As I’ve mentioned a few times, Steve and I didn’t plan a real vacation for summer 2021. I’m still getting my feet under me in a new job, and it didn’t seem like a good idea – plus I’m saving vacation time again for the first time since my days in the federal government. (Law firms don’t do “vacation time” – you just take your vacations when you can, if you can.) But my parents wanted a week with the kids, to ply them with soft serve ice cream and trips to the dollar store, so Steve and I were told to make ourselves scarce. We shrugged, booked a hotel room on Mirror Lake in the Village of Lake Placid, and drove north for a week of working in a different location and squeezing adventures in around business hours.
As we mapped out our week, I tossed out the idea of stopping somewhere on the way up to Lake Placid and getting our new kayaks wet. We could drive straight to LP and drop in there, I suggested, but we’d definitely be paddling there at least once over the course of the week and wouldn’t it be fun to pop off somewhere else and explore a different lake? Consulting a map, I noted that Schroon Lake was right on the way, with a boat launch conveniently just off the highway – and neither of us had ever paddled there before, so it’d be a new adventure. Steve was down.
We rolled into the Schroon Lake boat launch and tackled the intimidating task of getting 17-foot touring kayaks off our car for the first time; they’d been hanging out on the roof since we rolled out of Lake George, but it was time. It was a bit of a comedy of errors, and we were both drenched in sweat by the time we got them off the car and onto the grass – but we did it! (Insert strong-arm emoji here.) A once-over from the Schroon Lake boat steward, and we were on our way.
We started paddling tentatively, then picked up speed as we cruised past beaches, boathouses, and swimmers cannon-balling off floating docks. As I pulled up next to Steve, he looked at me, grinned, and suggested: “Should we do a blue water crossing?” Obviously.
We turned our bows away from shore and paddled to the opposite side of the bay, pausing to navigate speedboat and pontoon boat wakes and to surf a few small breakers along the way.
A very special island, indeed!
We were absolutely giddy to be out cruising the Adirondack waters in the touring kayaks we’d dreamed of for over a year. And something else occurred to me – “Do you realize,” I called to Steve, “that every time we leave the kids with my parents, it’s to go kayaking?” The San Juan Islands in 2019; cruising the Potomac in 2020; now we were planning a week of Adirondack lakes (and a big kayaking adventure in 2022, pandemic permitting).
Look, we just really love kayaking!
All in all – a successful first outing for the ‘yaks (the demo day didn’t count!) and the beginning of a gorgeous week of paddling and hiking in one of our favorite places in the world. What’s not to love? We had big plans for the kayaks, and big plans for our hiking boots too – stay tuned.
There is a distinct thread running through my childhood memories, and it is this: both of my grandmothers were major bookworms. My maternal grandmother, who I called Grandmama, had wide-ranging and catholic tastes, and liked nothing better than to stretch out on a lounge chair in her Long Island backyard, with a glass of lemonade (or wine) and a mystery novel or memoir with which to while away the afternoon. Grandmama had small bookshelves all over her house, and I used to saunter past each one, running my finger along the spines of the Harry Potter novels lined up by the front door or the travel books in the guest bedroom. She was a hardcore Anglophile and I definitely inherited my love of English literature from her.
My other grandmother, who I alternately called Grandma or Grandmother (she preferred Grandmother, but I too often forgot) was just as much of a bookworm, although her reading tastes were different. Grandmother introduced me to Anne Shirley, still a beloved bookish friend, but in general her preferences skewed toward meaty non-fiction (especially about the American Revolution) and historical novels – the longer, the better, and there was no such thing as too much detail. She loved it all. Grandmother kept most of her books on a tall, skinny shelf in the hallway between her two impeccably decorated guest bedrooms. And while I meandered past the shelf plenty, always on the hunt for something to read, I invariably came away with her blue and white copy of Anne of Green Gables in my hands. It was the most appealing thing on her shelf. (In my twenties, I discovered an 1890 edition of one of my favorite books – Jane Eyre – but it wasn’t on the shelf; it was on a sunroom table. Grandmother pressed it into my hands and it’s still one of my most treasured possessions.)
James A. Michener was one of Grandmother’s favorite authors. She had a line of his books – I remember Alaska and Hawaii for sure, those doorstoppers – and they always caught my eye, if for no other reason than they were just so extravagantly long. (I wonder if she ever read Poland? Being such a Michener fan, and so proud of her Polish heritage, I find it hard to believe that she would have missed that one, but I don’t recall her ever mentioning it, nor do I remember seeing her pull it out of her bag at the lake or spotting it on her shelf. It must have been there, though.) Anyway, Michener’s ability to churn out thousand-page novels at an apparently lightspeed clip fascinated me; as a young reader I subscribed wholeheartedly to C.S. Lewis’s views on long books. But for whatever reason, I never gave any of them a try.
