Two Nights Into One: July Fourth Vacation Fun on Lake Champlain

In late winter or early, early spring K. and I connected about a potential camping adventure somewhere between Philly and Boston. After a few emails back and forth a new plan was formed, and that was to meet between Westport and Port Henry New York, at the family cottage of K.'s bf J. I hadn't seen K. or J. since visiting them in 2010 on the way to L.'s wedding, and meeting up at a cottage on Lake Champlain sounded like a really solid way of reconnecting. My drive up was slightly more eventful than I would have liked. My phone charger stopped working, my oil needed to be changed, I went through a toll and my EZPass didn't work. Just little things that stress me out and when piled on top of one another didn't leave me entirely free of worry. But I had written down the directions because I knew we were going to be in a pretty much cell and internet free zone (hallelujah) so I didn't get terribly lost until the very end of the trip, which was not surprising whatsoever. That first night we caught up, snacked on one thing or another, had some drinks and generally eased into a nice rhythm for the trip. At one point K. and I were outside and J. ended up fast asleep in this chair for quite some time.

And then the next day was upon us. K. made us all scrambled eggs with caramelized onions, cheese, and maybe scallions?

Then we drove to Port Henry to do a more thorough grocery shopping trip for the next couple of days. It was a gorgeous area. Lake to the east and Adirondack mountains to the west. Just magic stuff scenes around every bend and curve of the road.

That second day I made my artichoke jalapeno dip and we ate it while playing a game of some kind.

J.'s family has been coming up to this area for a good lot of time. His grandparents, his mother and her siblings, and now he and his sisters. For the majority of our time there it was just the three of us in the cottage itself, but the neighborhood certainly had a bustle to it. Plenty of folks with similarly long histories in the area taking advantage of the holiday week. Not that it was a week of holiday for most. The world certainly went on around us, but I enjoyed more fully unplugging than I've done in quite some time.

So I had a pretty good idea that I wanted to stop in Kingston, NY on my way north to buy some meat to contribute to our meals from Fleisher's, and it's good that I already had that inkling, because about 60 miles south of the Kingston exit my phone died, and about 30 miles south of Kingston my car began telling me it would like an oil change. This was also when the EZPass debacle took place. I just. The thing worked the whole time except going through that exit and now I know I'm going to get some sort of crazy ticket and I'll be mad about it. ANYWAY. I got off at Kingston and eventually was able to find a place to get an oil change and then another place to buy a new car-phone-extension thing. And it was only then that I finally turned my attentions to locating Fleisher's, which wasn't so hard. I arrived at the tail end of the Kingston farmer's market, which was kind of neat. Once I arrived in Fleisher's I tried to flirt with a butcher and make myself seem hardcore by suggesting that me and my three friends wanted to eat a steak that was nearly "blue." This wasn't entirely untrue we did end up with a pretty rare steak, but not blue-rare...though I mean really, how is talking about a willingness to eat nearly raw steak in any way a sign of flirtation? Pretty much it isn't. In any case. He did suggest and give us a really nice cut of steak and I truly did consider inviting him to join us (mostly joking...all joking?) in consuming it. So the second day of our vacation or was it the third? Steak was grilled, never mind the rain that was falling.

And my god. It was delicious. No joke delicious. Seriously. At K.'s suggestion I did almost exactly three minutes per side and then just left it alone to rest. LEFT IT ALONE. I need to get better at leaving my meat alone while smiling at strangers and learning how to flirt. All this meat flirt conversation is confusing, I'm sure. I believe that this was a dry aged sirloin?

K. made an arugula salad with tomatoes, roasted pine nuts and shaved parmesan.

I brought a bottle of wine my father had given me while in North Carolina, which went down easy and well with the steak and salad.

And while it certainly was pink, I don't think anyone would call it quite "blue." My butcher boyfriend might have been relieved. Or disappointed. I'm not sure. In any case, if you have the opportunity to get meat from Fleisher's, do.

And then I taught K. and J. the glory of Catan and we never turned back. I believe I won this first game (I was blue) but they were quick learners and our Catan playing from that point on was often not concluded with a victory on my part. GOOD TIMES.

Morning Lake

The whole canoe story is one I need to spend a bit more time writing. It's one of those things where I made a rather stupid decision, and then another stupid decision, and then got myself out of a precarious situation just to become an overly emotional person in a roomful of folks who were having a perfectly lovely evening. Very uncouth and very embarrassing. But also, when told correctly, relatively funny. In any case, the next morning I awoke pretty early so I could start my drive back to Philly. My embarrassment was in high gear as well, so it was proper that I slunk away without saying many proper goodbyes to the G. clan. When I was in high school I wanted to have seven kids. I wanted a house full of noise and family hustle and bustle. As an only child I always felt like there was something to be said for additional family companions. And so I always enjoy spending time with larger families that have, in one way or another, some version of the dynamic I once hoped to create in my own family. At this point, if I wanted to have seven kids I'd have to have at least two sets of twins to get it done before I hit menopause...oh, and I would need to, like, find someone to have the kids with. That really is neither here nor there. The point is that I really am grateful to M. and A. for inviting me into this place and group of folks. Though I am in no way related to any of them, I really enjoy the privilege of spending time with them during their annual family gathering.

