Lunch and Afternoon Adventures

Disclaimer: The characters are the property of Andrew W. Marlowe and ABC television. No infringement is intended.

Beckett and Castle walked away from the gorge in the parking lot. Castle opened the passenger door for Beckett. Before she sat she turned to Castle, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

"Not that I'm complaining, but Beckett, what was that for?"

"Just because," she answered pulling away just far enough to see his face.

She could see the love in his eyes and his pleasure at seeing the happiness in hers. Even though they had gotten up early to make it to the gorge in time for the tour, it was worth the trouble. They had enjoyed learning the story of the gorge, and just being in each other's company without interruptions from work or family. Not that they didn't love their work and family, but getting away refreshed and renewed them.

Beckett sat in the car as Castle went over to the driver's side. He started the car and pulled out on to the main highway going north.

"Where are we going, Castle?" She asked.

"I read about this place online. It apparently has been getting good reviews on everything. Ostensibly the view of the lake is amazing."

"Which of the Finger Lakes is this one?"

Castle responded, "Seneca. It is the second longest of the Finger Lakes."

Rick drove north a few blocks and then turned east on the state road 414 through the center of Watkins Glen. Shortly they came upon a marina that a number of pleasure craft were docked. Opposite the marina, on the north side of the road was a park and a beach. A number of people were in the park, playing, throwing Frisbees, and picnicking. There were several boats going in and out of the marina under the bridge that they passed over.

"Castle, they look like they are having fun on the water, don't they?"

"Yeah. There is a pier over on the west side of town and there is an hour boat tour from there. We can try that after lunch, okay?"

"Okay," Beckett said. She gave him a questioning look as he glanced over to her before looking back at the road.

"Internet. I have researched this area and I have a bunch of optional detours we can take. One of which is a short boat tour."

She didn't respond.

"I tried to anticipate what you would like and planned accordingly. And I have planned a few activities that I would like, too," he said suggestively waggling his eyebrows. "Seriously, though, there are two places at the end that I feel I need to go to. We'll see them before we catch the plane back to reality."

A short while later they turned north to parallel the eastern shore of the lake. A "Y" in the road appeared and Castle took the left fork to remain on 414 and to stay near the lake as the GPS instructed.

Up ahead of them they saw some cars pulled off on the side of the road. Castle slowed down for the traffic. Suddenly to their right was a massive waterfall with a sign that said "Hector Falls". As they passed, they marveled at the amount of white water there was. It appeared that there were massive rocks of different sizes and shapes causing a series of uneven breaks in the waterfall.

While Castle may have thought about stopping, he knew that a hungry Beckett can be an irritated Beckett, so he continued on his quest for food.

"Maybe we can stop on the way back to look at it for a while," Castle offered.

"From my brief look at it, it did look interesting, Castle."

They drove for a few miles more before the GPS said "You have arrived."

Castle turned into the parking lot with a sign that said "Wagner Winery Brewery, Ginny Lee Restaurant". There were two buildings. To the left was a restaurant and to the right was a winery. Castle and Beckett went into the restaurant to the greeter station. The dining room was surrounded by glass windows looking out on to the acres of vines and Seneca Lake beyond. It was a beautiful sunny day with some puffy white clouds. There were doors leading out of the dining room on to a wooden deck that also had tables on it. Since it was a gorgeously sunny summer day, there wasn't a soul in the dining room but just about every table on the deck was taken.

Finally a greeter came to them and asked, "Dining room or porch?"

Castle chuckled, "Porch, thank you." Beckett looked at Castle and smiled at the greeter's almost absurd question.

The greeter led them out to a table in the middle of the porch. There was a striped canvas overhang above the porch to keep the direct sun off of them. There was a gentle breeze coming up off the lake with a faint scent of grapes. It was a mostly clear day with a few puffy white clouds. They could easily see to the vineyards across the lake. Below between them and the lake was an open area of grass before the first grape vines. Off to the far right there was a picking machine shaking the grapes off of the vines to start the wine making process. Closer to the building down below in the grass were 12 rows of bright white wooden folding chairs.

Beckett pointed to the chairs and happily said, "Castle, there must have been a wedding here yesterday."

Castle smiled at Beckett. He liked how relaxed she had become on this expedition. Leaving the mayhem and murder back in the city and coming out here was just what they both needed. Even though he loved all facets of the Beckett onion, Castle loved seeing more "Kate" instead of "Beckett". She seemed almost more girly than she would be in the city. It was like she had sloughed off the Detective Beckett persona like one of her ubiquitous coats to reveal the Kate persona.