A year or so ago, though, Chesapeake was on major discount on the kindle store. (I tend to buy ridiculously long books for my kindle; it’s a holdover from my days of commuting on Metro, when long books were only an option if stored digitally.) It seemed like a golden opportunity to finally try out one of Grandmother’s favorite authors, on my home turf. I downloaded the book and then saved it for the right time – pulling it out while relaxing in a camp chair on the side of a marsh (while camping in Chincoteague) seemed like the perfect fit. So I started Chesapeake on the Fourth of July, while the Assateague Island lighthouse blinked at me from across the marshy bay.
And I read. And read. And read. And read and read and read and read and read. The fourth of July turned to the fourth of August and I wasn’t even halfway through the book. It was engaging – following four Eastern Shore families (the Steeds, Paxmores, Turlocks and Caters) through the centuries. Chesapeake presented a broad tapestry of the entire sweep of American history from the first settlers during Elizabethan times, all the way to the environmentalists of the 1970s. And in order to do that – it was so. damn. long.
Not to say I didn’t enjoy it; I did. It was – as I said – engaging and interesting. I never really bogged down in it; every chapter held my attention, and some held my fancy. (The one from the perspective of migrating geese!) But it was just so long. Just so long. I like a long book; the longer the better, usually. But I found myself craving something shorter – anything shorter, really. I took a few breaks to read through library books before their return deadlines, but I kept coming back to Chesapeake, and each time I returned to the pages, I was more and more fatigued. And more than a little sad that my beloved grandmother’s favorite author had defeated me.
All this to say – I did finish, eventually! As July turned to August, I recommitted to the read and forbid myself any other books until I finally completed this journey. (Which in retrospect isn’t the best way to read, but it does work sometimes.) In the end, it was an odd reading experience. I found something to like on every page. Every chapter was interesting. And by the end, I was heartily sick of it all – turning with gratitude to Stella Gibbons’ The Swiss Summer, which my Grandmama would have loved.
I expect I will read Michener again – someday. I’m intrigued by Hawaii. But I’m going to need a very long break and a string of very short books before I pick up that one.
Good… afternoon! I promise that these Monday afternoon posts are going to stop – very soon – and I’ll get back on a regular schedule. I’ve been trying to eke out every last drop of summer fun and blogging just sometimes falls by the wayside. You know how it is. This being Labor Day weekend, we obviously needed one last hurrah before turning our attention to fall and fall things (although the anklebiters have been back in school for two weeks already…). So on Friday afternoon we rolled out of town and headed for the mountains – Shenandoah National Park, specifically. Shenandoah is one of our happy places, and I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve been there by now. This time, we planned to stay overnight, right in the park – at Skyland, one of the lodges on Skyline Drive. It was a perfect base of operations for an epic weekend – we banged out seven hikes over three days, and I’ve got posts coming on all of them after I wrap up recapping Steve’s and my trip up to the Adirondacks last month. (Travel recaps will be continuing for awhile, guys…) I’m not even sure I could pick a highlight of the weekend; we climbed multiple mountains, challenged ourselves in new ways, and unplugged for three days straight. It was glorious.
Reading. It was a lovely bookish week! I finished up The Adventurous Summer on Tuesday – the last day of August. With time for one more summer read before Labor Day, I decided on Where Stands a Winged Sentry: Margaret Kennedy’s memoir of the summer 1940, when all of England was expecting a Nazi invasion every day. It was fascinating, gorgeously written, and evocative – I flew through it. Finally, a weekend in my favorite National Park deserves some special reading – The Hour of Land, by Terry Tempest Williams, which I’ve been saving for just such a trip. I’m about 100 pages from the end and battling the twin impulses to fly through it and also slow down so I can savor every word.
Watching. The kids haven’t been on a movie jag in ages – maybe even a couple of years – but right now they’re BIG on the Lego Movie, so I’ve watched that several times this week out of the corner of my eye. As funny as that movie is (it’s really hilarious) what I’ve enjoyed more is watching the wind whoosh through the treetops at the summits of Shenandoah’s beautiful mountains, and watching the kids stretch their wings and become stronger hikers over the weekend.
Listening. I had to think back on this, because while I’ve also listened to the Lego Movie several times (in the car to and from Shenandoah) I never listen to music or podcasts on family trips. But there was a bit of The Mom Hour while running errands last week.
Making. Menu plans for the upcoming few weeks – I’m craving a nutritional reset, so starting another Whole30 tomorrow. And fun adventure plans for the fall; I finally decided what I’m doing for my birthday. Stay tuned!
Moving. Alllllll the hiking! Seven hikes – including several mountains. And earlier in the week, a couple of runs. I’ve been going to the bus stop in my running gear and taking off pretty much as soon as the kids climb aboard. They said they’ve seen me through the bus windows a few times.
Blogging. Musing on Michener on Wednesday, and continuing Adirondack travel recaps on Friday. Check in with me then!
