Buffalo Garden Walk

We just went on the Buffalo Garden Walk. This was the first time in several years. It was a beautiful day and this time we spent the afternoon on the West Side and in particular up and down Norwood and Ashland streets between Utica and Summer. We loved walking those streets and enjoyed looking at the homes in addition to the gardens on the tour.

The walk is promoted as the nation's largest garden tour and is certainly too big to take in on one day or even two. Over the years we would pick a neighborhood and concentrate on walking the gardens there.

Our neighborhood is now part of this Garden Walk. Up until a few years ago Parkside had its own garden tour earlier in the summer. The Buffalo Garden Walk was also just concentrated on the West Side. Now it is a much bigger event with participating gardens all over the city including the West Side, East Side, Downtown, Allentown and Parkside. Next year we'll walk some different streets.

I took a few pictures of some gardens with interesting features.

Car Theft Day 4 - Take Away

On Friday afternoon the towing company came by to take the car to the Gerber Collision and Repair Shop on Delaware Ave. The mechanic first tried to start the car but there was too much damage to the ignition and the steering column. In fact there was so much damage that the steering wheel wouldn't turn the front wheels which were on a slight angle in the driveway. That made it very difficult to get the car onto the truck. I was very impressed by the way the driver maneuvered the car using pull chains up on to the back of the truck and into position. It took a while but he got it done. He was also working hard to get it over to the shop before they closed at 5. He finished up around 4:30. 

Change of Time - Reflections FV

A Reflections mix that has evolved over the years and is now part of my Final Version series.

Change of Time - Reflections FV

1. Change Of Time – Josh Ritter, 2010
2. Walking Far From Home – Iron and Wine, 2011
3. Shine On – Son Volt, 2013
4. Black Moon – Wilco, 2011
5. With Whom You Belong – Fistful of Mercy, 2010
6. The Plains / Bitter Dancer – Fleet Foxes, 2011
7. Between The Flatland and The Caspian – Keren Ann, 2007
8. Orange Sky – Alexi Murdoch, 2006
9. You May Be Blue – Vetiver, 2006
10. The Alter – Wye Oak, 2011
11. Throwing Your Voice – Damien Jurado, 2010
12. What Could I Do – Will Hoge, 2009
13. Fortune Teller – Calexico, 2012
14. Revelator – Allison Moorer, 2008
15. Falling On My Sword – William Fitzsimmons, 2015
16. Look At Miss Ohio – Gillian Welch, 2003
17. Love Is All – The Tallest Man On Earth, 2010
18. Away – Kathleen Edwards, 2005
19. Strange & Beautiful (I’ll Put A Spell On You) – Aqualung, 2005
20. Lost In My Mind – The Head and The Heart, 2010

Car Theft Day 2 - The Rental Car

Today I took a Lyft ride down to the Enterprise Car Rental office on Main Street downtown and picked up our rental car. They gave me a 2019 Nissan Rogue SUV which was an upgrade but at the original cost of a standard small car. 

It took a little while to get used to because it was a push button engine starter and you needed to have your foot on the brake when you pushed the button. I went down there at 3 in the afternoon when the car was available and drove it home. Becky took it out for a drive as she would be using it a lot more than me. It was actually a nice car to drive although with the black interior it got very hot and needed the AC on most of the time. 

Attempted Car Theft

This morning Becky went out to the car to go to the studio and discovered that our car had been broken into and ransacked. It turned out to be more than that. This was an attempted car theft. The rear passenger window was smashed and the glove compartment was opened with everything pulled out. The ignition system on the steering column was pulled open and significantly damaged.

Becky called the Buffalo Police Department and reported the crime while I called our insurance agent. They immediately put in the claim with Travellers Insurance. Then I went online and filed a crime report with the Buffalo PD.

I was soon contacted by the insurance company claim adjustor and was also put into contact with Enterprise to set up a car rental which will be ready for us tomorrow.

It was a crazy day and I talked with a lot of people. It may take awhile to get everything going.

It looks like it's going to be a long couple of weeks before things go back to normal. We first need to hear back from a claims inspector who will come out and look at our car and make an estimate for repairs. We waited all day for his car and the insurance company adjustor said he will probably call tomorrow. 