This is what the lake looked like in the morning.

Sheesh.

Brisket, Charades and Catan

This last afternoon was perhaps the sunniest of the days I was up in the Adirondacks, which was ideal for the preparation of that night's dinner: smoked brisket.

A number of us sat around as the fire was built (helped along with the aid of grease) and the brisket was positioned for a good number of gentle smoking hours.

At some point I roused M. and we went to Lampson Falls. This is something we've done in previous years, and which I planned on properly documenting. Unfortunately I forgot the camera in the car. This is basically what it was like. The big excitement of the excursion was when I accidentally allowed one of my flip flops to float away from me. I accepted it would never be seen again. Then, maybe ten minutes later, a strange swirl of a current boomeranged the flip flop back to our general pool area and M. was the heroine of the day....jumping into the water and swimming further out than either of us usually do to retrieve the dang thing. Seriously. I was very impressed and grateful. It made walking back to the car far more pleasant than it otherwise would have been. On the drive back we saw this bird.

We arrived just in time for dinner. That brisket and its accompanying sauce, salads and stuffed peppers wrapped in bacon were just the way to end a lovely day.

Then it was time for charades. A game that I do not consider myself particularly good at, but which I played nonetheless. In fact I managed to successfully get my team to guess a Japanese film name. I wish I could remember exactly what it was so you could then consider whether you would have found an effective way of acting it out. Alas. In any case, here is W. getting her team to guess something. Maybe a bird?

In between turns the two youngest kids would dance for the crowd.

T. taking his turn.

M. being intense and expressive.

I forget exactly what the circumstance of this was. V. may have disagreed with some word guessed or decision made. Whatever the cause, it was decided that she needed to be sat upon by M. to calm her down. It had the opposite effect.

V. and I had a nice separate chat about finances, which I'm grateful to her for having with me...even if at this point I still couldn't really tell you what a mutual fund is...a fund made up with bits of stock shares?

Father and son. A. was very displeased with all the photographing going on, so I didn't take any photos of him.

Three of the G. bros in various versions of profile.

Dessert.

And once charades was concluded, with my team winning, A., C. and I played Catan while a larger group played Trivial Pursuit.

Then there was the thing with the canoe.

Kitchen Breakfast

The next morning I thought long and hard about stoking a fire and making another glorious and hard core egg sandwich, but between having to break down the tent and another damp morning, I decided it against it. Instead I closed out my camp site, gathered all my things and went on over to the G. family house. It was too early for M. to be out and about, but others were already awake. I took some of the farm eggs I brought with me from Pennsylvania and made myself a similar breakfast, only with a few slices of bacon and salsa.

Cheesy egg center.

Yup.

Dogs, Sardines, Hummus, Meat and Goodness

Another day at the lake was spent in one fashion or another. At some point Arthur the dog took up residence in this chair. I found it worth a photograph.

This night's meal was prepared by A.'s portion of the family with assists from others I think. V. and A. were in charge of creating a massive amount of grilled pita bread to complement the sardine, anchovy, olive, hummus and feta spread that preceded the dinner.

I liked the sardines more than the anchovies. This was in large part due to the tiny anchovy bone that lodged itself in the roof of my mouth.

And I was also surprised by the chipotle hummus's surprising tastiness.

Meaaaaat.

Rowboat.

This canoe and I had a very unfortunate time together on my last night at the lake. I may write about it. I may not.

Good stuff this. Couscous, lamb, sausage. Also homemade harissa that had a very pleasant kick.

Oh yeah. Another lovely night and meal.

Fish, Rainbows, Dip and Dinner at Silver Lake

After my morning duck time I headed over to the G. compound, where I spent my day swimming, lounging and generally taking it easy. I think at one point that day M. and I took a walk around the entirety of the lake, which pretty neat. We saw a number of interesting mushrooms and it was lusciously green and mossy along the treeline right by the shore of the lake. A good outing. Others took longer hikes. In fact three intrepid G.s went on what was supposed to be about a 20 mile hike....except that they took the wrong loop at some point and added at least another five miles to the whole journey. While they were making up the difference, many of us sat at the lake idly wondering where they were. Others went fishing. I really need to get into fishing more...only I would want to cook the fish I caught whenever appropriate.

This fish's fate was not a dinner plate.

The hikers return and we all sit in a circle around beer.

The days were generally warm, but not necessarily consistently sunny. On this day, this led to a rainbow.

The four brothers G. and W. in the foreground.

A cheesy delicious artichoke dip.

Just very beautiful. It's funny, you almost get accustomed to it when you're there. The light changes from moment to moment, the surface of the lake is still or ripples. But it's all just so perfect.

I insisted that I get a few purposeful people shots.

We both look kind of weird but kind of good at the same time. I believe M. is doing a serious eyebrow arch.

Bros.

I've found it challenging to take photographs of M. when she's not making a funny face.

Sometimes she's helped.

Dinner started with a green salad with tomatoes.

The main course was a tender stewed chicken, sweet carrots and rice.

Thanks goes to the Rhode Island contingent for the meal! The rest of the evening was spent lounging. Children were tickled. I retired back to the campsite at a reasonable hour.