Loving. It was so wonderful to get away, into the mountains, and unplug for a bit. With the school year already underway and fall activities revving up – Girl Scouts has already begun; soccer and swimming both start next weekend – I really needed a couple of days away from it all, to gather my forces. Shenandoah was full of gifts, as it always is: maybe the best was this moment, above, on the trail to Mary’s Rock this morning. The fog was rolling up the mountain and brewing into a cloud, and the sun’s rays cut through the mist in a hundred points of light. We were the only ones on this section of the trail, and all four of us were mesmerized.
Although we didn’t plan a “real” vacation for 2021 – I’m too new to my job, and saving vacation time for a big adventure this winter (hopefully it happens…) – Steve and I still looked forward to our trip to upstate New York for months. We headed up at the end of July for my cousin Jocelyn’s wedding, and planned to stick around for a few weeks, mostly working and letting the kiddos enjoy grandparent time, but also folding in adventures here and there. On the Sunday after the wedding, we found ourselves unexpectedly free (we’d planned to drive out to Old Forge, in the western Adirondacks, to try to get a kayak for Steve – but he serendipitously found exactly what he’d wanted in Lake George the day before). We thought we’d go up to the Sacandaga, the Adirondack lake where my parents, aunts and uncles all have camps – but the weather was looking iffy. So instead, we stuck closer to Albany and hiked one of our favorite spots: John Boyd Thacher State Park.
When we pulled up in the parking lot, fat raindrops were splashing down on our windshields. The hike we had in mind had some exposure and some slick spots, so we reluctantly decided we’d just check out the overlook and then go on home. But as we gazed out over the hills and valleys around Albany, the rain stopped and the cloud cover lifted, a little, just enough for us to decide to hike after all.
The whole family hit the trail together! Parents, kids, grandparents.
With all the rain that upstate New York has had this summer, my parents haven’t been able to get out for many adventures. The upshot is that Thacher State Park had waterfalls. Entire rivers were tumbling down over the limestone escarpments.
When I was a kid, my parents went off to Hawaii and left my brother and me with our grandparents. (They did this several times – sometimes just the two of them, sometimes with friends. I was always openly jealous.) Their pictures snapped from behind a waterfall captured my imagination when they came home. I wanted to see what the world looked like from behind a waterfall, too. Turns out I didn’t have to travel too far…
So cool! We’ve done this hike a few times now and never saw waterfalls. It opened up a completely different experience of a well-worn path.
We saw evidence of the wet summer everywhere – in the bright green lichens, moss, and tiny plants growing on the rocks, and in the small rivulets pouring over the limestone and trickling through the little caves dotted all along the trail. I knew my parents hadn’t especially enjoyed all the rain – but this new lease on the park sure was pretty.
The waterfalls were the star of the show, though. Oh! And we also counted twelve little orange newts along the trail. Sharp-eyed Nugget spotted most of them.
It wasn’t the longest hike ever, but it was a feast for the eyes and senses and a new view of an old favorite. How can you go wrong?
Next week: getting our new kayaks out for the first time! Stay tuned.
Reading is my oldest and favorite hobby. I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book. Here are my reads for August, 2021.
Chesapeake, by James A. Michener – I first picked up this doorstopper (metaphorically; I read it on my kindle) back in early July, while camping in Chincoteague, and have been picking at it for two months. It’s engaging and well-written, but almost comically long. The novel follows the life of the Eastern Shore and the Chesapeake Bay from the 1500s to 1978, through the stories of a few local families over the generations. I enjoyed it and never found it to be really a slog, but it just took me forever. I’ve got a blog post percolating about the experience of reading Michener, so watch for that.
The Swiss Summer, by Stella Gibbons – Needing a major reading refresher after that doorstopper, Chesapeake, I turned to one of the books I really hoped to get to this summer – Stella Gibbons’ The Swiss Summer, recently reprinted by Dean Street Press. I have enjoyed every single Dean Street Press title I’ve picked up, and this one was no different. Lucy Cottrell, wealthy and beloved by her husband but childless, is looking for a change of pace and finds it when she is invited to join Freda Blandish, companion to the aristocratic Lady Daeglish, at the latter’s Swiss chalet for a summer of cataloguing the library. Lucy’s plans for a peaceful summer of books and Alpine flowers are shattered when the chalet is invaded by half a dozen noisy guests. Shenanigans and romance ensue. It was a total delight and just what I needed.
A Month in the Country, by J. L. Carr – Another one from my summer reading list – I’ve been meaning to get to Carr’s slim novel for years and it absolutely lived up to the hype. Tom Birkin, broken in body (from the trenches of World War I) and spirit (from a failed marriage) plods into the northern village of Oxgodby with a commission to uncover what is believed to be a medieval masterpiece under centuries of limewash on the church wall. As the painting gradually reveals itself, Tom begins to shed his layers of heartache and come back to the world. This book was absolutely gorgeous.
