A Chase Lake Escape

I just had the fortune to spend an absolutely wonderful week in the Adirondacks with my family.  My father and his friend S have friends who own a beautiful home on Chase Lake, which is a small, private, motor-boat free lake.  The home owners were away for a few days and generously invited us to use their home.  So my husband and I found a pet/house sitter (God bless her for putting up with all seven of them!) and joined my father, S, my sister, brother-in-law, and seven year old niece there for the better part of a week.

Depending on whom you ask, it could be considered a "camping" week.  My niece has had the most wonderful world traveling experiences.  If you ask her what her favorite city is, she answers, "Paris.  But I liked Amsterdam a lot."  Yet her travel experiences invariably involve room service and museums, not nature.  So my sister decided it was time to introduce her to the woods and lakes.  My Dad's friend S also considers Chase Lake camping.  But to my husband and me who regularly sleep in a tent in the middle of nowhere, a gorgeous home with two full bathrooms, a kitchen, and wi-fi isn't quite "camping", though it's considerably closer to nature than our own home.  In fact, it's pretty much my ideal home - comfortable and peaceful, surrounded by nature and on a lake.  Perfect!  I need a driveway like this:

Regardless on the definition, it was an absolutely splendid time.  We swam and canoed and sat on the dock.  My niece and brother-in-law caught a whole lot of sunfish.  My niece and I got dive bombed by humming birds and caught bugs to put in a mesh bug house to examine, including this bumpy elm sawfly larva.

My husband got lost on long rides on his mountain bike. I slept late, took photos, went for runs while being serenaded by wood thrushes, and ate desert twice most days.

We even had a few piano recitals by a splendid pianist who lives on the Lake and comes to practice on the baby grand in the house.  She was practicing some Romantic pieces for a recording and provided us with some deliciously peaceful interludes.

While we spent plenty of time hanging around enjoying the Lake, we also took a day trip to Old Forge to play on the water slides at Enchanted Forest, where I got a sunburn, a water slide burn, and a nasal enema.  I can't even guess when I last had that much fun.  My Dad and husband even raced each other in go carts, and soundly beat the rest of us at mini golf.

The time away was so badly needed.  I love spending time with my nutty family, and with my husband having been working two jobs we haven't had many breaks lately.  I am incredibly grateful to the generous souls who let us take over their home for a week.

Anyway, as usual, I took a ton of photos.  Hope you enjoy them!

Flopsy very much enjoyed watching nature from the indoors.

I seem to have had a major theme with light and shadow throughout the trip.  I guess that's not unusual for me.

This sums up the weather for most of the trip.  Absolutely glorious.

 I made quite a number of amphibious friends, which again isn't at all unusual for me.

This is a fantastic name for a road.  And I did indeed get quite lost on it.

Any of my plant loving readers know what this is?  It was growing throughout a wonderful bog my husband and I found.

I love how disorienting the reflection is in this.

Woods after a rain.

 My Dad and I could only guess that this is some kind of juvenile sparrow.