October 26, 2008

Rochester.



Rochester’s Inner Loop., originally uploaded by iMachias.

Earl and I drove to Rochester late yesterday afternoon. Both of us have spent some time in the city famous for Kodak and Xerox, but there was much for us to explore.

One point of interest was The Village Gate on North Goodman Street. With it’s eclectic selection of shops we browsed around a bit and found some interesting toys to bring home. I’m always happy to see people embrace an old building and turn it into something useful instead of ripping it down and building another generic strip mall. There are quite a few restaurants in The Village Gate. Business seemed good.

We opted to go to a restaurant not too far away. Earl has been there before and knew that I would enjoy The Old Toad. He was absolutely right; being a fan of pubs, The Old Toad was perfect for a Saturday night supper and a few pints of Guinness.

Here is Earl looking over the selection on the menu.
Bear in the Old Toad.

Since I was driving home and still feeling some effects from the Guinness, we opted to walk around the area for a bit and peer into the windows of the shops and see who was going to what nightclub or restaurant. We walked over Rochester’s Inner Loop several times. I enjoy the design of that roadway. We are going to have something similar here in a couple of years.

So we walked around before taking the long way home. We drove 98 miles to and from Rochester and only took the Thruway for the last 30 miles or so. Sometimes the back roads are the best way to go.