What a difference a year makes, let alone two. When we started this blog, we had no idea that it would grow into a dedicated travel, food, and culture website showcasing our favorite places throughout upstate New York and beyond. In our second year we developed our voice, experimenting with and oscillating between second-person and first-person perspectives to give our followers a better sense of the humans behind the words. We dabbled in merchandise, curated Spotify playlists, launched a YouTube channel, and — most importantly — introduced a third little Conesus Lake House host to the world.

Our stats have followed the growth trend as well. Compared to last year, we hosted another 6,000 unique visitors to the site and almost doubled the number of followers. Conesus Lake House itself is thriving, with the reviews on VRBO and AirBnB speaking for themselves. We leveraged this momentum to establish a new Furnished Finder listing focused on serving traveling professionals, booking our first lease within a month of launching.

While content may have slowed a little bit since our baby girl was born, we have no plans to let this site go idle. It’s still our goal to publish a new travel magazine entry once a month on average, and we invite you, our followers and casual readers, to consider the thought and care that go into these larger narratives and itineraries. Unlike other travel websites, we try to draw you in as the main character in our experiences. This website is not a dumping ground for endless listicles or pay-to-play sponsored content; rather it’s meant to capture the feeling and aesthetic surrounding cities, parks, forests, lakes, restaurants, pubs, and other locales — with a dash of philosophy and cultural context thrown in for good measure.

This being said, we encourage you to engage with our blog, to subscribe if you haven’t already done so, and to share our socials on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Why follow us? For a quick-to-mid-length read you can enjoy while riding the bus or killing a little time at work. For quirky yet mesmerizing photographs of the beauty of upstate New York and beyond. For links to playlists providing the soundtrack of life. For the occasional small gift or souvenir idea. And if you really pay attention — you might catch a good deal on a fabulous stay at Conesus Lake House overlooking gorgeous Conesus Lake, NY. When you support Conesus Lake House, you’re supporting a small business run by the family re-creating the memorable vineyard pose below.

This past year, we ate Texas Hots with Bill Pullman in Wellsville, embraced the arts and artists of Rochester, got normal in Lima, lost ourselves in waterfalls and chicken sandwiches in Honeoye Falls, spent more time in our own backyard in Lakeville, reflected on the water and our future in Canandaigua, indulged in the wines of Keuka Lake, and danced to the beat at Rochester’s Fringe Festival. Speaking of festivals, this fall felt like a never-ending festival with all there is to do around the Finger Lakes. We made a pilgrimage to Naples for the Grape Festival, a new annual family tradition (as evidenced by the photo above). We returned to the Village of Livonia for Autumn in the Village– one of our first excursions after moving to Conesus Lake House (even before this blog existed). We also popped down to Stueben County for Cohocton’s annual Fall Foliage Festival. With so much going on, we thought it’d be fun to share a few highlights below from all the festivals in our annual end-of-year message.

Autumn in the Village ’24 (Livonia): When we moved to Conesus Lake, this was one of our first forays into the community. We didn’t document it back then, but now with a future young Bulldog, we figured it was the right time to re-establish this as an annual family tradition.

Rochester Fringe Fest ’24: We did a proper write-up of our time at the Fringe Fest here. The sense of community in Martin Luther King Park was warm, electric, and comforting. This is what America means to us, and what it could be like again.

Naples Grape Fest ’24: Sadly, the Bier Garten was not in service this year. Maybe we’ll see our friends from the south end of Conesus Lake again one day… or maybe it was all just a mirage.

Cohocton Fall Foliage Fest ’24: A chance to hang out with our neighbors who have ties to Cohocton, and an excuse to eat giant Bloomin’ Onions.

We hope you’ve enjoyed following along with us on our adventures. Grab a glass of Dr. Frank’s, pull a chair up to the fire pit, and make a toast to another year on the Lake. Peace.