So, it’s already mid-September. How did that happen? Matthew has been busily posting away on these pages while I keep saying, “tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll do the post on our trip to Lake George.” Well, folks, tomorrow has finally come. Settle in, because this one’s going to take a while. I’ll get right to it:

In mid-August was Matthew’s week to be home alone, unencumbered by me and the kids – his once-every-I-don’t-know-how-many-years-sabbatical. And so I packed up the kids and headed north.

First stop: Brooklyn. We stayed in the schwank apartment of my schwank BFF Stella, where Kato took full advantage of free wi-fi and hip views (well, at least of the free wi-fi, anyway).

August preferred the humbler accommodations of my BFF’s most-ridiculous-dog-ever Ethel, but, not being a ridiculous chihuahua like Ethie, was disappointed to have to forego her crate.

Superior dog Kitty looked on with dispassionate eyes (or was that fear? One never can tell with Kitty…).

Next stop – New Paltz. I don’t know anything about New Paltz, except that there exists a front lawn there that is perfect for kid car derby. Friends (and Bobbledy subscribers!) Nate and Julia showed the kids how it was done.

I must admit, they were a quick study.

Alden proved to be particularly fearless:

Thank goodness we have to travel all the way to New Paltz for the perfect hazardous pasttime. It took a while to tear the kids away, but after hugs were given all around, we climbed back in the car and headed north again, to Lake George.

If you haven’t heard of Lake George, it’s a beautiful crystal clear lake in the Adirondacks. My aunt has a cottage about halfway up the lake where she spends her summers. We are lucky to be able to visit every now and then. A single day there looking out across the lake can recharge my batteries for months – and we got to stay for a week.

(Oddly enough, it’s only a month later and my batteries seem to be dying again already. What’s up with that, Lake George?!)

We had slightly less schwank accommodations there than we did in Brooklyn, though quite cosy.

Alden and August shared a blow-up mattress on the floor, which was great until Kato rolled off the bed and launched them off of it in the middle of the night. Much howling ensued, and successive nights involved a round robin of who got to sleep where. The end result generally was that I did not get to sleep.

There were campfires:

And marshmallows:

And lessons from Auntie Maiko (the marshmallow PRO):

And blueberries:

And, best of all – a canoe trip!

We all canoed out to a pirate island, in hopes of finding treasure. When we got there, we realized that we had accidentally left the treasure in Bob’s pants pocket back at the boathouse, and sent my Aunt Mimi back in her speedy kayak to retrieve it while we distracted the kids with lunch.

After some time had passed, sandwiches were finished, a swim was swum, some signals were transmitted from Aunt Mimi, and a clue appeared.

What, we wondered, could those stones be pointing at?

Ah-HA! A DIFFERENT island. One just across the way, called Skipper’s Jib!

Clearly the perfect spot for pirate treasure.

So we loaded back into the canoes:

And combed Skipper’s Jib for treasure:

(There are two trees and a bush on Skipper’s Jib, and the entire island is smaller than our living room. It didn’t take too long for Alden to spot the treasure). Our treasure was kind of a modern-day pirate treasure, packed in a plastic treasure box.

It contained two shiny stickers and a super-cool miniature pirate sword:

In retrospect, I see that it was not the greatest idea to give a 3 and a 5-year-old a little knife to fight over. How that did not occur to me beforehand is kind of a mystery. They promised to keep it in the box. Kato had originally popped out one of his sunglass lenses to be like a one-eyed pirate, but popped out the other for this photo so that he could be a double-one-eyed pirate.

Sometimes more is more.

Alas, by the time we got back to the boathouse, Kato had passed out in the canoe from sheer excitement. Alden was delighted to be the keeper of the treasure while Kato slept off the adventure.

It was a grand old time. Special thanks to Bob, who always comes up with these great ideas. And of course special thanks to Mimi, who sometimes has to keep the ideas on track. And specialest thanks to Auntie Maiko and Uncle Daryl, who always keep the boats steady, in spite of all our efforts to overturn them.