Summer: An Anthology for the Changing Seasons (Seasonal Quartet #2), ed. Melissa Harrison – I’ve loved each of the Melissa Harrison seasonal anthologies (having read Winter and Spring in their respective seasons). This one was just as much of a delight – mingling poetry, excerpts from classic novels and nature volumes, and modern writing on the season commissioned specifically for this anthology. It was all lovely, but my favorite piece was an essay by a twelve-year-old birding enthusiast on being taken by his dad to view a rare specimen – totally charming.
The Adventurous Summer, by Mabel Esther Allan – I’ve recently gotten into collecting the classic children’s novels reprinted by Girls Gone By Press and I’ve accumulated quite a stack. This is one of the most recent reprints, and was a delight. Nick and Sorrel are Londoners who come to stay with their aunt and uncle in the Cotswolds while their parents are in America (touring with the father’s orchestra). Although disgruntled about the plan at first, they quickly make friends and dive into country life. I flew through this in two days and couldn’t put it down – couldn’t wait to see what the Adventure Club friends would do next. Such a fun way to wrap up the season!
Well! Five books may not look like much, but I got my reading mojo back in a big way. After spending more than six weeks plodding my way through Chesapeake, I slammed four books in the last week-and-a-half of the month, and enjoyed each one thoroughly. I’m not even sure I could pick a highlight from among the latter four. They were all absolutely wonderful. I guess the real highlight of the reading month is starting to get excited about books again. I always go through a bit of a dry spell in summer – that’s normal – but I’m looking forward to some long reading evenings and weekends in the colder months that are looming around the corner.
Yawwwwwn. How was your weekend? This one felt fast to me. And speaking of feeling fast – how is it already August thirtieth? Where has the summer gone? Sigh. Anyway – it was a good weekend. Steve’s mom came up from Florida for a short visit; we hadn’t seen her since pre-pandemic, so way too long. She was only able to stay for two nights, but we made the most of the time! She arrived on Friday evening, just in time for our usual weekly takeout night. The kids were over the moon excited to see Grandma! On Saturday, we drove up to Baltimore and showed Grandma around one of our favorite spots – the National Aquarium. She loves animals, and we usually take her to the National Zoo when she visits, but everyone wanted to mix it up this time. We all had a fabulous time – the highlight (for me, at least) was this stunning scarlet macaw in the rainforest section. Saturday afternoon, we just spent relaxing at home and catching up, and then first thing Sunday morning – Grandma was gone after not nearly enough time. (Hopefully she can come back soon!)
The rest of Sunday, we mostly spent relaxing. I had the idea that everyone kind of needed a quiet day to recharge before another full week of school. Nugget and Steve watched Formula One, Peanut read in her room, and I blazed through about two hundred pages in the sunroom. In the afternoon, Nugget and I were getting a bit itchy to leave the house, so we headed to the local garden center and picked up some new houseplants (hopefully we don’t kill them this time…). We brought home Poppy the Philodendron, Severus the Snake Plant, and Stella the Spider Plant (Nugget named them all). Just as I was unloading our new family members, my phone pinged a reminder that Peanut had a “Welcome to Brownies!” pool party in eight minutes. Whoops. We both got changed in record time and rushed across town to meet her new Girl Scout troop – frenetic start to the party aside, it was wonderful. Peanut hit it off with the girls right away, and the other moms were sweet and welcoming. I think we’re going to love being part of this troop! I’ve got to order her uniform today. And off we go…
Reading. ‘Twas a lovely reading week – finally! Over a few weekday evenings, I finished up The Swiss Summer, which was fresh and evocative; I loved it. Spent the better part of the weekend over Summer: An anthology for the changing seasons, from Melissa Harrison’s seasonal quartet (which I just love). I finished it over a long sitting in the sunroom with a cup of blackberry sage tea on Sunday morning – delicious, both the tea and the book. Finally, still trying to work through as much of my summer reading list as I can before August gives way to September, I turned to The Adventurous Summer – a new reprint from Girls Gone By. It’s completely charming; I’m a little more than halfway through at press time and enjoying it so much.
Watching. Did a fair amount of viewing this week – about the usual, I think. We finished up Growing Up Animal (from the NatGeo collection on Disney+) this week; it was such fun and beautifully filmed. And then on Sunday, when Peanut and I got home from our pool party, the boys had just started the Transformers movie. I found it surprisingly fun – seriously, Transformers, who knew? We couldn’t quite finish it before little eyes were drooping, so we’ll wrap it up tonight.
Listening. All The Mom Hour, all the time this week. I listened to a few episodes, and particularly enjoyed the latest episode – on energy levels, and practical tips for managing yours.
Making. Meh, not much. It’s the standard end-of-summer lull. I’m spending my time rushing around trying to cram in all the summer fun. I’ll be back at my kitchen stove and photo editing software when the weather cools off.