They ordered their meal with the menu suggested wine pairings. As they waited for their meal, Castle spoke, "Kate, there are a number of wineries on either side of the lake. Also, the roads on either side of the lake are considered scenic. Maybe after seeing the falls and the boat tour, since we'll be closer to it, we can drive up the west side of the lake."

"I can pass on the falls. We saw some impressive falls up close in the gorge. And we'll probably see it from the boat tour, too."

"Works for me," Castle responded.

For the next few minutes, Castle and Beckett sat in silence enjoying the view and the pleasant breeze. Their luncheon arrived and they both attacked it with gusto. The walking through the gorge had worked up an appetite in both of them. The wine pairings complemented their meals and they finished their lunches quickly.

After paying their bill, they walked the short distance to the winery. As they entered, they asked about a behind the scenes wine tour and found they last one had started 10 minutes earlier and there wasn't another for the day. They set out exploring the public areas of the winery and found that they also made craft beer. Castle found some amusing wine joke items but Beckett kept him from buying anything with the reminder, "Where are you going to put it, Castle?" After browsing for a while, they decided to make their way back to the car and see about the boat tour.

On the way they stopped at another winery for a wine tasting with Castle buying a few bottles to take back to the loft.

"Castle, before this tasting, I never could taste the things the sommelier would describe. But today, I could taste the hint of pepper in that one wine."

"Sometimes I wonder at the other comparisons though. 'Plum and peach'? That doesn't sound like a good combination to me."

"That one wine of theirs that has won a number of medals the "Michael Phelps" of their winery sounds like something only a writer would say," Kate teased.

"You wound me, Beckett," Castle smiled.

Returning to the road back to Watkins Glen, they again passed the Hector Falls but decided not to stop. "We can see its entirety from the lake when we take the tour."

Castle drove back to Watkins Glen to the west side of town. He parked the car and the duo walked to the gift shop to buy tickets.

"You've timed it just right. We should be boarding in about 5 minutes," the cashier told them.

After a short wait, they boarded the boat. The boat had about 10 rows of benches. Overhead was a lattice work holding up life preservers. The wooden roof above kept the sun from beating down on the passengers. The shore crew cast off and the tour was underway. The captain piloted the boat and the mate gave the speech.

The mate described the salt mines on the western shore north of Watkins Glen. He described how the lake was formed by an ancient glacier that carved out the "U" shaped channel. He noted that Seneca Lake is about 35 miles long and 2 miles wide. It is the deepest of the Finger Lakes at over 600 feet deep.

As the boat travelled around the south end of the lake, Castle and Beckett sat and enjoyed the peaceful tour.

In the distance they could see three sailboats. Their white sails full of the breeze. The sailboats seemed to be dancing around each other on the lake. On the other side there were powerboats pulling people on inflatable tow toys. There were a couple of jet skis on the lake, too. The boat turned and closed on the eastern shore, near the Hector Falls.

The captain slowed the boat to drift in front of the falls so all the passengers could take in the falls majesty. The tour guide mate described the falls and its statistics. Castle and Beckett noted that the road was about half way up the falls.

The boat travelled past the painted rocks south of the falls. The painted rocks commemorate the Indians escaping General John Sullivan in the late 18th century. The Indians escaped down the escarpment to some hidden canoes which they paddled across the lake.

Soon the hour long tour was over and Castle and Beckett found themselves at the end of the pier.

"We survived the boat tour. At least it wasn't a three hour tour. As a reward, maybe we should have some ice crème. I saw an ice crème shop a few blocks from here. We can walk there."

"Castle, you must have a selective bloodhound nose, smelling out ice crème shops. And the boat wasn't named the 'SS Minnow'," Beckett teased.

As they walked, they window shopped the various stores on the road. At several of them they pointed items of interest to each other. They reached the ice crème shop and entered. There were a number of different flavors of ice crème, Italian ice and frozen yoghurt. Beckett and Castle made their selections and then sat down in a sweetheart table. They shared each other's selection like lovers do at an ice crème shop.

Shortly they finished their sweet snack and left the shop arm-in-arm. Holding each other, the rest of the world could pass them by. They only had eyes for each other. The stress of the city had been washed off of them like water and ducks.

They walked to the car and then drove up the western shore of the lake, stopping at a couple of wineries along the way. Finding a winery was not a problem for them. It appeared that there was a winery about every mile on this road. They reached Geneva, NY at the north end of the lake.

"Beckett, our room is in Elmira, so I think we should turn back and check in. Then maybe dinner, okay?"

"Sounds good to me, Castle."

After a good meal, Beckett and Castle prepared for bed.

"I had a wonderful day with you, Rick," Kate said. "Thank you so much for planning this."

"My pleasure, Kate."

A/N: All of the places mentioned above have youtube videos.