We keep some old bread at both the boathouse and at the dock for when the duck families come around...I used to rail against people feeding ducks...but Ben likes it...so now I support feeding ducks...
We went on some really nice paddles with my sister (ANTI) Sarah, including a nice exploration of Upper Saranac, the lake our home for July is on...
We paddled around all of the islands in our end of the hugely long lake on this glorious day, with me struggling a bit (and silently) in my bathtub of a canoe to keep up with all of those sleek kayaks...to be fair, Penny was in my boat, and she helped a little...
When we got back to camp, Penny tried out riding on the front deck of Gail's boat...there was a splash about 10 seconds after this picture was taken...
"How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie-pop?"
"Let's see...one, two, three, chomp..."
"Let's see...one, two, three, chomp..."
Penny is cute, and fast becoming accustomed to life on the water...
Another round of duck-feeding, this time from the dock while we were in the water...
An early morning picture, with the sun just peeking out from behind Dry Island and the lake as smooth as minimally ripply glass...
Another trip, this one to Jones to Osgood to Church ponds...we were foiled by beavers, who had toiled through the night to erect dams at every turn, which we didn't feel like either ramming or climbing...we instead decided to tour the Jones Pond instead, and let another group the following day ream out the waterway for us...
We had the Buerketts over for a swim and graduate study party...the younger ones did the swimming while Gail and Becca found wifi up on the boathouse deck above the noise and splashing, and worked on the various advanced degrees...
Saranac Root Beer was had by all of the waterbound crew...
The dogs, Ripple and Maggie, swam enough for 10 regular dogs...
Ben's summer soccer season began, and we've now had 4 practices...games will soon begin...
They spend their time on a mix of drills, like the one above, and scrimmaging, which resembles blob tag...
Everyone has fun, lots of kids take breaks to come and visit with Penny (sometimes one side or the other will be down all but one or two players), there are frequent and short and intense bouts of tears and screaming stemming from injury and/or meanness, and the kids are exhausted by the end of the hour-long practices...
I managed to sneak in a nap with Cedar and Penny one afternoon, all of us a little damp in the cool breeze of a perfect Adirondack summer's afternoon...
We did a long paddle from Middle Saranac to Lower Saranac Lake, travelling through the locks, a favorite of mine...
We stopped along the way to swim on one of the many islands dotting Middle Saranac, and to rehydrate and carbo-load for the remainder of the paddle down to our lunch spot...
The sun was high and hot in the clear sky, and I felt as though I could see to Montreal or into the atomic structure of the lilly pads that filled the river between the two lakes...everything was crisp and defined to an unbelievable degree...
Penny discovered that she likes sleeping with her head on my thwart bag...
Ben and D enjoyed the lunch at our traditional spot above the river, after the locks and just before reaching Lower Saranac Lake...I've done this trip about 100 times, and only missed eating in this spot once...nobody else seems to know it's there...their loss...
Blogger's Note: you can click on the picture above to see it enlarged...it's cute!
The traditional dessert, dating back to when Iroquois long boats ran these same waters, is a tootsie-pop...I like the purple ones, Ben vacillates between red (either one) and orange...
Gail has a sweet office set up on the deck of the boathouse...she is just about to start her comprehensive examinations, which are the last step before beginning her dissertation...GOOD LUCK GAIL!!!
We had some friends of Ben's come over for a swim date yesterday...Joseph and Ben, who for obvious reasons we call "Little Ben"...everyone had a great time...
The flooded kayak was, as ever, a big favorite...climbing in and out and around and under the thing never gets old if you're under 10...
Pushing and pulling the full boat and kids managed to earn me a sore back, but it was worth it...someone's got to eat all of that Advil anyway...
Before taking off, the boys all played a fun, and inventive, game of croquet...I came in 4th...
There was a beautiful sunrise this morning (Thanks Penny!)...strong coffee, wet dogs on my feet, a good book, and a comfy chair make for a great and relatively quiet hour (or two) before anyone else gets up...
A second walk a bit later looked a little different as the sun was starting to climb from behind Dry Island...
This afternoon, I paddled over to Tommy's Rock with Ben and Penny and D...D was trying out a lighter Hornbeck boat, and so I took the 2 little ones with me in my canoe...Ben paddled most of the way over there, and we were happily surprised to find nobody else on the island, so we stopped off for a swim and a lollipop while D continued on his paddle...
Ben had a great time splashing in the water, and had tons of fun scampering around on the rocks that make this island...stay tuned for pictures of me leaping off of the 75 foot cliff on the Southern side of the island...well, maybe it's more like 10-12 feet, but it seems a long way down, and there may be alligators or sharks with lasers waiting in the freezing depths at the end of the jump...
Penny was so sweet...she had a ball running around the tiny island, coming back to check in with us every couple of minutes, and swimming out to check on Ben in the water to make sure that he was OK...
It was a gorgeous day for a paddle, and I'm glad that we could Carpe the Diem, and enjoy ourselves out on the water...it's shaping up to be one heck of a summer, and we're really happy and lucky and grateful that we can spend so much of it at Camp Sunrise on Upper Saranac Lake...
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