Moving. Pretty low-key week, actually. I did get in a couple of runs, but this week was mostly walking. (I’m trying to get the August Walking badge on the Garmin Connect app, and I need 4.2 more miles…)
Blogging. August reading round-up coming atcha on Wednesday, and a hike recap on Friday. Check in with me then!
Loving. We always love our visits to the aquarium, but this time was extra fun – not only because we brought Grandma with us, but also because brave little Nugget reached into the touch tank and petted a few of the animals! (Seriously, he reached all the way in – his little shoulder was soaked, heh.) He stroked a couple of horseshoe crabs, some moon jellies, and a little ray (which he described as feeling “like Jell-O”). I have never been able to stoke up my courage enough to stick my hand in the touch tank (and I was a little nervous when he did it – especially the jellyfish petting, yikes!). I’m on record as wanting to get over my own apprehension of fish, and I’m so impressed and proud of him for just going for it. I say it all the time, but – he’s just the coolest kid EVER.
Sometime around the spring of 2020, Steve tossed out an idea: we should buy kayaks as a fifteenth anniversary gift to each other. (This conversation probably took place while hiking, since that’s where we do most of our crazy talk.) That milestone was approaching in August 2020, and we were on the lookout for something special to do – something a little outlandish, but that would feel very “us.” Kayaking is something that we both love to do; I’ve been paddling since I was fifteen and Steve picked the sport up as an adult but quickly grew to love it. Our kayak ecotour adventure to the San Juan Islands had been less than a year ago and was still fresh in our minds. Buying our own kayaks – kayaks that we could use for another fifteen years, exploring the bays and waterways around our area – felt right.
In the San Juans, we had paddled a double touring kayak – a beast of a boat. We’d loved the way it sliced through the water, and how confident we felt in the cockpits. Storage space was a nice premium, too – we agreed that it would be cool to have a couple of holds to store gear, so we could go out on some longer paddles and overnight trips.
Over the next few months, we discussed what we wanted in our hypothetical kayaks. We quickly agreed that we didn’t want recreational kayaks. We both wanted to stretch our paddling skills and pick up new techniques, and we wanted more efficient paddling machines that would be our allies in our goal to paddle bigger water and make distance. (No shade to recreational kayaks, which are a great option – just not for us.) I dove into the research and sent Steve a long email detailing what I thought we were looking for in the kayaks we wanted; a few brands and models that I thought would suit each of us particularly well; and a list of places to paddle nearby when we finally did make the purchase. He took my list as a starting point for his own research, and he started forming his opinions about what boats he was interested in trying out, as soon as the weather warmed up a bit.
And then we ran headlong into a brick wall: COVID-19. With indoor activities off the menu and the water starting to warm up, it seemed like everyone and their mom had discovered outdoor sports. The rush of new demand, coupled with ramped-down production as outdoor gear companies (like everyone else) grappled with social distancing in the workplace, meant that there wasn’t a kayak to be had for love or money. (It wasn’t just kayaks. It took me over a year of looking to replace my old mountain bike before I found something.) We swallowed our disappointment, rented a pair of heavy sit-on-top recreational kayaks, and tooled around the Potomac.
Our anniversary came and went without new kayaks. Instead, we promised each other we’d make it happen – next year. As summer turned to fall we tabled the kayak conversations, since even if we could find a boat to demo it was getting too cold, and the boathouses were closing up shop for the winter. 2021 rolled around, and as soon as the weather started to improve, I began calling around to boathouses, asking if they had demo models available. Struck out everywhere – and one boathouse, in Annapolis, told me gloomily that Current Designs (the manufacturer that made the model Steve was most interested in, and a couple of other models I thought might work for me) was completely sold out and wouldn’t have anything until 2022. Sad trombone.
We hiked a lot, and I got my prodigious paddling energies out via my paddleboard – a Christmas gift from Steve. When we decided to spend a few weeks hanging out and working in upstate New York over the summer, I half-heartedly researched boathouses in the Adirondacks – but I figured if I was striking out all around the Chesapeake, the Adirondacks would be more of the same. Until… I called over to a boathouse with locations in Saratoga and Old Forge, and learned that they had Current Designs models – including the Solstice GT, which Steve was pretty sure he wanted, and the Solstice GTS (the low-volume version) and Equinox (a slightly shorter Solstice) – that I was interested in trying out. We knew we couldn’t ask them to hold the models, so we crossed our fingers extra-tightly that they would still have what we were already thinking of as “our” boats in stock by the time we were able to get to the boathouse.
