A beautiful fall weekend

Both Dale and Mac were with us Thursday and Friday, before heading off to Hudson Saturday morning. Fortunately, the week of rain, almost 5 inches in less than a week, stopped and we had a beautiful Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We took both to the Institute on Friday, walked the perimeter, visited the library, then head up to Westfield because I wanted Mac to see the Patterson Library, a marvelous rotunda built in the early 20th century. We then headed back on back roads, around the East side of the lake, had lunch of hot dogs and cauliflower soup, played bean bag, then had a fish fry at the Seezurh House, crowded as usual but we found a table fortunately. They left early so we had the weekend to ourselves, doing a bit of work, but mostly enjoying a kayak ride each morning on the lake, a walk along Lakeside Drive on Saturday, one through Long Point on Sunday after kayaking over to the marina, and reading on the dock in the delicious sun of Autumn, warm but not hot, so unlike the summer months. Evie finally finished her first Amanda George mystery and is now in to Toast, by Rodger Rosenblatt, the story of a couple like us, whose daughter died with two very young children, and how they ended up taking care of them for a couple of years along with their son in law. I hope to read it next, as I really like him, from his talks at CI last summer. He also has a weekly commment/essay on PBS.

Sundays are our favorite day, as we luxuriate in the ability to stay at the lake, rather than head home as we did for 30 years because of school. So now, we toast each other we a glass of wine, enjoy the afternoon, sun set, dinner, and an evening at the lake. Though we have really been here at year, because of the sabbatical, it's still special for us and we cannot quite believe we are here for good.

By the way, last weekend we spent in Bristow with the Bissell's, a great stay; we arrived on Thursday, left on Monday, which seemed about right. We don't want to overstay our welcome. Hayden had a great party on Friday for the girls in her class, and it cleared up so they could play outside. Evie brought the treasure chest, a big hit, and the girls enjoyed the pizza, the trampoline, and the fun together. Saturday we went to Hayden and Halle's soccer games, and were going to have Ellen and Wally over for dinner but Ellen was sick with the flu, so we had tenderloins to ourselves. On Sunday, we went into DC by car and metro, and spent a couple of hours at the Turkish Festival, at Freedom Square, a combination of Turkish dancing, music, food kiosks, and Turkish goods, like rugs,evil eyes, jewelry, and knick knacks. It was not as much fun as we expected, as it was crowded, the food lines were long, and the music and dance was not as good as we expected, plus we never saw anyone we knew, which we had expected. Ironically, much of the weekend was taken up with Coco, the new puppy, who was creating quite a stir in the household, as he was having a difficult time being house trained. I don't envy his masters, as he is still young, and he needs constant and consistent care to learn. Most of it seems to fall on Jill's shoulders, of course, the downside, I guess of owning a new puppy if you are the Mom. You do it all. We left around 8:30 Monday morning, drove home, just as we drove to Bristow, in constant rain. It took us close to eight hours, as we took our time, tried to enjoy the journey but it was not much to see, mostly grays, little color, alas.