I talked with the car rental company and will be able to pick up a rental car late tomorrow that is mostly paid for by our car insurance. We need to wait for a car to be available. Also the insurance company claims adjustor gave me a list of car repair places they deal with and it looks like the best one for us is Gerber Collision with shops on Hertel and another one on Delaware. Both in North Buffalo. 

It's going to be a busy day tomorrow.

Apparently there has been a thing going on in social media on how to steal cars and specifically cars from Kia and Hyundai and mostly videos on Tik Tok. 

Finger Poppin' Time - Oldies FV

Finger Poppin' Time

Another fun dance mix from way back in the day. An hour and a half of music from the late 50's and early 60's that we danced to at our neighborhood teen hops in Philly.

Here is a link to the Spotify playlist.

Finger Poppin’ Time - Oldies FV

1. Finger Poppin’ Time – Hank Ballard & The Midnighters, 1960
2. Remember Then – The Earls, 1962
3. Devil With The Blue Dress – Shorty Long, 1964
4. Land Of 1000 Dances – Chris Kenner, 1963
5. Don’t Hang Up – The Orlons, 1963
6. Pony Time – Chubby Checker, 1961
7. The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss) – Betty Everett, 1964
8. Big Girls Don’t Cry – The Four Seasons, 1962
9. It’s My Party – Lesley Gore, 1963
10. Soldier Boy – The Shirelles, 1960
11. Navy Blue – Diane Renay, 1963
12. Tainted Love – Gloria Jones, 1964
13. Then He Kissed Me – The Crystals, 1963
14. Runaway – Del Shannon, 1961
15. Chains – The Cookies, 1960
16. You Gave Me Somebody To Love – The Dreamlovers, 1965
17. Baby Love – The Supremes, 1964
18. Girl – The Temptations, 1965
19. That’s What Love Is Made Of – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, 1964
20. Come and Get These Memories – Martha & The Vandellas, 1963
21. Don’t Leave Me Baby – The Camelots, 1963
22. It Will Stand – The Showmen, 1961
23. Rock and Roll Music – Chuck Berry, 1957
24. Jailhouse Rock – Elvis Presley, 1957
25. Rock and Roll Is Here To Stay – Danny & The Juniors, 1958
26. New Orleans – Gary U.S. Bonds, 1960
27. Sea Cruise – Frankie Ford, 1958
28. Charlie Brown – The Coasters, 1959
29. Jump, Jive An’ Wail – Louis Prima, 1956
30. Let’s Have A Party – Wanda Jackson, 1960
31. Shimmy, Shimmy Ko-Ko Bop – Little Anthony & The Imperials, 1960
32. Party Doll – Buddy Knox, 1957
33. Runaround Sue – Dion, 1961
34. Hello Mary Lou – Rick Nelson, 1961
35. Save The Last Dance For Me – The Drifters, 1962
36. Keep On Dancing - The Gentrys, 1965

Airport Runway and Flight Paths

Over the summer we had noticed a lot more commercial planes flying overhead. As the summer went on it seemed to get more and more planes in the skies over our house. We especially noticed the planes directly overhead at all different times of the day and usually in small groups of one following another. It was like the flight paths from the airport had suddenly changed.

It turned out that that's exactly what happened. Apparently the Buffalo Niagara Airport had closed down one of it's major runways for repairs earlier in the summer and the airlines needed to use alternate runways resulting in different flight paths. Some of those new flight paths were coming directly over our home for the first time in all the years we've lived here. It certainly changed the quality of life. Fortunately the runway repairs are scheduled to be completed in September. Hopefully everything will then go back to normal.

Let's Twist Again - Oldies FV

Let's Twist Again like we did last summer. Another hour and a half dance mix of that great music from the late 1950's and early 1960's. 

This mix branches out a little more from Wagner's Ballroom and includes some beach music, British Invasion, pop and blues.

Here is a link to the Spotify playlist.

Let’s Twist Again - Oldies FV

1. The Twist – Hank Ballard, 1959
2. Let’s Twist Again – Chubby Checker, 1962
3. Peppermint Twist – Joey Dee & The Starlighters, 1961
4. Twist and Shout – The Isley Brothers, 1962
5. I Saw Her Standing There – The Beatles, 1963
6. Glad All Over – The Dave Clark Five, 1964
7. I Get Around – The Beach Boys, 1964
8. Surf City – Jan and Dean, 1963
9. Walk, Don’t Run – The Ventures, 1960
10. Barbara-Ann – The Regents, 1961
11. Walk Like A Man – The Four Seasons, 1963
12. Denise – Randy & The Rainbows, 1963
13. Who Do You Love? – Bo Diddley, 1956
14. The Real Nitty Gritty – Shirley Ellis, 1963
15. Walkin’ With Mr. Lee – Lee Allen & His Band, 1957
16. Kansas City – Wilbert Harrison, 1959
17. I’m Walkin’ – Fats Domino, 1957
18. The Way I Walk – Jack Scott, 1959
19. Honky Tonk (Part 1) – Bill Doggett, 1956
20. Fever – Little Willie John, 1956
21. Willie and The Hand Jive – Johnny Otis Show, 1958
22. Come On, Let’s Go – Richie Valens, 1958
23. Only The Lonely – Roy Orbison, 1961
24. Blue Jean Bop – Gene Vincent, 1956
25. Don’t Be Cruel – Elvis Presley, 1956
26. Rave On – Buddy Holly, 1958
27. Johnny B. Goode – Chuck Berry, 1958
28. Jenny Jenny – Little Richard, 1956
29. Wild Weekend – The Rockin’ Rebels, 1962
30. Not Fade Away – The Rolling Stones, 1964
31. She Loves You – The Beatles, 1963
32. Dance, Dance, Dance – The Beach Boys, 1965
33. Surfin’ Bird – The Trashmen, 1964
34. Beach Party – Annette, 1963
35. The Little Old Lady From Pasadena – Jan and Dean, 1964
36. Woo-Hoo – The Rock-A-Teens, 1959
37. Do You Want To Dance – Bobby Freeman, 1959
38. C’mon Everybody – Eddie Cochran, 1958
39. Tear It Up – Johnny Burnette & The Rock ‘n’ Roll Trio, 1956
40. All Shook Up – Elvis Presley, 1957

Let's Go - Oldies FV

Let's go down to Wagner's Ballroom. These are some of the songs from my early love of rock and roll music. Over the years I have put these songs on lots of cassette tapes and CDs and I have created dozens of mixes featuring these and many other similar songs. This is the music played at the local teen dance halls like Wagner's. We would walk over to Broad Street from our neighborhood to go to the Jerry Blavat record hops in the mid 1960's and dance to him spinning the "oldies" songs on this mix. I collected them all. 

We played these songs on the record player in our basement rec room. Later I put them on cassette tapes and then later still on mix CDs. I brought the mixes to some of our neighborhood reunion parties over the years and also occasionally played these songs during my barroom DJ years in the 1980's. 

This is the hour and a half final version of this mix but there are several more covering the same time period and theme.

Spotify link here but no Bila by the Versatones. Too bad. Great song. So here a link to it on YouTube.

Let’s Go - Oldies FV

1. Let’s Go (Pony) – The Routers, 1962
2. Shout Shout (Knock Yourself Out) – Ernie Maresca, 1962
3. You Can’t Sit Down – The Dovells, 1963
4. Little Bitty Pretty One – Thurston Harris, 1957
5. Shake A Tail Feather – Five Du-Tones, 1963
6. South Street – The Orlons, 1963
7. Amazons and Coyotees – The Dreamlovers, 1958
8. Pretty Little Angel Eyes – Curtis Lee, 1961
9. Quicksand – Martha & The Vandellas, 1963
10. The Loco-Motion – Little Eva, 1962
11. Da Doo Ron Ron – The Crystals, 1963
12. Mixed-Up, Shook-Up Girl – Patty & The Emblems, 1964
13. The 81 – Candy & The Kisses, 1965
14. Going To A Go-Go – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, 1965
15. Do You Love Me – The Contours, 1962
16. I Do – The Marvelows, 1965
17. Mr. Lee – The Bobbettes, 1957
18. Let The Good Times Roll – Shirley and Lee, 1956
19. Quarter To Three – Gary U.S. Bonds, 1960
20. Speedo – The Cadillacs, 1955
21. Blue Moon – The Marcels, 1961
22. La Bamba – Richie Valens, 1958
23. I’ve Had It – The Bell Notes, 1959
24. The Stroll – The Diamonds, 1957
25. Babalu’s Wedding Day – The Eternals, 1959
26. Harlem Shuffle – Bob & Earl, 1963
27. The Monkey Time – Major Lance, 1963
28. Mashed Potato Time – Dee Dee Sharp, 1962
29. Think – James Brown, 1960
30. Good Golly Miss Molly – Little Richard, 1956
31. Ain’t Got No Home – Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry, 1956
32. Big Boy Pete – The Olympics, 1960
33. Puddin’ N’ Tain – The Alley Cats, 1963
34. Sherry – The Four Seasons, 1962
35. Little Girl Of Mine – The Cleftones, 1956
36. Bila – The Versatones, 1958

A Week on Steroids

Just before we left on vacation to Long Lake in the Adirondacks I went to the doctor's office concerning my ongoing hip problems. I initially messaged the office to see if I could get a referral for some physical therapy to treat my hip which had been having some flare ups of pain. Dr. Charles got back to me right away but wanted me to come in and get my hip evaluated and also to arrange to have an x-ray. 

So I got a quick appointment with the PA on the Wednesday before we left and was looked at. She gave me a referral for physical therapy and for an x-ray of my hip. I had explained that I was going to be out of town on vacation in the Adirondacks for a week with family and she gave me a 6 day prescription of steroids to help with the pain.

The meds did help with the pain and I didn't feel too bad on vacation but they also gave me quite the buzz. I was probably a lot more talkative that week and I certainly had a lot more energy. Well, it got me through vacation and I'm looking forward to getting some help with physical therapy starting a week or so after my hip scan.

An Evening at Waxlight Bar 'a Vin

Earlier in the week we made reservations for dinner at Waxlight Bar 'a Vin on Chandler Street in Black Rock for 6 pm tonight. This restaurant has been on our to do list for since early in the pandemic but we just haven't gotten over there. Finally we did it this evening and we had a wonderful time. The food was amazing and the staff was incredible. We would go there again in a hot minute but realistic how about next week. 

We had a wonderful dinner tonight and started out sharing some appetizers. First some Spanish oil cured anchovy toast, English pea coulis and then a couple of pork rillette on crispy brioche, maple vinegar aioli, pickled mustard. We followed that up with an order of summer squash toast, squash blossom ricotta, summer herbs. Everything was amazingly delicious and incredibly put together. We loved it all. Then we shared a main course of barbecue arctic char, crispy potato, oles lettuces, black walnut ketchup. It was wonderful. I couldn't believe how good the potatoes were. Of course we had desert. A bowl of chocolate gelato with cocoa nib caramel. 

And then there was the wine. Aside from being a great restaurant this was also an upscale wine bar. We were not looking for bottles but rather wanted to try a few different wines while we were there. Becky was going for the white and I was focused on the reds. 

Becky first had a French Rose Chateau Trinquevedel, Grenache Blend Rosé, Tavel, Rhone Valley, France '21 and then a German white rose. Me, I had Giovanna Macario, Ruchè, Castagnole, Monferrato, Piemonte, Italy 2021 and then Famille Pupille, Sangiovese Blend, Morellino di Scansano, Tuscany, Italy '21. I was into the Italian reds until the end and then I had a third glass of wine... Chateau du Cèdre, Malbec, Southwest, France 2020. All the wine we had tonight was wonderful. 

The Concrete Ship

When we were kids going down to the Jersey Shore every summer one of the things we always did was drive down to Cape May and see the Concrete Ship that had sunk on the coast. We were always expecting something to happen. The ship was going to sink completely or we would get to see it fall apart. Over the years the ship had been slowly sinking into the mud. We sometimes wondered if it was still going to be there when we drove up. In 1962 the concrete ship did break apart and suddenly there were two pieces off the beach. The ship finally completely sunk sometime around 2008. For many decades this wreck had been a tourist attraction in Cape May.

As someone who spent several years sailing around the world on ships I've found it to be an amazing story that during World War I people actually thought they could make sea worthy ships make out of cement and then built twelve of them by 1918. It's a fascinating story but back in those days in the late 50's and early 60's we were just highly entertained to look at those strange hulks with the rust streaming down their concrete sides. The ship we went to see was the SS Atlantus. I probably hadn't seen it since the late 1960's. For some reason this ship has come up in a couple of recent conversations so I thought I'd make a note of it here. I'll have to ask my siblings what they remember of that concrete ship and maybe some friends from the old neighborhood too.

Some Say Love - Reflections FV

Some Say Love. Another mix that is now part of my Final Versions series of mixes in my Reflections series. This one has been around in various forms for a number of years. The title comes from the opening line of the first song. There was an earlier version back in the AotM days and then again around 2018. It was also part of an eight hour mega mix that I put together in 2019. Now we're back to the original hour and a half version but slightly different with some newer songs up to 2016 in the mix. 

Some Say Love - Reflections FV

1. Song For Zula – Phosphorescent, 2013
2. So Blue - Low, 2013
3. The Night We Met – Lord Huron, 2015
4. Till The Town Goes Dark – Aaron Lee Tasjan, 2016
5. Where’d You Go – Boy & Bear, 2015
6. I’ve Got This Friend – The Civil Wars, 2011
7. I Can See The Pines Are Dancing – A. A. Bondy, 2009
8. I Don’t Feel It Anymore (Song of the Sparrow) – William Fitzsimmons, 2008
9. Empty Shell – Cat Power, 2006
10. Crystal Village – Pete Yorn, 2003
11. Do You Trust Me? – Blanche, 2004
12. The Closer I Am – The Accidental, 2008
13. All Night – Tyler Ramsey, 2011
14. Pity Love – Adam Green & Binki Shapiro, 2013
15. Afterglow – Jose Gonzalez, 2015
16. Next Time – Laura Marling, 2016
17. Everything Looks Better (In Hindsight) – The Wild Weeds, 2016
18. Nothing Ever Come My Way – Falls, 2015
19. I Am Not In Love Anymore – Liza Anne, 2014
20. Find A Way – Quiet Arrows, 2015
21. Real Peach – Henry Jamison, 2016
22. Bashed Out – This Is The Kit, 2015
23. The Weary Kind - Ryan Bingham, 2010
24. Crazy For You – Adele, 2008

Dad - 53 Years Ago

Dad passed away suddenly from a ruptured brain aneurysm 53 years ago today. I was 18 and serving in the Navy. We never got to have that beer together he promised when I returned from my first overseas deployment. I was glad to have spent that previous year with him as a machinist helper in the machine shop where he was the foreman. I got to see him as another one of the guys I worked with and experienced how he interacted and supervised so many other young men. They respected and admired him. At the time seeing him in this way was so different for me and changed our relationship. I would have liked to have had the time to know him better. He no longer was just my dad. So 53 years ago today I was tracked down and sent to meet with the base chaplain to get the news about my father. I immediately flew home on emergency leave in my dress whites with a black armband into the embrace of my family.

He was 47 when he died and never got to enjoy his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It makes me appreciate the time I get to spend with my four  grandchildren and looking forward to another one on the way. 

The Last Goodbye - Reflections FV

The Last Goodbye. Another mix from about a dozen years ago and was part of my Heartache series. There are at least 20-25 mixes in this series going back some 20 years. This is another Final Version. As always they are all songs from albums I've collected over the years. I guess I'm still old school in that I insist on playing my own music rather than depending on a streaming service to send their selected music to my phone/tablet/speaker, etc. I like to play music from my collection rather than what they think I might like or what they want me to listen based on what someone is paying them to play for me. That being said I do put many of my mixes up on Spotify for convenience and because that is the way most people would ever hear them if so inclined. 

Spotify playlist here.

The Last Goodbye - Reflections FV

1. The Last Goodbye - Jeff Buckley, 1994
2. Drowning in Your Tears - The Rembrandts, 1995
3. Sonnet - The Verve, 1997
4. Trouble - Coldplay, 2000
5. Inside of Love - Nada Surf, 2002
6. She Just Wants To Be - R.E.M., 2001
7. Lonesome Tears - Beck, 2002
8. I Don't Wanna Talk About It Now - Emmylou Harris, 2000
9. Blue - The Thorns, 2003
10. No One's Gonna Love You - Band of Horses, 2007
11. See Myself - The Sails, 2006
12. Days - David Bowie, 2003
13. He Thinks He's In Love - Eleni Mandell, 2002
14. You Can Have It All - Yo La Tengo, 2000
15. Stumbling Through The Dark - The Jayhawks, 2003
16. Dreams-Come-True-Girl - Cass McCombs, 2009
17. Baby Lee - Teenage Fanclub, 2010
18. When She's Near Me - Fiction Family, 2009
19. Thinking 'bout You - Yusuf (Cat Stevens), 2009
20. Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard, 2007
21. Always In Your Mind - Jennifer O'Connor, 2008
22. In Vain or True - Fistful of Mercy, 2010
23. Doves and Stones - Mark Olson & Gary Louris, 2009
24. Stick With Me Baby - Robert Plant & Allison Krauss, 2007

Ice Cream @ Long Lake

Every time we are in Long Lake for vacation we make time to head down the road into town at Custard's Last Stand. We've been doing it for decades. We loved doing it. Our kids loved doing it and now our grandkids love going down there for an ice cream cone. Actually this year they did it twice.

On Wednesday we had a busy day going up to Tupper Lake and The Wild Center. Then we had dinner at the Adirondack Hotel restaurant and then stopped at Custard's Last Stand for ice cream. Sean came with Becky and me in our car and Katie, Todd and the kids were in their car parked next to us in the picture.

I didn't take this picture. I found it when looking at the Long Lake Town Facebook page among a group of photos that were documenting the storm, the flash flooding, the quick recovery of the town and the visitors getting out around town... like us at the ice cream shop. 

Our Dinner Nights @ Long Lake

We've had a long standing tradition of having some ethnic food dinner nights while staying together on our summer vacations on Long Lake in the Adirondacks. We would usually set aside a night or two for those special dinners. Recently we've been having an Italian pasta night and a Mexican tacos night and each household would make sure there were some special ingredients brought along for those dinners. This year Ashley came up with a great idea to add an Asian food night which we were then all looking forward to. Of course we always have one night for a regular vacation cookout with chicken, hot dogs and burgers. We go out to a restaurant at least one night for dinner and then we have the leftovers dinner the night before we go back home.

Things turned out a little different this year because of the Long Lake flooding situation but that's another story.

We had our pasta night on Saturday evening after driving up to the Adirondacks. 

Sunday we had our cookout with Sean taking care of the grill.  

Monday was every family for themselves. It was a very rainy night. Actually the only really bad weather time but with far reaching consequences. Everyone brought plenty of food.

Tuesday we had taco night which was all very good and a lot of fun. We had quite the assortment of foods.

Wednesday we went over to the Adirondack Hotel for dinner on the back porch with the kids. Unfortunately Ashley had to take Andrew back home to Glenville earlier in the day but there again that's another story. Sean stayed in Long Lake and went out to dinner with us along with Katie and Todd and the kids.

Thursday we had Asian night. This was a very successful first for us in Long Lake.

Friday we had leftovers.

April in Spain

April in Spain by John Banville, 2021

Another great book by John Banville. I enjoyed this one very much. I also coincidently read this just after watching the Tour de France on television which began in the northern coast of Spain in the town of San Sabastian featured in this book where the main character is on vacation. I finished this book while on vacation in Long Lake.

Banville has a knack for creating interesting well written situations for his murder mysteries and this one works as well. I've been reading a lot of his books over the past few years. This was another in his Dublin pathologist Dr. Quirke series. 

Chef Darrell's Mountain Diner

Becky and I along with Sean went to Chef Darrell's Mountain Diner for lunch on Friday down in Blue Mountain Lake. We had a very nice time and the food was wonderful. We sat inside the diner but there was also a very nice outdoor porch patio dining area on the side of the building. We will definitely need to go back there again and sit on the patio with the kids. Next year. 

We had heard about this new restaurant over the past couple of years. The restaurant opened in 2021. The diner itself was originally located in Maryland near Baltimore for several decades and eventually hauled to Blue Mountain Lake in 2017 where it was renovated. The owners found a profession chef, Darrell Spencer, a Black man which is unusual for the Adirondacks, to lease the restaurant.

We had been wanting to go out to dinner by ourselves as we usually do at some point during out Long Lake vacations. Becky and I often go down to the Long View Lodge but this year we just didn't have the opportunity. We had wanted to do something with Sean after Ashley and Andrew had left because of the little boy's not travelling well as a two year old. 

After we got back from lunch we went back to our cabins to pack up and get ready for the trip back home the next day. Ashley was coming back to pick up Sean. Luckily they only live a couple of hours away.

Muddy Trails & A Day of Rest

Todd and Katie took the kids on a hike to Rock Lake. The trails were a little muddy and hard to keep your footing so they didn't last very long. Then they went to lunch in Long Lake and took the kids over to the playground.

Becky and I stayed back at the cabins on this nice Thursday of our vacation and had a day of rest. We just hung out and took it easy. We went down to the beach where we couldn't go near the water and then went over to the lean-to area overlooking the lake and stayed there for awhile. I read a book while Becky did some drawings. We also hung around the dock but the water level there was very high too.

When the kids came home we hung out with them. Violet watched some TV shows and then we had a nice dinner of Asian food. After dinner we hung out on the porch and enjoyed our time together.

Already looking forward to next year.

Problems on the Beach

There was a big storm on Monday night which caused a lot of flooding in Long Lake and over the next several days the beach at Donnelly's Sunset Point where we stay was fouled and not much use for the kids to play. Our hosts, Michelle and Tom, were great and they made sure we were all safe and comfortable. They also worked very hard to clean up the beach for us but it was a difficult chore as debris from farther down the lake washed ashore on their beach no matter how fast they cleaned it up. They were also concerned about cleaning up the beach for their guest coming the following weekend and beyond.

We found many other things to do during the rest of the week on our vacation. We just did not spend much time on the beach or definitely not in the water after the storm and flooding. We are looking forward to coming here again next year.

Dinner at the Adirondack Hotel Restaurant

Every year we get everyone together for a group dinner at the Adirondack Hotel on their back porch. It's always fun and the food is always good. It's also just down the road in town from our cabins so it's very close. The back porch is more fun too. There are always more kids back there and we fit right in with the grandchildren although we have been going down there for many years long before we've had small children with us again.

I always love to get their fish sandwiches and did so again this year. On the previous day the hotel was recovering from the storm and the flooding. They had some flooding in the building and the road across the street was washed out. The storm was Monday night and Tuesday was the recovery day. We were glad to be able to get down there on Wednesday for dinner. We could see the road crews still working on the highway just outside the restaurant while we were on the back porch having our dinner.

The Wild Center 2023

Then we had another adventure. We wanted to get out of Long Lake because finally the roads were open. Well, not all roads but this one was open. We got in the van and drove out route 30 past where the lake had flooded the town and on up to Tupper Lake and the Wild Center. 

The kids always love going to The Wild Center and it's various activities and places to wander around. It's a great science and natural history museum and center. It

was always an adventure for them with so much to do both indoors and outdoors. They always especially love the otters. Walking around the grounds is always a lot of fun and in particular the wild walk above the trees. Violet really got into discovering the naturalist drawers and opened each and every one of them to examine the contents.

After we got back to Long Lake we headed into town for dinner at the Adirondack Hotel restaurant and then ice cream at Custer's Last Stand. Two other traditions.

On The Beach... the first few days

When we arrived at our cabins on Saturday afternoon the weather was wonderful and it didn't take long to get the kids down on the beach. The water level was much higher than usual but the beach was still very nice and inviting. Todd had the kids in the water almost immediately. We had brought a bunch of beach toys with us.

On Sunday morning we went to Buttermilk Falls and then spent the afternoon on the beach again. It was

really fun to see the kids playing together on the beach and especially Andrew and Violet. Afterwards we had a cookout at Sean and Ashley's cabin.

Monday was a rainy day but we still got some time down on the beach in the afternoon after we got back from the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake although it was not really nice enough for the kids to be in the water. 

On Monday night a storm came in that caused a lot of flooding in the area and a

negative impact on the beach but that's another story.