VACATION WEEK 2 FAVES

It's been a good 2nd week of vacation and I'm really thrilled that here in eastern New York State we have seen a drop in humidity levels as well as temperature levels.  It's one of my favorite times of the calendar year:  mid-August through about mid-November.  I'm loving this late summer weather!

It's also my favorite blogging meme:  the weekly FFF hosted by Susanne.  It's a time to look back on the week and share FIVE of our FAVE things, people or moments that made us smile and say "Thanks, God".  How about joining in with us?  

FIVE FAVES

Dave on Long Lake
Friday evening kayaking

a last evening at the cottage kayaking trip
21 August

• EARLY EVENING KAYAKING TRIP: My husband finally decided to kayak with me on our last evening at the cottage.  We just loved how the sun was setting so decided to kayak between 7-8 pm and opted to cook a late dinner with our youngest.  (our oldest daughter had left Tuesday to go back home).  What a glorious evening it was.  So peaceful on the lake and because it had been raining most of the afternoon, not very many people were on the lake.  I'm thankful Dave decided to kayak on the last night of our vacation!  

Early Sunday morning breakfast on deck

Morning glory blooms!

• BREAKFAST ON THE DECK!  Sunday, our first morning home after a week in the mountains, was hot and humid so I made sure to have breakfast early on the deck since I knew the central air would be turned on by noon.  It was peaceful although not quite as peaceful as being in the mountains of course.  I was happy to see that my deck flowers were well cared for compliments of our oldest daughter, Courtney and that while we were away the morning glories had climbed up the trellis and were in full bloom.  They seem late again this year and I just don't know why.  I'm thankful for peaceful summer mornings.

a bog as seen from the Dickinson Fire Tower
Grafton Lake State Park
eastern NY

The mountains of Vermont as seen from Dickinson Hill fire tower
Grafton, NY
25 August 2020

• MID-MORNING LOCAL HIKE:  My church friend Diane F invited me on a rather spontaneous morning hike on Tuesday.  It was rather hot but not too humid.  In fact, a cold front was supposed to come through in the afternoon and it did, enough to turn off the central air.  I had never been on the Dickinson Hill fire tower trail in a local state park (just to the east of us) so she volunteered to drive and we had the best time!  We got caught up on each other's lives and just enjoyed this rather easy walk in the the woods to this lovely fire tower.  The best views were from the top of the tower so I snapped a couple of pics even though the sky was a bit overcast.  We had a snack and water and headed down where she showed me a new-to-me spot to launch our kayaks into one of the small lakes in the park.  I'm thankful for friends who spontaneously call and extend an invite!

my fave part of trail wraps around a huge rock wall
and climbs over a ridge

Ladder up to the last .3 mile to summit

NY's tallest peak in background:  Mt Marcy (over 5000 ft elevation)
High Peaks Region of ADKS
from Rooster Comb summit
Giant Mountain Wilderness Area
26 August 2020

Giant Mt as seen from Rooster Comb summit
my fave high peak

 

my niece Mady and I on the summit of Rooster Comb Mt
26 August

My fave view from a mountain in the high peaks region
Route 73 is the thin ribbon of highway in center and Chapel Pond is the small blue oval center right
Overlooking part of the Giant Mountain Wilderness Area
High Peaks region

• MID-WEEK HIKE!  On Wednesday morning, I picked up my 12 yr old niece and took her back to the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks (about 2.5 hours north of my home).  It was perfect weather:  sunny and in the the low 60s although when we got to the trailhead around 8:30 it was only 43 degrees F. We were prepared however with flannel shirts and sweatshirts which we discarded after the first mile.  Our plan was to climb a mountain just over 3300 feet but on the trail another older hiker informed me the summit of Hedgehog was not great so I decided to take her up Rooster Comb (a 2.5 mile hike one way) to that summit which as you can see from the photos has a stunning 360 degree view. This was my third time climbing Rooster Comb mt and it seems to be an annual thing now with me taking someone each summer who's never climbed it.  Mady really enjoyed herself and we followed up the hike with an afternoon of soft serve ice cream and taking the scenic route back home. I'm thankful she had a good time and that I have a young niece who enjoys hiking.

• MORNING CONVERSATION:  I really enjoyed some morning conversation Dave and I had before he had to settle into his work at home office for the day on Tuesday. (yes, he is still working from home full time and his company doesn't expect to have people return to the offices until after the first of the new year! yikes.....).  We were discussing the abuse case/lawsuit I've been helping with and he was able to share some of his feelings about the situation (remember: this involves our former cultish church and he still has friends there as well although those friends of course are not really speaking to us right now...so were they ever really friends?  most likely not.....just hypocrites...but I digress....). anyways, it was a really good productive conversation.  He thought I was still carrying alot of inner rage towards these past "leaders" and I said no and shared with him how I released them to the Lord over vacation on one of my solitary walks.....he was thankful for that and also agreed with me that we don't have to have any further contact with these people as we have lost respect for them even more now that we know they are not admitting to any wrong doing. It's very sad but the conversation was something I'm thankful this conversation happened as in previous days leading up to Tuesday, Dave hasn't really been open to discussing it.  Some of you don't know what I'm talking about and some of you do.  In a future post, once I'm able to write more freely, I will share the story.  Please do pray for justice to be done in a situation where a little girl was not believed that she had been abused by a deacon.  I'm just thankful there is a good group of lawyers working on her behalf and I'm also thankful NYS has the Child Victims Act.

Those are the things that made me sit up and say "Thank You, God" this week.

What are you grateful for as we head into the weekend??