"Whining" at Belhurst Castle

As the "Event Coordinator" for my small group of friends...soon to grow smaller, if I have anything to say about it...I laboriously planned a fun-filled, culturally-rich sophisticated evening of dining and music for us last night at Belhurst Castle overlooking Seneca Lake. So it was, that my "friends" (Deb, Joan, and Barb) and I set off on our little excursion to celebrate Deb's birthday. Manning the wheel, or should I say, womaning the wheel, I confidently steered the van in what I imagined was the right direction with Barb's voice from the back quietly correcting me as I made only 2.5 wrong turns along the way; one occurring four feet from the Castle entryway. Deb had insisted that the plans be kept secret from her so we pulled into practically every fast-food chain restaurant between here and Geneva to throw her off the track. Thinking that Belhurst Castle would be much to swanky for billboards, Barb, Joan and I maintained impassive poker faces as Deb read aloud the forty-kazillion roadside advertisements promoting the palace and its features. "A wine-tour would be fun some time," she mused before squealing with delight as we (tried to) pulled into Belhurst.

The "rear view" of Belhurst Castle

I had chosen the more casual of the two restaurants as my ball gown is currently at the cleaners so we put in our name and then wandered the grounds. The only reason that photographic evidence of our friendship exists is because of me; yet I have to wrestle uncooperative people into position in order to record our adventures for posterity. Or in this case, posterior, as my companions thought it would be cute and NOT totally exasperating to offer my camera a "behind-the-scenes" view of the castle.


Having been told that there was an estimated hour wait-time for the table, Barb and Joan plunked themselves down on the elegant furniture in the lobby while I accompanied Deb to the wine store. It's amazing what one can learn about oneself under trying circumstances. For example, who knew that I could occupy myself for twenty minutes sniffing scented candles?

Dim-lighting diminishes the beauty of my asparagus sandwich.

As I made our arrangements last week, I had been so excited to see that a blues band would be playing Saturday night. I was even more excited as we were given the table right next to the band. Then the very-talented band started and I spent the rest of the evening yelling "WHAT?" to my friends and impressing my waiter with my sign language ability, "Orange giraffe boy." I don't know any punctuation in sign language so, depending on the comma placement, my sentence could be interpreted as a description or a rude demand. I cursed my lack of pre-planning, realizing that communication would have been much-improved if all of us had had texting devices with us. Consequently, we smiled at one another a lot and tried not to stare at the couple gyrating in an intimate corner as they REALLY enjoyed the music. They obviously had no trouble communicating. I somehow successfully ordered an appetizer to discover I'm a big fan of Gouda and my asparagus panini was a culinary wonder to behold but challenging to consume politely.

We put dessert in Deb's hands. I love looking at plastic models of dessert...so classy. "Double chocolate raspberry cake, double chocolate raspberry cake..." I chanted in my head, sending mental transmissions to the birthday girl. Apparently, Deb's mental abilities aren't what they should be (maybe it's the age??? ;) so I was initially horrified when she selected something smathered in mushed bananas. I soon stood corrected as I battled three other spoons for my portion of a triple-layered chocolate mousse creation with flavor-heightening caramelized bananas.

The long ride home was the usual nightmare where everyone dog-piled on me. They are a jealous, petty, self-serving bunch and frankly, I deserve MUCH better. Fortunately, I had been deafened by the band so I was able to avoid much of the cruel, hurtful banter. Before we went our separate ways, plans were introduced to perhaps take a mini vacation together to Mackinaw Island. Have they lost their minds? Trapped on an island with this bunch...I'd go bananas!