Falling into the Adirondacks

We were lucky enough to be offered use of Jakob's colleagues home in the Adirondack for a week in October. A quiet house by a placid lake and autumnal forests and mountains was just about the perfect way to get over our serious 'we just went to Australia for the weekend' jetlag. Though Jakob worked much of the time, the girls and I spent an amazing week exploring the area. 

The girls liked roaming around the house property which had lots of space to run and play. We spent a morning at an orchard where we mostly succeeded at a corn maze and lazed around a playground eating donuts and drinking apple cider. We went for a walk up a mountain close by us that offered vast views of Lake Champlain and orange clad mountains. We drove further inland to scale a larger mountain where we sat on a rocky ledge in the sunshine and ate our lunch. We learned all about pickleball and went out to the pickleball courts to try out the sport. It is a game invented by a couple of fathers on holiday who had use of a badminton court but only table tennis paddles and plastic balls with holes. We all enjoyed pickleball but also didn't quite get why it was superior to tennis except that maybe it is easier for little kids to master. We visited the local library, which was so cute and quiet, I fell asleep. We took the ferry across to Vermont where we strolled through an old farm, ate Vietnamese food, and toured the Ben and Jerry's factory. We drove down towards Albany to spend a sunny warm afternoon with friends at their home which was so nice after living on a different continent from them for years. We went to the Halloween celebration and haunted house of the next town over. I spent a half day in the Emergency room trying to get a blood test (routine) that was a cultural experience in so many ways (unfortunately not positive). But we also just spent a lot of time doing school work and relaxing at the house. The house was well equipped for cooking and it was the perfect weather and season to spend some relaxing evenings with warm bowls of food and home baked desserts. We were all sad to leave this beautiful home and spot and glad we got the chance to call it home for a week. 

View of lake Champlain

Into the sunshine

Lake Champlain up close

Exploring a story trail

Playing pickle ball