Rainy Ride

It was pouring down rain the morning of our second day in the Adirondacks, so we changed our plans. We browsed around the local shops in the morning, and then after a great lunch at the local diner (mmm, biscuits and gravy), we headed out to Raquette Lake where we had booked a scenic boat cruise -- which sailed rain or shine. Uncle Chris worked at the Raquette Lake Boys Camp many years ago, so it was a small world!  (Apparently the camp now costs about $22K if you want to send your kids there for the summer -- yikes!) 

It was still a bit rainy when the cruise departed, but fortunately the rain stopped for a lot of the trip (and a nice side effect for us was that the boat wasn't too crowded). The narration was a recorded tape, but it was really nicely done and had some interesting history of the area. James ended up resting (or "falling asleep") for about half of the trip, but he said it was like a nice podcast!

We did have one casualty of the trip -- Mike's LSU hat went flying into the water when he tried to take it off for a picture. Oops!

Afterwards we went up the road to a town called Inlet that Mike remembered Chris mentioning (where the camp counselors went for R&R). It was also a cute place, and they had a nice little lake beach where Matthew and James enjoyed swimming. (Of course we hadn't brought their swim stuff, so they just swam in their clothes, and luckily we at least had extra clothes with us!)

Raquette Lake Boys Camp

Enjoying our Tropical Punch

Beach at Inlet

Long Lake

 

To the Lake

Watertown, NY

Dinner at the Lodge

 

Lodge Common Room

Mike needed a vacation, so we took a quick trip to the Adirondacks this week. It was great!  We stopped in Watertown for lunch and ate at a restaurant (the Crystal Restaurant) that had been there since 1925 -- and it turned out our waitress had been there for 60 years! Mike had always wanted to go to the New York Watertown to see how it was different from the South Dakota Watertown.

Our hotel was on Long Lake, and it had a little lakefront dock and swimming area. Normally it has a bit more of a beach, but the owner told us that the lake was up 35 feet (!!!) higher on the shore than it usually is. (This area was part of the major northeastern flooding that happened a couple of weeks ago -- a dam was washed out and some of the roads were damaged.)

Mike and the kids went for a swim when we arrived, and then we enjoyed a delicious dinner at the hotel restaurant. Very nice start to the trip!

PS: Photos are a bit out of order, sorry!

Summer Outings

The family also went for water activities on the Tonawanda River and did some escape room activities, including the "escape from Canadian pirates" one. I arrived home after everyone had left, but then Nora and family returned for a day or so after Daniel's Rubix cube competition, and we went cherry/raspberry picking and on an expedition to a vegan restaurant. 

(The funniest/strangest thing about the fruit picking was that when you searched the name of the farm, there's a website run by a clearly insane person who has documented all of the things that the "witch" who owns the farm has done to him -- disturbing his sleep, making his internet disconnect, etc., etc. Coincidentally, Daniel brought a new game called Salem about the witch hunts!)