It wasn’t to be. On July 30, I called the boathouse during downtime in the middle of my cousin’s wedding rehearsal, to confirm the boats were still in stock and available for demo. They still had the Solstice (the model Steve wanted), they assured me – but the Solstice GTS and the Equinox? Both gone. Womp, womp. With literally nothing going my way, I called over to one other boathouse I knew – the Lake George Kayak Company – and asked them what they had available. The owner’s wife, who answered the phone, dropped a bombshell on me: they had P&H Cetus LVs. Two of them. A blue/yellow model, and an orange/yellow model. Yes, I was welcome to demo either or both.
When I was researching kayaks, the P&H Cetus LV was my dream model – efficient, a little edgy, and built for petite paddlers. (It didn’t hurt that P&H, which names all of its boats after constellations, had named this one after my favorite – Cetus, the Whale. Not that I made my decision based on that. But it did rather feel like an omen.) Basically, it had my name written all over it. The problem was that P&H is a British boatbuilder, and their kayaks aren’t all that easy to find in the United States. I had pretty much given up on finding one and turned my attention to the low volume options from Current Designs (a Canadian brand that’s much easier to come by here – usually). But here was the Lake George Kayak Company telling me they had two of my dream kayaks in stock.
Steve and I quickly reshuffled our plans, deciding to drive up to Lake George super early on Saturday morning, with enough time for me to demo the Cetus and get back for my cousin’s wedding. And then on Sunday we would head to Old Forge and – hopefully – pick up the Solstice for Steve. But when we got to Lake George, another surprise was waiting for us – a Solstice GT, used but pristine, on the showroom floor. We were glad Steve wore his bathing suit, just in case.
I had a decision to make. While the boathouse staff carried the Solstice to the dock for Steve, I was mulling over blue or orange. (Either would have been fine, really. But I was so shocked to see the Cetus at all, I wasn’t really prepared to decide on a color.) I really wanted an orange kayak and had no interest in blue. Since I first started looking at touring kayaks, I pictured myself in an orange boat. But when it came down to it, I didn’t love the look of the yellow trim against the orange. The blue and yellow, meanwhile, looked sharp next to the red Solstice Steve was eyeing, and it had a newer, redesigned seat. Hesitantly, I asked to demo the blue kayak.
It was a bit choppy and windy on the lake, which the boathouse staff assured us was good – it would give us a feel for how our boats handled in a bit of rough water. (Not too rough. This was Lake George, after all.) We each slipped in and paddled into the small cove in which the boathouse had its dock.
Steve loved the Solstice immediately. He compared it to the kayak version of a racecar. It sliced through the water and continued to coast even after he stopped paddling.
As for me, I was getting used to the Cetus. Although I’d paddled my share of touring kayaks, the Cetus was the edgiest boat I’d ever tried. (Steve’s Aunt Susan had wished me good kayak hunting with the admonition “Don’t fall out in front of everybody,” and that was starting to feel alarmingly prescient.) I consider myself a strong paddler, and I have a lot of experience… but the Cetus was a very different boat, and it took me a few turns around the bay to start feeling comfortable.
Ultimately, I decided that the Cetus was what I had been looking for – a boat that would stretch my paddling skills and open up new opportunities for exploring the water. Back on shore, I told the boathouse employees that I was definitely settled on the Cetus, but still waffling between blue and orange.
Ultimately…
I went with blue. Just really liked that cool new seat. And the blue looked pretty next to Steve’s red Solstice. Even the yellow keyhole was starting to grow on me; Steve’s Solstice had one too, serendipitously, so it looked intentional. Meant to be 🙂
We drove our new darlings home very carefully and showed them off to my skeptical parents. Happy fifteenth anniversary, fifty weeks late, to us! The boats have already hit the water and had some adventures, so do stay tuned because there’s more paddling shenanigans to come.
Have you ever made a big purchase that your family thought was completely bonkers?
There’s something about September that makes me want to dive into myths, folklore, and all things woodsy and weird. Maybe it’s back-to-school season and that compulsion to learn something new and interesting, which never seems to go away no matter how many years pass since my own school days. Maybe it’s the slow approach of wild autumn nights and everything they bring with them – crunchy leaves, woodsmoke, Halloween costume shopping, steaming brews of hot cider… Either way, I’m pausing in front of my folklore books more and more often these days. Here are three I’m hoping to get into this fall.
The Greek Myths, by Robert Graves – This one has been on my Classics Club TBR for years; it’s time to get to it! I love Greek mythology and can’t wait to read Graves’ classic compilation. Bonus for the Rick Riordan introduction. I’ve been avoiding this because it’s sooooooo long (and I need a break from doorstoppers after Chesapeake, TBH, so it probably won’t come around on deck until later in the fall) but my eye is on this one.
Treasury of Folklore: Woodlands and Forests, by Dee Dee Chutneyand Willow Winsham – This pretty volume (in person, the yellow is a metallic gold – gorgeous) caught my eye a few months ago, along with its sister volume, Treasury of Folklore: Seas and Rivers, which is still wending its way to me as of this post. But that’s okay, because the Woodlands and Forests version looks more autumnal in spirit, and it’s waiting on my shelf.
