Farm visit and slider-glider

This morning Nanny took the girls to a farm, where they saw lots of real animals and a real cowboy.

And a maze.

Yesterday, we finally put up the slider-glider that Aunt Margaret gave the girls.

Visit to Windy Point Camp

Here is the camp on Upper Saranac Lake, NY, where I spent my summers in the 1950's.  It was owned by my Aunt Catherine, and was called Windy Point.  Today it is called Three Trees and is owned by the three Crane siblings.  The Crane's, and the current renters the Simons' were gracious enough to allow me and my entourage to walk through the camp relating stories from my days here.  Lisa (Crane) Percival and her husband Dean even drove over from their home in VT to be with us.

The main house looks the same.

The main porch.  One of the large swings has been moved to make a conversation group at one end.

 Three views of the main living room.  Notice that much of the old furniture is still there.

The northeast corner of the living room, where we used to play bridge, is still used for that purpose and to play other games.

 The porch of Aunt Catherine's cabin, which is largely unchanged.

The dog pen and dog house are gone, as is part of the old woodshed.  The remainder is now the shop and the freezer room is still on the back.

The wash room still contains the old clothes wringer that I remember mainly crushed buttons.

Most amazingly, the dinner bell still exists, and when the owners are in camp, the youngest child gets to ring it for meals, similar to what we did 50-60 years ago!

The kitchen has been extensively remodeled.  This is now the eating area, and the kitchen is where the children's dining room used to be, off to the right.  A bedroom was discovered above the kitchen, thus the spiral staircase.

The main dining room is now a ping pong room.

 Living room of the tower house.

The duplex, where Pop and the cook stayed, has burned down.  The building in the background was the shop, and now is an additional bedroom.

Donald's cabin is still there.

The old generator house is now a bedroom.  Power now comes from the grid.

A parting shot with the big rock in the background.

Ar Donnelly's ice cream store, on our way back to Saranac Lake from the camp.  I remember having ice cream here as a child.

Trip to Saranac

As a youth, I spent my summers at Aunt Catherine's camp, Windy Point, on Upper Saranac lake, in the Adirondack Park of NY.  So, for my 70th birthday, all the kids joined us for a week in the area.

We stayed at the Ampersand Bay Resort, on Lower Saranac Lake.  We rented two units.  Here is the interior of one unit.

We were in the two units on the right, Birch 4 and 5.

We got to kayak and canoe.

Out to catch butterflies, or whatever we can find.

A walk in the woods next to our resort.

Riding the carousel in Saranac Lake.

The swim area at our resort.

The Wednesday night campfire.

S'mores.

One of our day trips was to nearby Santa's Village, which I had been to as a child.

The grandkids favorite activity at Santa's Village was the ball pit.

Making tie-dyed tee shirts.

A final picture.