busy weekend

We had a very busy weekend, but a fun weekend.  Since we knew Friday was going to be the best day of the weekend David took the day off. 

The day began with a visit to the vet for Elly.  She is healthy, a bit overweight, but healthy.  She cried LOUD all the way over.  And we rarely ever hear her voice and when we do it's so soft.  She does not like the vet...she had the death grip on me the whole time.  She got her shots and back home we went.  She talked a little less on the way home.

Then we went to the golf course.  Since it was busy we ended up asking another couple to join us since we knew him anyway.  As we were passing the pond to get to the 8th hole we noticed a little turtle sitting on something in the pond.  Right afterI took this picture he jumped right in to cool off!

Later in the day we picked up the Ziter's and headed to the 6 House Pub for a nice pre-concert dinner.  Love the 6 house!  We had tickets to see Bon Journey.  They were great!  Our seats were in the 3rd row on the top deck.  It took me a while to relax and enjoy the show.  This is our view.

After getting to sleep just 5 hours I was back up to meet a group of girls and headed to Chicopee to the Catholic Women's Conference.  What a great day we had.  The main speaker was Rev. James Martin.  He was excellent...funny, direct, interesting and spiritual.  I have one of his books and bought 2 more on Kindle.   There were over 750 women there.  It's awesome to be with so many people who are all Catholic!

Needless to say that on Sunday I was so very tired.  But waking up to the sweet faces of my fur children was great !

It was a great weekend:-) 

Mt Greylock beauty

Stepping back again to October 16th & 23rd, 2011
When Molly and Brian were home we took a ride to Mt Greylock, which we hadn't done in years.  It took a visitor for us to remember what a gem we have just a few miles from our house...thanks Brian!
With the foliage declining rapidly we decided we best get up there again before they close the road for the season.  We went up 2 weeks in a row.  Little did we know that the next week we would end up getting that freak Halloween snowstorm.  Thank goodness we didn't wait!

The first week was very busy up there.  Apparently everyone had the same idea.  We did the usual tourist thing up at the top.

The foliage up top was pretty much gone but the colors down in the valley were still pretty nice.

We saw a lot of hikers...many who were older than us!  That kind of got us thinking...hike!  We drove down the Lanesboro way and saw so many trails.  We found out there's a way you can hike down to Stoney Ledge from that side going through the campground. 

So the next Sunday we decided to drive to the top again then down to the trail.  It's a nice walk down.

We saw a couple nice waterfalls.  I'm getting to like these more and more.  This one was really pretty and had great sound!  As you can see the water changed directions many times on it's way down.  I loved walking through the campground.  It's very primitive...only tent camping.  There are these big metal lockers...bear-proof.  Yikes!  Apparently you put all your food in there so the animals can't get it.  Not sure I'll be camping here anytime soon.

This is the view that you get from Stoney Ledge.  It's so awesome!  The day had been mostly cloudy but once we got there the sun started to peak through and by the time we left it was mostly sunny.  The beauty is amazing.

Even David was talking lots of pictures.

There's the back side (Williamstown side) of Greylock.  I just never get tired of looking at it.

This nice woman offered to take a picture of us.  If you look to the right of David's shoulder you can see a line...that's actually a BIG waterfall.  I've heard that it's pretty awesome in the spring when the snow is melting...but ...you have to hike UP to see it.  Not sure I'm quite ready for that yet!  Putting it on my bucket list.  We hiked back to our car waiting for us up the mountain tired but so happy to have taken the time to do this.

Two very great weekends enjoying the beauty of our magnificent mountain.  We are blessed to be able to see it from our house.

photobucket success!

I did it!!!  I have all these great photos in photobucket and couldn't figure out how to get them....now I did!!! 

I love this picture of you Dolls.  This was from our first trip to your heavenly mountain.  Geez, I can't wait to see that beautiful face again.  2 weeks and 4 days.

Just a paddling away!

April 16th and it got up to 91 degrees today!!  I know it's not going to last.  I know from 54 years of experience, but I'll take it.  Since we knew it was going to be hot we got our walk in early.  Almost 4 miles to get us going. 

