Loving life in weather above freezing

So we made it! Our visit to Rochester has come and gone and all we had left to show for it was a black car that looked like it drove through a drum of white paint. It was actually so bad that I had to take a picture to prove it. We almost didn't even make it all the way down to Charlottesville without driving through a car wash. I was pretty embarrassed to be seen driving such a dirty car yesterday and even our neighbor who we never speak to said to Ben, "What happened to your car?" I took care of it late last night, and it's back to normal.

Back to our trip...we honestly had a great time. Despite the frigid weather, the 30 mph winds and a couple white-outs driving we loved it. Rochester is kind of an older city where the homes have a lot of character. Good character too. Different colored homes, porches, balconies... what more could you ask for?

So we spent most of our time the first day checking out homes and getting acquainted with the area. It's almost impossible to get lost in that city it's so easy to navigate. We checked out the downtown scene (pretty ghetto in some areas, but really cool in others), the suburb scene and surprisingly liked both. Of course we made it to Wegmans where we saw where I will be doing all my future grocery shopping. It's honestly unbelievable to shop there. They even sold truffles in the produce section where they were priced for $699.99 a pound!

On our second day there we attended Church (just the first hour since we were on vacation) and made the short trek out to Palmyra. It was my first time to see the historic Church areas though I didn't get quite the full effect since all buildings were closed. We did see the Hill Cummorah and even got to drive to the top. I was so excited to take a picture from up there, but when I tried to turn on my camera the battery died. I guess that's punishment for not attending all 3 hours of Church. We had so much time to waste before we could check in to our hotel that we hit up some open houses, the mall, and Sam's Club (where milk is only $1.77). Who knew that they have the best samples on Sunday?

Our last full day was spent checking out the downtown apartments. We saw about 5 in total and our favorite by far is the Temple Building. An old Baptist Temple converted into loft apartments with exposed brick walls and maple hardwood floors... gorgeous. Hands down our number one pick in where to live for our first year out there. Ben would be able to walk to work, and I would get my one and only downtown living experience. We're just crossing our fingers that something will be available come August when we are planning on moving.

When we got up the last day before we headed out it was 1 degree outside. Yeah, Fahrenheit. It had also snowed about 5 inches so there was snow everywhere. We went to visit Ben's office and decided to park on the street. Well, the people we met there were all really nice but kept us a little too long so that we got a parking ticket. Maybe not the best way to end our trip.
So anyway, we headed out around noon and it was so cold that our washer fluid was frozen and we couldn't wash our windshield. Not very helpful when you're driving on the freeway and snow chunks and salt are coming off semis and the road and splattering on your windshield. For about the first 5 hours of our trip home the weather never got warmer than 20 degrees so that washer fluid stayed frozen until we stopped at Ben's parents house for dinner. A delicious home-made dinner made up for all our travel troubles and we even made it back to Charlottesville for my bedtime.

All in all, we had a great time and are looking forward to life in Rochester.