Vacation Memories
Vacation with my
family comes once a year if all goes well. For the past few, we have been able to return to my family's cottage on Keuka Lake. It is difficult to precisely describe the thrill in my heart when we board the plane to "The Lake" (as we have called it since we were children). It is rather like Christmas arriving in July. I took almost 300 photos over the week we were gone -here are a few of them, so that you may enjoy the beauty of Upstate New York.
I grew up here. The old cottage is "home". In the world of rapid changes, multiple rellocations around the U.S., divorces and new marriages, serious illnesses, uncertainty over jobs and the world in general, this place has remained our constant. Although my daughters and I have lived on the other side of the country, they too feel the pull of 'belonging' here.
The ancient willow still stands, gnarly and tall by the kitchen door, and still holds the hammock.
The dock goes into the water in
June and is taken out in September after the Labor Day Fireworks. We awoke each morning to amazing views such as this. Although it was indeed hot (about 101) there was lots of splashing in the lake.
my feet have walked this same path of stones to the kitchen door since I was a small child- my toes know every indentation in the old shale stones.
there have been campfires and roasting marshmellows every year.
the sumac trees al
ong our small glen bring memories from childhood of brewing "sumac tea" to feed the fairies in our glen.A small stash of treasures collect
s on the table through the week -My daughters and I went often to "The Lake" when they were small, and now we return with Kaus as well. This year, almost my entire extended
family was there...