Primo Evening!

What a bodacious (M-W's word of the day) fall this has been! We had a few days of lower than normal temps, (see photo of a few weeks ago when Chris, Laura & Owen were here - sweaters and jeans!) and some nights in the low 40's, and then we have had glorious weather for the last two weeks or so.

The cold spell killed off the mosquitos, so sitting outside in the evening has been wonderful! I am outside right now, watching some of nature's splendid displays. The wind is calm, it is about 75 degrees at almost 8 PM, the sky is mostly clear overhead, the harvest moon has just risen over the ridge in all its orangy glowing glory, and there is a large cumulous cloud to the southeast that is being lit from within by lightning. Wherever the storm actually is, it is so far away that we can't hear any thunder, we can just see that cloud light up again and again.

If this is global warming, I'm all for it. Oh, and did I mention that we went swimming today? I have never before been in the lake so late in the year, but it was almost 90 today, I was working from home, and it just seemed right to spend my lunch hour in the lake.

Tom said to be sure to mention that in order to get the following pictures, he had to be in the lake too! He actually went in first, and I reluctantly followed. It was very cold, but also very refreshing!

Ducks, Watch out- the Lady is FAST!

We had some visitors at supper time the other evening. Although they weren't invited, they came up the walk from the lake to see what we were eating.

We did have some bread to offer them, and they were brave enough to take it from my fingers.


I tried to get them to jump up on my lap, but no luck so far!

I did catch one though- we'll see if they ever come back!

Owen drives the boat

Well, as you can see, the weather changed dramatically when we all headed north.

My apologies to all family members reading this. We did not have a chance to invite anyone to the house or the boat to visit with Chris, Laura & Owen. They were at our house for a very short time after the beach, as they needed to be back in NYC to attend to some inportant business matters on the 11th.

We will just all have to descend on them in Prague at Christmas! Get your passports, get set, and GO!

Proud Grandma & Grandpa! We were trying to hold Owen's hand to be sure he wouldn't fall off the dock, but as you can see, he wasn't having any of that!

What does this do, Grandpa? It's actually a duck call, and I noticed that it didn't find it's way into Owen's luggage.

Driving the boat with Grandpa.

Up on top!

Great visit!

Yes folks- Chris, Laura & Owen made it to the States, and we were fortunate enough to be invited to share their vacation at the beach in New Jersey. The town was called Point Pleasant, and it was indeed very pleasant. The weather was wonderful- very hot still, and the ocean was warm enough for Chris, Erika (yes, she was there as well) and Tom to go swimming. The rest of us put our feet in the waves only.

Owen didn't like the water, but he had a great time in the sand. This town also had a boardwalk with rides and other amusements that kept us occupied when we weren't at the beach.

It was a perfect way to end our summer!


Grandma and Grandpa Smith came down for a day as well, so Owen had all of his grandparents together for a short while. He didn't seem too confused, and enjoyed all the attention. He really didn't like the Grandmas' attempt to get him in the water though. As you can see, he is fleeing!

This was the Super Truck ride, and Owen LOVED it! Here is Auntie Erika being hauled around the track. Sadly, Uncle Mike was not able to join us as he was busy moving his company to new offices in DC.

It seems that Chris is an excellent frog flipper, and won a stuffed animal for Owen. If you look closely at the upper left corner, you will see the frog flying toward the lily pad.

Here is the happy family at the beach.

Labor Day

Summer traditionally draws to a close on Labor Day in Central NY. The kids go back to school on Wednesday, so this weekend is it. Here at the marina, I think folks suddenly realized that this was our last hurrah, and everyone came to the lake. I have not seem so many folks here all summer!

We had a great weekend with fireworks displays, the Harborfest in the park next door on Saturday providing food and entertainment, a trip to the State Fair on Sunday, and today we went out with our friend Brad and Ellen in their houseboat. It was actually hot today, so we were able to go swimming off their boat. It was such a beautiful way to spend the day, and we were all quite surprised that the lake water was still warm enough to bear. Global warming does have an upside! We then boated down to our favorite restaurant, The Boatyard Grill, for a late lunch.

The nights are getting cooler, the trees are beginning to turn, and the days are definitely shorter, but we'll hold out here as long as we can before giving up and moving back home!

Man Time!

Tom rarely hangs out with "the guys" for any length of time, but the other night he grabbed a cigar and a snifter of B & B, and strolled down the strip to see who was out and about.



About an hour later, he returned to our boat, waving some cash. It seems that some of the guys wanted to play a quick betting game - everyone put five dollars in the pot & drew one card from the deck. High card takes all, and Tom drew an ace!



I can't believe they let him escape without a rematch, but apparently they were so amazed that he even played at all that they let him walk away with all their money! Nice work, Tom!