I had the extreme pleasure of spending a couple days in Ellicottville, NY. It feels like it is “up North” when it is, in fact, a Ski-Town South of Buffalo. The city is best known for the Holiday Valley Ski Resort not too far from the “downtown” area. It is a small village, but it is a lovely place to visit. My boyfriend’s grandparents have had property there for decades and he says the little town is becoming more of a destination throughout the year
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They have a great brewing company in the main stretch, and I wanted to tour their facilities. They offer a tour that lasts about an hour, AND it came with some great samples of their new and seasonal beers…and a cute little engraved glass.
The young man in charge of the tour was a wealth of information on the brewing process in general, and the specifics of EBC. It was really neat to see all of the equipment that they had…some of it was very old, others were state-of-the-art.
One of the other great things about the tour was the upstairs/banquet area. The addition is newer (it still smells like fresh-cut wood) and is generally reserved for large parties or weddings. The guide showed us some of the large planks of wood were put together using traditional Amish building techniques without the use of metal screws or nails. The beautiful coloration on the ceiling planks is due to beetles and pests that have been causing damage to trees in the Pacific Northwest… Apparently the beetles dig into the wood and eventually die there, leaving their pigmentation in the wood.
After admiring the woodwork, we went on to sample some delicious beers. They had a small upstairs bar where they offered some of their signature beers and some new seasonal options. Sadly my favorite, the peach beer, is available only at the brewery. **Obligatory birthday photo. Look at my cute little EBC glass!**
The next day we woke up (sort of) early and went on a hike. There is a lot of greenery in Ellicottville, which is great. This area was not far from where we stayed. We went on a short hike here, but had plans to visit the Arboretum, so we did not go too far.
There were loads of toads and other wildlife. We didn’t see any foxes, though. That would have really made my day
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After our hike, we went and got coffee, a most important ingredient in my mornings.
At the coffee shop, we got directions to the Arboretum. The Arboretum was lovely, although it was small. There were many different plants and birds that we saw along the way. My favorite part of the space was the Torii Gates. We have a tiny Torii Gate for the Hermit Crabs, so it made me think of the little guys.
After the Arboretum, we went to Holiday Valley.
In the summer and early fall, Holiday Valley has a fun action-filled set up called “Sky High Adventure Park”. The weather was not supposed to hold up all day, so we decided to do the most fun option available. They have this awesome little roller-coaster called the “Mountain Coaster”. It is basically a tiny roller-coaster down the mountain in which you are able to control the brakes and the overall speed of the ride. It was super fun and a little scary in parts. The ride is nearly a mile in length, and my boyfriend and I were able to ride it with no other people on the track. It was so fun, and the perfect end to a lovely birthday weekend.
Page Redford 