The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns & Fairies, by Robert Kirk – I got this slim little volume for Christmas a couple of years ago, and it’s so short there’s really no excuse for my not having picked it up yet. (Plus it was featured on The Duchess of Cornwall’s Reading Room!) I don’t know much about it, other than that it is a collection of wild stories about woodland folk. Very September! I’m going to get to this one soon; I’m committing.
Do you crave mythology and lore at the beginning of the school year? Any recommendations for me?
You guys. I can’t believe this day is here – it’s the first day of school! Peanut is off to third grade, and Nugget starts first. And get this: they’re going in person, five days a week. I can barely believe it’s happening. Obviously I’m all tied into knots about this school year. All the usual worries are present – will we be able to manage the schedule? Will the kids make friends, and will their teachers “get” them? And then there’s the COVID worries on top of the normal worries. But I’m trying to stay positive and visualize getting off to a great start, the school year going really well, and everyone staying healthy. Cross your fingers for us.
In addition to this past weekend being the last weekend of the kids’ summer vacation, it was also Peanut’s birthday weekend! Can you believe it? She’s nine. I really don’t know where the time goes. Unlike her brother – who always wants to be out doing things – Peanut really enjoys chilling at home, so when we asked her how she wanted to spend her day, she wanted to open her presents early and then have a quiet day communing with her new stuff. So that’s what we did! We all loafed around the house most of the day (Nugget and I did slip out to run some errands and give Peanut a break from the little brother circus) – until it was time for the only outing Peanut wanted: a trip to the American Girl Store for dinner and shopping. One of her birthday gifts was to have a few of her dolls admitted to the doll hospital (she’s quite rough on her toys, and multiple Wellie Wishers needed new heads). Steve and I had a talk with her to the effect of: we’re happy to get these dolls fixed as a gift to you, but this is the only time we do this; any more “dolly makeovers” we’re not fixing. She also got to choose a new American Girl, and she picked Kira, the 2021 Girl of the Year. Dinner at the American Girl Bistro rounded out what was pretty much her perfect day. Sunday was quiet; I picked up groceries, did some prep for the first week of school lunches since March 2020, washed the kids’ new school clothes, and tried to get organized for the week ahead (here’s hoping). Nugget and I did slip away in the morning to test out his new kayak at the local reservoir. He was stoked to be paddling his own ‘yak, and – as I knew he would – he did a great job following my directions and staying safe around the water. His kayak is stable enough to double as a stand-up paddleboard (that’s one of the selling points) and he wanted to try standing up; I reluctantly allowed it, but only in the shallow water around the launch area. He had so much fun – he was a little grumpy and sassy when I said it was time to leave, which is uncharacteristic for him – and I’m excited to have another paddling buddy and to watch his skills develop.
Reading. Okay, same gallery as last week, but I have actual progress to report this time! I finished the James Michener. Praise the reading gods! Seriously, I had started to doubt that this day would ever come. It was engaging and a good read, but just way too long – at least, way too long for me to read in the summer; talk to me when winter darkness sets in and I might be more inclined to pick up another Michener. I’m thinking of writing a blog post about this epic reading journey. Anyway – after I turned off my kindle (with a certain amount of relief), I happily switched back to The Swiss Summer. At press time, I’m a little less than halfway through and enjoying the change of pace immensely, rather like Lucy Cottrell in her Alpine travels.
Watching. Because it was Peanut’s birthday weekend, she got the privilege of dictating what we all watched – MaryEllen’s Extraordinary Christmas on Friday, and Alice in Wonderland on Saturday. (I will admit that I mostly scrolled through my phone during Alice.) We’ve also discovered a new NatGeo series (or new-to-us, anyway) called Growing Up Animal – fun.
Listening. Podcasts are back! And a good variety. I finished up a half-listened episode of Tea or Books, then plowed through the August episode of As the Seasons Turn and a few summer episodes of The Mom Hour. Good stuff all.
Making. Plans, plans and more plans – not especially fun plans, but plans. I’m back on the meal-planning train and have plotted out a week’s worth of dinners (and mostly stuck to the menu!) two weeks running now; well done, me. And there’s so much thought that has to go into back-to-school season; it’s overwhelming. I’ve got quite a few lists running and I’m working my way through them.
Moving. Bit of a light week of movement – I think I’m tired from travels, but I’m ready to get back on the horse soon. I squeezed in two runs, which felt good (my shin is still sore, but improving and definitely runnable now – it only bothers me when someone presses on it, which Nugget does a few times a day; I’d probably be totally healed by now, were it not for that). This coming week, with the kids in school, I’m determined to get back on the daily exercise train.
Blogging. Themed Reads for back-to-school coming atcha on Wednesday (it’s not what you’d think!) and the first of my summer travel posts on Friday. This will be a long series, so buckle up.