After saying our good-byes, we actually headed north. First to have our annual visit to the Behr family gravesite:

My grandmother and grandfather are buried there. I must admit, my grandmother wasn’t much on kids, but I’d like to think that being dead for a while has given her some perspective. I didn’t know my grandfather at all, but he helped manufacture Bob, so he must have been something extraordinary. The spot they chose to be buried is just gorgeous.

If I were to be buried (which I won’t) it would be there. It’s such a pleasant spot – I always like to bring the kids by to spend a little time with their great-grands.

But, onwards! We decided to take the ferry across the top of Lake George at Ticonderoga. Just because ferries are awesome, am I right?

Travel tip: you need cash for the Fort Ti ferry. If you cannot scrounge together $9 from the seats of your car (as I tried to do) there is an ATM back in town at the Stewart’s. Do not bewilder and frustrate your children by arriving at the ferry only to turn around two minutes later.

One of the benefits of taking the ferry is that it reminds you the entire time to try to be a good parent.

Had I forgone the ferry and travelled around the lake via the southerly route, I would have just ignored my children in the back seat of the car the whole time. Thank you, Fort Ti Ferry!

As you can see, the kids were quite concerned after the cash debacle that I didn’t know what I was doing, and therefore took a keen interest in the tourist map of northern Vermont that was free on the ferry.

I didn’t have the heart to tell them we were actually going south, and nowhere near the Ben and Jerry’s.

Luckily, before they had time to notice how far off the map we were, we arrived at our dear friends’ Diego and Garcia’s house. Diego and Garcia are totally reliable on the awesome entertainment front.

For example:

Rides on the little John Deere tractor thingie:

Side-by-side running with the little John Deere tractor thingie:

Go-cart rides with Diego:

Infant rides on the John Deere tractor thingie:

Giant go-kart helmets:

And go-kart rides with Diego and Michael, if you’re just a tiny bit scared of riding in the seat alone:

Awesome drum kits, and permission to play them as long and loudly as you’d like:

Taking unflattering photos of your mom while she’s trying to figure out how to use her burner cell phone:

Doing something exciting in the toilet:

All of this could be yours, if you could just become friends with awesome people like Diego and Garcia.

Alden asked several times if she could live with Diego and Garcia. I didn’t think much of it until I had to tell her we were leaving and it turned out she honestly thought she was going to stay and live with them. Strangely enough, it wasn’t stories of her lonely dad that compelled her to remain in our family, but rather the mysterious appeal of Iggy and Oscar. I guess they seem slightly more hapless than her father (impossible!).

We finally tore ourselves away from Funtown 2000 and headed east. Going over the Mohawk Trail is one of my favorite drives. I used to drive it often when we lived in Massachusetts, and it was a real nostalgia trip for me. For the first time ever, I stopped at the Mohawk Trading Post – a kitschy tourist trap advertised by a giant sculpted Indian.

A note was taped to the inside of the Indian’s leg:

I’m sure there are plenty of Native Americans who would be offended at the whole tableau, but I must say I have an affection for this guy.

I also must say, if you ever DO drive by, you MUST stop and eat from the dive-y looking shack right behind the Indian. Some of the best fish and chips I’ve ever eaten.

We continued east to Amherst, to visit Anna, who is perhaps the cutest girl in the entire world.

After an evening of grilling and splashing in the wading pool (I forgot to take any photos because we were having so much fun) we got up early for a pancake breakfast and some play-doh fun.

Kato noticed that the play-doh he had rolled out looked just like him:

added a smile:

and Voila! It was like looking into a mirror!

Who knew so much fun could be had with play-doh?

It looks like we’ll definitely have to invest in some for Christmas. It was loads of fun.

But then, all great vacations must end. We said our tearful good-byes to Anna and headed back south. Alden was quite distressed to find out that we would not be stopping to see Nathan and Julia on our way home, and that we would not be stopping in Brooklyn to visit with Stella. All in all, the ride home was just full of disappointments. It’s a good thing we returned home to a happy papa, a pleased dog, a needy cat, and the promise of kindergarten to come.

I don’t think Matthew gets another sabbatical for another 7 years, thank goodness. I don’t think the rest of us could handle all this fun again for a long, long while.

WAKE UP!
I’M DONE NOW!

And good day.