VACATION WEEK 3 FAVES

 

It's almost the long holiday weekend (Labor Day weekend here in the States) which means my third  week of vacation and time at the lake is coming to an end. For now I'm participating in the weekly gratitude meme known as the Friday Fave Five.  Susanne is our host and you can find more info here. 

FIVE FAVES

Claire on the dock at Wednesday's sunset

sunset as seen from the lawn between the motel and cottages

golden beauty

God's Handiwork

 

• STUNNING SUNSETS: One of my fave things from being on vacation at this place are the stunning sunsets. I'm thankful that so far, every evening except one, we have had beautiful sunsets to look at while we finish our dinner or drinks on the dock or the porch. I'm thankful for the Creator of such beauty.

Thursday morning about 7 am

cottage great room

cottage porch

a morning on the dock

• LAZY MORNINGS: Another thing I love about being in the Adirondack mountains are the slow, long, lazy mornings.  Dave and I tend to get up about an hour later than on a work day (so we're up and making coffee by 6:30 or 7 am) and then we do our Scripture reading, make breakfast, go down to the dock with coffee or sit on the porch, read books, or take a leisurely walk around the grounds.  I'm thankful for lazy mornings and no rushing out the door!

Dave on the boardwalk/Nature Trail in town
Sunday morning

Long Lake Wesleyan Church
seen from the nature trail peninsula trail

Raquette River Flow
St Lawrence County
Thursday morning

Childwold Presbyterian Church
National Historic Places site
town of Piercefield, NY
North-central ADKS

• EXPLORING EXPEDITION:  Dave and I discovered, while taking a Sunday morning walk to the village, a new-to-us hiking trail that goes from one end of the village to the town beach on the lake.  It's a short, easy nature trail with a bit of history thrown in which we enjoyed reading about.  (trail and Jennings Pond that runs parallel to the trail was created in 1933  to give local men the chance to work via the WPA...there were signs explaining different things).  I also took Wednesday morning to drive about 35 minutes north-west to a small town named Piercefield to get my ADK 102 Club book signed at the post office there and see the old church that is on the National Register for Historic Places.  That was fun and a great way to spend part of my morning.  I also stopped at the Raquette River Flow to snap a pic as I had never seen the flow before. The Raquette River is the 3rd longest river entirely in New York State.  It's just beautiful. It's 146 miles long. I'm thankful for discovering new places in our beloved mountains. 

trail to Upper Sargent Pond
Central Adirondacks
Tuesday morning

Dave on the last stretch of the trail

Upper Sargent Pond
(more like a lake!)

me at the end of the 1.4 mile trail 
Upper Sargent Pond

• HIKING!  I was able to get in a good hike with Dave on Tuesday morning.  The day started out a bit overcast but by 10 am it was full sun and warming up.  We decided to follow my chiropractor's advice and NOT climb a steep mountain so we found  an easy flat trail from my bucket list that we had never hiked.  Upper Sargent Pond is about 1.4 miles in from the car so we chose that and it was wonderful.  Only took about 40 minutes to go the 1.4 miles....lots of mud and blow-down but the trail was such that we could get through it and past it ok.  The pond, which is large, so more like a lake, has never seen boats on it of course so it is just pristine.  I took a lot of photos but these are my faves from the bunch.  By the time we got back to the car, my fitbit logged us as having hiked 2.75 miles (we walked all over the lakes edge so.......that added some steps).  We both felt great and came back to the cottage feeling happy as we had hiked into a place where no one else was and where we had never been before.  I'm thankful my husband wanted to hike with me and I'm very thankful I had no back pain before, during or after!!

evening cocktails on the dock

afternoon cocktails on the dock for reading

Long Lake from the dock
with Owls Head Mt in background

relaxing afternoons

Game Nights with Dave and Claire

Time in the Word and Bible study
(bookmark from Deb at A Day in the Life  blog)

Newcomb General Store

• FAMILY TIME:  Claire joined us on Sunday (we arrived and set up the cottage on Saturday) and is staying until tomorrow.  We will go home on Monday (Labor Day) and our oldest daughter arrived last evening and will stay until Saturday afternoon.  Our family friend Gerri also arrived last night as she also rented a cottage for the weekend!  I'm so thankful for all the family time we have had and very thankful my youngest daughter especially wanted to have game nights, read on the dock with me, go on random road trips, have cocktails on the dock, build fires in the pit, makes s'mores, play shuffleboard, kayak and explore the lake.  There's nothing like family time when everyone is relaxed. 

Claire in Dave's kayak

Kayaking Selfie!

That wraps up my faves.

I hope whatever you do this long holiday weekend, that you enjoy every moment.