Around 1:00 with a mostly sunny sky we put the kayaks in the back of my car and headed to the lake.  The water's freezing...felt a bit like Maine!  It was tricky to get in without getting my feet too wet, but I did it.  Within seconds I could feel any last bit of stress leave me.  Something magical happens while paddling along on the lake...wish I could bottle it.  I can't say the views are at their best right now, but you can see the trees budding and some even flowering.  In my excitement I went full steam ahead and got tired pretty quickly.  Need to retrain my paddling muscles.  After the work comes the float!

Below is the view of Mt Greylock.

The new house is pretty close to done, but we hear they still don't have electricity. 

Maybe they want to live like you and Brian, Molls;-)

Although this picture doesn't show it, there were a lot of people fishing in the cove today. 

I don't think the resident large bird is around yet,

we're not sure exactly what he is but he's a big, graceful guy. 

He probably will come back with all the snowbirds! 

And Brian...we stayed in the boat;-)!

We had a great day today.  Back to work tomorrow after a mini-vacation of 4 days.

Golf Day, Great Day!

Ahhh, I'm so happy today!  After not golfing for amost 2 years, I finally got out to play today.  I'll admit that I was a little nervous to swing the club, but I never felt one twinge, yay!

It was pretty busy at Stamford Golf Course as it was a nice day, so we ending up playing with a couple older gentlemen.  One was Don Andrews' brother.  It was actually pretty nice and I played pretty well.  I shot a 49!  David kept score so I didn't have any idea how I was doing.  That's my best score for the 3rd time!  It was fun and great to be out on the course again.  After the first swing I remembered how much I enjoy the game.

We are going to try to play once a week, so that gives me something else to look forward to.  One more fun thing we can do once we retire:-)

This is the 6th hole looking east.  This wasn't my best hole today, but I got through it!  It did make a nice picture though.

Looking on to the 7th hole.  Again not my best but I've had worse on this short par 3.  Gosh I've missed this game!

All in all a wonderful day spent with my husband.

Crazy Halloween Snow 2011

Stepping back yet again to October 29 & 30, 2011.  Although some snow was predicted, I didn't think we would get 18 or so inches down in the valley....but that's what happened.  2011 has been a crazy year weather-wise.  In western Massachusetts we had an unbelievable amount of snow to begin the year, a tornado in June, the earth shook in August, Hurricane Irene in late August and snow in October!

Once the snow stopped, we knew we needed to go out and play.  Thank goodness we have snowshoes, as they make us want to get out and move around.  After Mass we got together with the Ziters and headed to the lake.  Since it was a wet snow it stuck to the trees and it was like being in a winter wonderland.  Since it was fresh we needed to make our own trail.  With the leaves still on the trees and the snow heavy and wet, we got a disoriented and traveled off the path a bit.  It just made for more of a workout.  Although I can't say I was happy to see snow so early, especially after the memories of last year, it was beautiful and we had fun.

Funny to see the beautiful foliage, the unfrozen lake and snow!

We went home with crisp new air in our lungs and a smile in our hearts.

On of our neighbors had the best jack-o-lantern for Halloween!

The snow was gone in a few days which made it even better.

March 24, 2012 at the Cape

This day wasn't as nice as the day before.  Cloudy and cool, but no rain so we thought we'd take a ride up Rt. 28 checking out the lighthouses and beaches.  We rode through Chatham to the lighthouse.

And Chatham beach

The view from Salt Pond hiking path at the National Seashore Visitors Center

Nauset Light Beach

Three Sisters Lighthouses.  These used to sit in Liz & Ed's yard when they were housed by the National Seashore Lifeguard housing

Marconi beach

My favorite beach~Long Nook Beach

The view from the top

Cape Cod Lighthouse with a golf course.

This lighthouse was moved back due to storms eating away at the dunes.

This is the view from the top.  So very sad.

On to Race Point in Provincetown.  When we got there we saw about a hundred people with binoculars and huge lense cameras.  Within a few minutes we found out what they were looking at.  We saw several whales feeding.  They were jumping right out of the water.  What a show!  I wanted to go back to the car to get our binoculars but didn't want to miss anything!  It was so cool!

Race Point Beach...what a special place.  After we left we headed to P-town and found lots of bike paths.  Next time...

In P-town we walked out on to the jette but sadly I had used up all the battery on my phone,

so no pictures:-(

What a great day!

March 23, 2012 at the Cape

Going back in time again.  In late March we again were able to get Tim's Cape house for the weekend.  It was the same weekend as the Travel Team Basketball Tournament...the first time in 12 years that David wasn't involved.  We actually ended up only seeing one of Collin's games and none of Reece's.  There was just too much to do!

We got there late on Thursday so that we could have the whole day on Friday.  So Friday began with Dunks coffee and the sunrise.

A nice walk on Dennis Beach "mile beach"

And watched the birds catching their breakfast.  On our way back to the car one of the seagulls dropped a clamshell right in front of us on to the parking lot trying to break it open.  Smart birds!

We decided to go to Nickerson State Forest to do some hiking since the day was sunny and about 70.  The Cape weather just seems to like us:-).  We walked around one of the smaller lakes first.  It was just so beautiful.  Nice trail all the way around lake.

Nickerson is much, much bigger than I thought.  We found the biggest lake (there are 7) and not knowing how big it was we set out to walk/hike the path around it.

The water is incredibly clean and the view from the far side was awesome.

The picture below is of rocks through the water.  This was actually rocks through about 4 inches of water.   I didn't get a picture, but you could see the fish swimming around.

Such a peaceful place.

Yup, there was some climbing involved.  When all was said and done we had walked almost 6 miles from sunrise to sunset.  It was a great day!

We were so blessed today.

Back in time October 10, 2011

I'll be stepping back once in a while since so many memorable things have happened that I'd like to blog about.  One very important time was our 30th wedding anniversary last October. 

We were very lucky to be offered a house on the Cape for the weekend that my co-worker Tim owns at a dirt-cheap price that we just couldn't pass up.  The only thing that was sad for us is that we love Maine and have spent the last 2 years celebrating our anniversaries with Bruce & Jean and have had so much fun.  But we also love Cape Cod and the price was right, so we took it. 

The house was wonderful.  Small, comfortable and clean!  And it helps that at the end of the street is the ocean.  It also helped that it was 70-80 degrees the entire weekend!  We were not prepared for such nice weather...I hadn't packed enough warm weather clothes.  No complaints...the great weather was an awesome gift from God.

We went for a bike ride on the CC Rail Trail on Saturday.  There are many lakes along the bike path to stop and relax at.  I always think of the ocean when I think of the Cape but the lakes are just as beautiful.

After our long bike ride it was so hot we took beach chairs and blankets down to the ocean and relaxed for a few hours.  It really felt more like July than October!  We walked the beach, read, slept (some of us...David!) and just enjoyed the beauty of God's great world.

After Mass on Sunday we decided to give it a go with the Kayaks.  We had brought ours so Bruce & Jean rented a tandem kayak.  We made it out to the ocean after about an hour of paddling.  Here are Bruce & Jean gladly taking a break for a photo shoot.  They found out that it's not easy:-)

But the reward was great!

Since David and I kayak quiet often we found it a bit easier.  That was our first time paddling in the ocean, but now that we've experienced it once, I can't wait to do it again! 

After our kayaking trip we walked the beach again.  The perfect weather!

Before we went to dinner we took a ride up to the bay side to

watch the sunset on another beautiful day. 

The next morning...October 10th...our 30th anniversary we got up early and went down to the beach at the end of the street and watched the sunrise! 

That's us!  Happy Anniversary my love!

When I see the beautiful things that God gives to us to enjoy,

in my head I hear the words to "How Great Thou Art"  That song gets me everytime.

Sadly it was time to say goodbye to our wonderful weekend on the Cape with special friends. 

 Till next year and our 31st Anniversary...and Bruce & Jean's 30th!

Maybe we can have another 80 degree weekend next year???