Melissa, Lars, Sofia, & Espen: Out of "Dodge" for the weekend.

It's the middle of January, It's Rochester (for those of you who don't know, it's gray and dreary for a big part of the winter, albeit, not frigid like back home, but certainly not many bright and sunny/cold days), We haven't been out of this city since coming back from Norway in August, and the 3 of us were a little "shack-happy". So, we decided to go out of town. We went to Corning, a little town about 1 1/2 hours from here. It's where "Corningware" and Corelle dishes are made! We visited the Corning Glass Museum then went to a hotel with a fantastically WARM swimming pool and spent over 5 hours in the water between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning!
It was a nice little break from the drudgery of our everyday life (especially since the Christmas excitement is over...)

Sofia had a fantastic time swimming. She is a brave girl. She started out a hanging on tight, but by the end of the swim today, was "swimming" all alone on here "noodle" saying "Mamma, NO, don't hold me!" What a kid.

Speaking of "frigid", I wanted to make a comment on how wussy one can get being away from the frigid midwest for a short time. I make fun of people at work when they comment on the "cold" of Rochester. Well, I caught myself in the act. It was predicted to only be +20 for a high today ( I think it got to 23 with a wind-chill of +11). I found myself saying to Lars and Sofia: "We have to bundle up - it's gonna be COOOLD today!" CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? While my family is sitting in -15 F for the HIGH temp yesterday? The low here is only supposed to be +15, with windchill of -5. OOOOOOHHHHH, what a bunch of wussies! Should have seen us bundle up - not to mention some people outside walking on our street earlier. Amazing what you get used to. By the way, the average temp here for Jan is like 31 F during the daytime.

Here are some pictures: