Playing Catch Up...

It's been a busy couple of weeks...  When last I posted, my cousins were coming in from Arizona.  Here's a photo of my cousin K, her husband P, and their beautiful granddaughter, A.  We had a lovely time at dinner - and it turns out A is a huge Harry Potter fan, too, so she had fun looking at the HP book J got me for Christmas... 

Our families live thousands of miles apart, and have for many, many years.  It's amazing to me how much can happen, how people you are related to can be so very different from you, can have different morals and ethics (NOT my lovely cousins in the above photo!), can live lives you wouldn't dream could be real...

Our 13th wedding anniversary was July 25th.  To celebrate this year, we decided to take a mini vacation to Lake George.  We visited the Historical Association, the library, etc.  We hadn't planned to stay more than two days, max - we booked a room for one night and thought we'd wing it for the second night.  We took a ride up 9N to Bolton Landing, walked around the downtown area, sent some photos home to daughter M, then started to drive up to Fort Ticonderoga.  We passed a gas station outside of Bolton Landing, and I suggested we get some gas but J didn't want to spend $4.69 a gallon.  So we continued up the road, and eventually found a visitor's center.  They said we had to turn around and go back to Bolton Landing for gas, continue the 10 miles up to Ticonderoga, or try to make our way out to Route 87 and find a gas station on the highway.

So we decided to head for 87 - the downhill part of 9N above Bolton Landing did a number on our brakes - they were hot, hot, hot AND our check engine light went on!  That clinched it - we decided to make our way home, rather than stay another night in NY state.  J didn't bring his code reader for the car, so we had to cross our fingers there was nothing seriously wrong with the car and head for NJ.  We stopped for gas, then for lunch, then got home in the late afternoon.  While I certainly wish our vacation had been longer, we had SUCH a great time!  Proof positive, in my humble opinion, that J COULD actually learn to enjoy retirement, if only he'd decide to actually retire!

Here are some photos from Lake George:

This was a beautiful hibiscus flower outside one of the tourist shops on Canada Street.  It was probably the most beautiful thing I saw in or around those stores - there were a lot of kitschy souveniers but not a lot of quality gift items, at least in my opinion.

This is the building in which the Historical Association is housed.  The curator told us that the reason there was scaffolding outside and windows boarded up is because a major hailstorm several months ago broke many of the windows and damaged the exterior.  They are now beginning the renovations.

This is one of the many artifacts we got to see, up close and personal.

We had just checked in and we were deciding where to go first.  I should have taken a photo of the back seat of our car:  there were probably 50 tourist maps and brochures we picked up in the rest stops on the Thruway...

We had coffee in this little coffee shop in Bolton Landing on Friday morning.  I had teased J the day before:  "So, do you think we'll run into anyone you know here in Lake George?"  We always do - we were in Las Vegas and ran into neighbors who lived near him when he was married the first time.  We ran into people in Atlantic City, on a cruise...  So we were just walking into this coffee shop when a woman and her child came out and started chatting with J.  I really thought it was just stranger-speak - you know, "Thanks for holding the door," etc.  Until I realized she was telling her son to "say hello to Mr. S."  He was a pre-K student this year; J said he saw either the mom or the dad 5 times a week when they were dropping their son off at school!  Go figure!

We stopped by the side of the road, on 9N, and I just snapped this photo.  GORGEOUS!

When we got back we picked some vegetables from our garden.  Last year we were amazed at the size of our cucumbers.  Well, 2012 has last year beat!  See?

We picked onions, tomatoes, basil, oregano, cucumbers - mmm...

You can see how overgrown the garden is in this shot - the tomato vines are through the railing and growing across the deck!

Lunch yesterday:  our tomatoes, our onions, our basil, our oregano, and some mozzarella and pomegranate balsamic from Saratoga Olive Oil Company in Saratoga, NY (we stopped for lunch on the way up).  We also bought dark chocolate balsamic (for me!) and fig balsamic for my sister-in-law.  Mmm...

Last night J helped me start hanging frames on the wall in the upstairs hallway.  Some of the frames are empty, and I have more frames to hang, and more to buy...  The gold frame will eventually be replaced with another white one - I want a new look.  I originally had mis-matched frames on this wall but I decided to make them all white this time around.  What do you think?

Well, that's it for now - it's almost 11:30pm and I have to go to work tomorrow, darn it...