Mystery Tour – June 26, 2024

Today, I went on my third Mystery Tour with First Choice Travel. I had a BLAST!

Here’s the premise: All they tell you is that we’re scheduled to leave Batavia at 9:00 am on a motorcoach with a group of other mystery-seekers, we’ll have a delicious lunch (somewhere), we’ll return to Batavia about 7:00 pm, and we won’t be more than 4 hours away! The rest is a mystery adventure that promises to be great fun figuring out as we go!!!

It was forecast to rain pretty heavy off and on all day…..fortunately, it was a gorgeous day to be out and about…..up until just before our last stop – then, the sky let loose!!! But – it was OK and worked out perfectly! The rain didn’t spoil a thing!!! And…..I got to enjoy the day with friends I had made on other Mystery Tours and others that I remember seeing on other Mystery Tours —- the tours definitely have a regular “following”!

Our bus

At the front of the bus is our driver – Darryl – and our tour manager – Kathy Hamm

Me – in my seat and ready to go!!!

The first stop was East Hill Creamery – New York State Cave-Aged Raw Milk Cheese – owned and operated by the Burley Family.

The creamery is located at 340 South Main Street in Perry, NY

The mission of this adorable farm is: “Turning grass-fed milk into alpine cheeses to create value and culture within our family, employees, and community while sustaining a healthy connection to land and cow.” (per their brochure) Gary and Betty have owned the farm since 1981 and since then have turned 18 cows on a 100 acres into more than 700 cows on a rotational grazing system.

Gary led our tour and was an awesome tour guide! We learned so much about cows, how they are raised and how their milk is turned into cheese. The farm produces cheese similar in process to the Alpine mountain region of France. They make two types of cheese – Gruyere style cheese and Raclette style cheese – with a few varieties of each style.

Gary taught us so much!!! He was amazing!!!

During the tour, Gary showed us the rooms where the cheese is made, molded, and stored to be aged.

He talked extensively about the process and the history of cheese in the Wyoming County area.

That’s Gary in the photo on the right

After the tour, we sat down for a tasting. We were given four different varieties – the one on the left is the silver Lake Gruyere Style Cheese and the one on the right is one of the Raclette Style Cheese. Of course, I couldn’t try any – I’m allergic to cheese! But, everyone else seemed to really enjoy the offerings!

Then, we spent some time (and money) in the lovely gift shop.

Our next stop was at The Olde Country Store & More in North Cohocton, NY – located on the crossroads to Naples, Wayland, and Cohocton, in the Green Heart of the Finger Lakes. Their address is 2 University Ave., North Cohocton.

It is a quaint little old-timey general store with creaky wood floors and crammed with old fashioned candy, European sweets and groceries, imported glass ornaments and figurines from Lauscha, Germany, gifts, crafts, and so much more!

I love the look of the store — it was a fun shopping experience!

A bit of the history

On the porch on either side of the door there are two benches – one says “Republicans” and one says “Democrats”…..only problem I noted was that as you’re looking at the benches, the “Republicans” bench was on the LEFT and the “Democrats” bench was on the RIGHT!!! LOL!!! Of course, that’s all a matter of perspective…..when you’re actually sitting on the benches, everyone is on the “correct” side of the porch!

Just a couple of the inside sections

Following are some photos I took from the bus on the drive to the next stop on our Mystery Journey:

Our next stop was lunch in Naples! We ate at the Social Restaurant inside the Naples Hotel. They put on a delicious buffet lunch for us…..there was potatoes, squash medley, chicken marsala, roast beef, salad, and rolls….we could have a variety of drinks and there was a cookie tray for dessert! No grape pie, though!!! I was disappointed in that – Naples is famous for it’s grape pie and I just assumed there would be some on the dessert menu! Oh well — the cookies were SO GOOD!!! It made the disappointment fade away rather quickly! (to be fair – at the next stop, they did have grape pie filling for sale and frozen grape pies – neither of which I chose to purchase)

The Naples Hotel has a lovely, historic look to it – established 1895!!!

And the inside was elegant, as well…..loved the chandeliers!!!

I took the mashed potatoes, squash, and roast beef from the buffet – VERY GOOD!!!

The sign on the porch as we were leaving:

And – a couple photos I took on the way back to the bus:

After lunch, traveled just a little ways to visit the Arbor Hill Grapery & Winery in Naples! A lovely gift shop, tasting room, and more! They have a variety of wines, beers, non-alcoholic drinks, gourmet foods, gifts, and other items on-site.

Arbor Hill is located at 6461 State Route 64, Naples, NY

They also have a restaurant on-site

They had a beautiful tasting room and gift shop – very cozy and just about everything was purple!!!

I tried their Healthy Purple Grape Juice made with Concord grapes….WOW!!! Best grape juice I’ve ever had!!! (Spoiler alert for anyone from our church that might be reading this – I bought a bottle to use for our communion juice – yes, it’s non-alcoholic – for our congregation to enjoy while the bottle lasts)!!!

After we left the winery, we made a “bonus” stop! One of the staff at the winery asked our tour manager which way we were going and said if we take the high road, there is a great scenic overlook just about 3 miles down the road…..so, we took the time to stop!

Overlooking one of the Finger Lakes – Canandaigua Lake!

It was beginning to rain at that point, so most stayed on the bus – some got off, but I was on the right side of the bus, so I was able to see the beautiful view and get a few photos without getting out in the rain!

Our driver – Darryl – got pretty excited about this stop and got out and took a LOT of photos!!!

The final stop on the Mystery Tour was Lynnie Lou’s for ice cream located at 8665 RT-21, in Naples, NY. It was really raining by the time we got there and all the seating was out in the rain, so we opted to get our ice cream and then get back on the bus to eat it!

Such a sweet ice cream shop with both hard ice cream and custard!

Everything looked so good!!! How could we choose…..how could we resist….even after the big lunch!!!

I was adventurous and tried the banana cream / black raspberry twist custard!!! OMG – definitely a good choice!!!! This was a “SMALL”!!!

Our fearless leader – Kathy Hamm ordering her ice cream!

And, this is me…..tired, stuffed, and happy…..headed for home…..it was an awesome day…..even with the rain at the end! Can’t wait till the next Mystery Tour in October – which I have already booked!!!

I really love these Mystery Tours…..Thank you to First Choice Travel, our driver Darryl, and our wonderful Tour Manager, Kathy Hamm……they do an awesome job putting these fun adventures together!