Loving. I’m so stoked that Nugget finally has his kayak (he’s been asking for a YEAR) and that we can paddle together! I tend to be an anxious mom, especially where he is concerned. (Peanut generally doesn’t go in for daredevil type activities, so I don’t worry as much about tumbles and bumped noggins with her.) But he’s great about following my directions, especially when I make it clear that it’s about safety, and he’s got pretty decent water skills for a little duffer. I’m looking forward to more mornings on the water with him, as we transition into our long, warm fall days. I’ve loved paddlesports since I was a kid, and it warms my heart that he wants to share that with me.
Here we go – the third in my three-part bookshelf tour (tired yet?). When we moved into this house, my first bookish priority was to get the upstairs shelves unloaded and organized. (Not my first priority in general, of course – that came after getting the kids’ clothes and toys unpacked and put away; the kitchen organized; and our clothes in the closet. Then, and only then, books.) Over the next few months, I both acquired new books and turned up old books – especially those belonging to Steve – that had been in storage for the past few years. We finally had the space to keep them all out where we could get to them easily, so I ordered three Billy bookshelves from IKEA and set them up along the back wall of the family room, next to the kids’ library cart bookshelf (which originally lived in Peanut’s nursery and which I will keep forever).
From the top left:
The top shelf is overflow paperback and some small hardcovers – mostly literary fiction. Some of these, I’d really like to move to the main shelves – especially the Gilead quartet. Once I have a chance to read and whittle down my literary fiction shelf upstairs – and bring a few to the library donation bin, which is finally accepting again – this shelf may shuffle a bit.
I think of the second shelf as the “cozy shelf.” Christmas books on the left, knitting on the right. Does it get cozier than that? (I haven’t knitted anything in ages. Maybe I’ll start up again this winter.)
Finally, the third shelf is roughly divided between beverages (mostly Steve’s books about beer, and some of our joint wine books) on the left, and overflow cookbooks on the right. I keep most of my cookbooks upstairs – on shelves in the kitchen and dining room. These are the few that didn’t fit anywhere else.
On the lower left, this is Steve’s domain. He has half a shelf full of copies of a law review in which he published an article about punitive damages (the red journals are the law review issue in which his article appears, and the blue are individually bound copies of his article and a few copies of another law journal, which reprinted his article). (This is a huge achievement, and we proudly display those journals!) The rest of the shelves contain his fiction and nonfiction books, mostly organized by size.
Shelf two is almost all overflow book storage for me. The top shelf houses children’s books that didn’t fit upstairs – and my favorite old movies on DVD. (In the days when I had more time, I was a little bit of an old film buff – especially when it came to 1930s screwball comedies and anything starring Katharine Hepburn or Lauren Bacall. These days, I am last in line for the TV and the kids hate my old movies.)
Lower shelves – overflow hardcover and paperback classics, and my comics and graphic novel shelf. I need to spend more time with this one – I especially want to get to those omnibus editions of golden age Wonder Woman (I always said I would not be a superhero comic reader, and I’m not, but I make exceptions for Wonder Woman – my favorite – and Ms. Marvel).
The bottom three shelves on this bookcase are more overflow – classics, nonfiction, and oversized/coffee table books. I can’t wait to get to The South Polar Times. Soon!
The last shelf doesn’t have any books on it! I know – you’re shocked. Top two shelves are more DVDs (so vintage!) and underneath that, some of Steve’s Buffalo sports memorabilia and a stack of puzzles that Nugget and I like to work on together (when we have free space on the dining room table, which we haven’t for about a year – thanks to virtual school and workstations – that’s changing so maybe we can get back to our puzzling; Steve and Peanut think it’s a ridiculous activity and refuse to join in).
Finally! Last section of the last bookshelf. Top shelf has more puzzles – mostly adult puzzles that I do with Nugget, but a few of Nugget’s own puzzles, too. (Like the “Search and Find – Arctic Life” puzzle, which is super cute.) And then our board game collection, which Steve and I have added to over the years. Most of these are our grown-up games; we like to pull one out and play a game over wine (after kiddo bedtime) a few times a month. (Most recently we’ve been into Illimat and Marrying Mr. Darcy. Whenever we have guests, though, I agitate for my longtime favorites – Clue and Scattergories.) The kids have a few games in here, too – mostly games that are fun enough for Steve and me to be willing to play the for family game nights. Junior Rangerland, The Scrambled States of America, and especially Charley Harper’s Name That Bird, which Nugget got for Christmas and with which he, Steve and I are all obsessed. This is reminding me that I need to get another family game night on the calendar, and another grown-ups’ game night too.
If you’ve hung with me this long, well done you! That’s ALL of the bookshelves, with the exception of the cookbook shelves (unless you really want to see those, I think we’re done here). So – can we all agree that I need another bookcase or two or ten?
covered in flour 