The festival was broken up into 3 hour sessions over 2 days (Friday and Saturday).  Casey had gotten tickets for us to attend the 1-4 pm Saturday session.  We had lunch before the event at a very nice cafe in Elmira, Charlie’s Cafe.  Casey called ahead to Charlie’s and said they were capable of providing gluten-free options for her, which was nice!

When we first arrived at the festival it wasn’t too crowded, but soon enough the rink floor was packed.  We made sure to visit some of our favorite wineries, but we also tried some new wines.  It was nice being able to try new wines from wineries we had never visited during our previous fingerlake trips.

Below are some photos of the event as well as the wines (including a hard cider) we ended up buying at the festival.

I have had the bed in storage in my garage for the past few years and I knew I ultimately wanted to eventually restore the bed for my son.  Well, Tyler is definitely ready for a big-boy bed, so I started the process of restoring this bed two weeks ago. Something that I never noticed when the bed was mine as a kid, was how badly the bed was banged up.  One leg was completely loose and is going to need re-glued.  Some spots on the headboards and bed rails have huge chips and scratches.  When I started this project I was pretty optimistic about how it was going to look.

Sanding…

Headboards showing the sanding progress, original on the right

It took me about 12 hours to completely sand down the old finish.  I did remove the old mattress slat hangers/rails on each bed rail (they were glued and nailed), but I am going to replace them later.  I also removed some detailed molding on the foot boards.  I am not going to finish the detailed molding or replace it, I just don’t thinks it adds to the bed’s style.  You can see the molding in the following photo.

Bed footer showing detailed molding which I removed later.

Repairs…

One issue I ran into was the fact that the glue that was holding the legs of the head and foot boards was kinda dried out and one leg was completely loose and showing cracks near the holes where the dowels were inserted.  The photos below show these issues.  I had to glue the cracked wood first, then re-glue the post back to the foot board.

Staining attempted…

Well, I started staining the bed, but noticed an issue right away.  I first stained the side boards which looked great and then moved on to a headboard.  Oh no, the original finish was still showing deep in the grains of the oak wood and  it wasn’t holding the stain.  What do I do?  My options were to re-sand the entire bed or to paint the bed.  Since it I wanted to have the bed done before christmas, I decided to paint the bed.  Off to Sherwin Williams for some paint. I bought two paints; a grey latex primer and a dark navy enamel latex.

Finishing…

I painted the entire bed with a single coat of the primer and then 3 coats of the enamel latex over a two week period.  One think that I didn’t like about the finish was the paint.  This paint was recommended by the staff at Sherwin Williams as an extremely durable paint.  I have noticed that several days after painting the paint is still tacky and easily sticks to other surfaces that the bed touches.  I am going to have to stop back to the store and ask t hem why the paint is behaving like this.

I then cut, drilled, and mounted all new slat rails with screws every 5 inches compared to the originally nailed slat rails (nailed every 16″).    I then measured and cut all the new slats for the bed.

Done…

I purchased some nice mattresses from the Room Doctor Furniture Co. which is a locally owned company that specializes in lofts and bunk beds, but also sell other items like futons and mattresses.  Below is a photo of the finished bed.  Tyler loves it.

Bunk Bed Restoration: finished

These are really easy to make, I make mine on the gas grill, which really melts the cheese and gives them a nice charred look. I also took the time to make us a margaritas.

Anne Roland Lee spoke about, “The Nutritional Aspects of the Gluten Free Diet”.  She spoke about some really interesting topics that Casey and I haven’t thought about, such as the topic of how a celiac might not be getting the nutrition that they need.  I didn’t think about it, but she mentioned how many of the gluten-free flours aren’t fortified like the glutenous ones, which are regulated by the FDA to be enriched.  This might be one reason Casey is still often fatigued… maybe Casey needs additional supplements to counter the less nutritious gluten-free flours… we’ll see.

The last two photos are of Hailey in her classroom the day before her first day.  Her school had kindergarteners come to school with their parents, so they could get familiar with the school.  It also gave us parents a chance to see their room and what the kids would be doing during the day.

The B & B was VanCleef Homestead owned and operated by Carol and Brent Gibbs.  The B & B was very clean, relaxing and inviting.  Carol served up an unbelievable spread of delicious breakfast foods, including several items there were gluten-free.

Before hitting the trail and sampling wines, we ate lunch at the Ginny Lee located next to Wagner Vineyards.  This is a great place to catch a bite to eat, the food is great and the price is right!  Its also a great place to pair a Wagner wine or beer with some food.

Casey wanted us to visit some different wineries on the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail.  We visited the following wineries on this trip:

• Thirsty Owl Wine Company
• Lucas Winery
• Knapp Winery
• Red Newt Cellars
• Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards
• Wagners Vineyards
• Buttonwood Grove Winery
• Cobblestone Winery
• Goose Watch Winery

For dinner on our first night in the NY finger lakes region, we ate at Suzanne’s.  This place is great; beautiful view of the sunset, excellent food, and great service (including staff that knows what gluten-free means).

This was Hailey’s first trip to a ocean beach!  She had the greatest time playing in the sand, waves, and looking for sand crabs that you can dig up when the ocean waves go out.

Casey loved the fact that we go to go out and eat at one of her favorite (and gluten-free) restaurants, P.F. Chang’s.  Hailey was less impressed with their food, even though their chicken nuggets for kiddos were delicious!

Below are a few photos from VA Beach.

Hailey had a great time and wanted to see everything, but Tyler didn’t want to walk, didn’t want to be held, and didn’t want anyone telling him what to do.  He was running into people, telling people to move, and generally not a happy camper.  I guess it is to be expected when you coupe up a 2 1/2 year hold for a 3 hour drive.

Anyhow, once we got away from the crowded areas, Tyler seemed to do better.  He liked seeing the fishies swimming around and around in the huge circular fish tank, and liked the turtles in the rain forest displays.  Below are a few photos from our trip.