing thing of all was the bed they let me sleep in.  So remarkable is this bed that I was inspired to make this short video for you on my MacBook just as I was packing up to head home.

Tranquil waters, rain, Insects, sun, fun, adventure are all keywords I might choose for this summers vacation. Posted for your perusal, 31 photos of our 5 day canoe trip in Algonquin Provincial Park Canada. This was my third time to Algonquin. The first time I was just a little older than Melanie. At age 14 this was her first time on such an adventure. When asked if she liked it, she gives two thumbs up. In today’s world of electronics, fast food and all forms of instant gratification I think it’s important for young people to get away from it all that to where there the only electricity is lightning and the cell phones don’t work.

When you view these photos, click on “details” at the bottom of the page and you can read my comments for all the photos. For more about Algonquin see the park web site.

20 hours of travel time later we have returned home.  This has been truly a remarkable trip but it is good to be back.

More pictures of Amsterdam are now available.

Yesterday (7/14) was a trip to the Zuider Zeemuseum in Enkhuizen, a historic “reproduction” of an old 18th and19th century village by the sea. Think “Dutch” version Sturbridge Village.

Today (7/15) was The Jewish History Museum, Portuguese Synagogue from the 17th century, still in use. An hour at the Botanical Gardens. A bike ride to Vondel Park for free music, juggling and dinner.

Quick update of our continued fun in Amsterdam so far: (Almost all of these we traveled to on bicycle. We rented a double bike for Dad and Lydia

July 12th:

• The flower Market by the "Singel" canal
• The Van Gogh Museum
• Harry Potter at the famous Tuschinski movie theater.

July 13th:

• Anne Frank House
• “Canal Bikes” (Pedal boats) with an exciting geocache hunt you can only get to by boat.
• Westerkerk (West church)
• Rijsttaffel (Rice Table) at Taman Sari resautant.

Yesterday we arrived in Amsterdam.  We were very happy to be be greeted by our good friend Asker, right on the train platform.  Asker guided us by tram directly to our hotel ( Hotel Rembrandt)  with ease.  We checked in and the had plenty of time for a walking  tour of the area around our hotel. 

Today we spent most of our day at the zoo.  We then had dinner at a local pancake house and then took a relaxing stroll along the canal. 

Tomorrow we rent bicycles and go touring around town with Asker.  We are here for an entire week so there should be more posts and photos soon from Amsterdam.

A particular challenge lies ahead us of as we try to get tickets to see Harry Potter. The movie has already started playing here in Europe and we all want to go see it!

This morning, before leaving Bruges, we took a cruise on a canal tourist boat and then had Belgium waffles for lunch.

In the afternoon we took the train to Antwerp. We enjoyed the sights riding on the top level of a fairly modern double decker train car. Great fun.

We have a nice room here in Antwerp somewhere in the city. Although we are feeling a bit clueless about what to do here and where to go I’m sure we’ll figure it out in the morning. We always seem to have fun wherever we go.

- Posted by MobiBlogr from mobile phone.