Revisting childhood.

Let me tell you about a little trip the kids and I took during our vacation. I took them to a place I spent a good portion of my own childhood. It was like stepping back in time a little. We visited my Great Grandmothers cottage on Cayuga Lake. It's in the heart of wine country in upstate NY. A fact that wasn't all the important to my as a child. But now...oh my. They make some really nice wine here. For our honeymoon Jason and I took a day and when wine tasting. What fun. We had no idea what we were doing. Did you know you are supposed to spit the wine back out? Puh. Not us. We took it like shots. Yeah. No idea. But we did buy some wine so I guess the wineries were probably happy.
Anyhoo. I guess it's off on a tangent day. Where were we? Right, Cayuga Lake. So the kids and I took a journey. First you drive and drive and drive. You go through Ithaca. Ever been to Ithaca? I swear the designers of that town were five and had crayons. There are so many one way streets you are bound to get lost. And I did. Good times. But then we pulled out of town on the far side and kept going until we saw this sign. Then we did what any good redneck would do. We pulled off the paved road.
We drove a little further and then we entered the woods. This was always really neat to me at a kid. The woods just close in around you. It doesn't matter how bright the day is, it is always dark in here. I'm sure those lights don't mean anything. They have been on for a long time.

Then everything opens up and we are there. This is one of those views that is forever stuck in my mind. It mean swimmings, hiking, fishing, and fun to me.
It also means seeing this lady. She celebrates her 100th Birthday this year. She is amazing. She still lives by herself and does all of her own cooking and cleaning. She is sharp as a tack and remembers every single person she has ever met.
She loves clowns and had them all over the cottage when we were kids. She has since given the cottage to her daughter and son. They still keep a few clowns around to keep them company while they are there. Mark and Anna got a huge kick out of the clowns.
You go through that gate in the above picture. Then you go down all of these stairs. And you are on the beach. Did I take a decent picture of the beach. *Searches frantically* No, I didn't. Sorry. However I can tell you about those stairs. I went up and down those stairs not less than 298,564 times as a child. They winded me then and they still wind me today. That is a lot of stairs.
They had fun I think.

I most certainly had fun.

Have a great weekend!