A Sad Day As The Bissells Head Home

Evie and Halle at Red's

Pancakes at Red's Pancake House in Sherman, NY

Enjoying Skating

The Gang

Both Evie and I are up early, around 6:00, the house is quiet and we are waiting for the girls to get up as Jill wants to get an early start for their drive to Virginia, leaving by 8:00.  It's going to be a very quiet house in a couple of hours, not something we are looking forward to.  It's been a fun but short visit and despite the lack of snow, we could not have had more fun outside.

Drew and Coco Racing Hayden

We did go to Red's Pancake House yesterday, a run down looking cabin, with ten or so large barrels sitting outside the front door, not a very inviting looking place.  But the cars were gathered around the place, and along  both sides of the road, so it looked very popular.  Once inside, we had to wait to be seated, as lots of families were there enjoying the all you can eat pancakes, with sausage, juice, and coffee for eight dollars a person.  It's rustic but cosy and warm, with wonderful hospitality and service.  Everyone there was enjoying themselves, mostly locals I would think, with occasional visitors like us.  Just off the entrance was the maple syrup making room, with a huge wood fired boiler taking the sap and turning it into syrup. It's been a good year for syrup making, as they are up over 1000 gallons so far, hopes to reach 3000 by April.  We were seated quickly, and local high school girls bring your food, usually within five or ten minutes, so there's little wait.  The pancakes were about as good as I have had, very hot and I think they used buckwheat flour.  The syrup was not as thick as you get in a bottle but tasted great.  The girls enjoyed it as well, as did all of us and we will definitely come back.  It's a great place for breakfast on the  weekend, about 30 minutes drive.

Halle Crusing

A good part of the afternoon was spent outside, chairs on ice, all of us bundled and the girls skating till they could hardly walk.  It was a wonderful day on the ice, as everyone seemed to be out enjoying it.  Neighbors, fisherman, hikers, even a few snowmobiles were out, enjoying the weather and the frozen lake.  Like the day before, we cleared a huge loop for the girls to skate on and both Halle and Hayden were able to skate fairly well and by the end of the day, they were getting pretty good.  I even got out my skates and enjoyed.  I was very tentative a first and Halle exclaimed to Evie:  "Poor Baba, look at him trying to skate."  But later, as I felt more comfortable, she said again, to Evie: "Look at Baba. He's really improving."  She hit my prowess on the head: I did at first feel like a doddering old man taking his first few steps, but by the end, I was able to glide pretty well, as I gained confidence.  Drew even put on my pair of twelves with three pair of socks and was able to skate as well.

Hayden and Mom

Later in the afternoon, Evie and I took the girls to the CI for a walk and a browse through the bookstore and both girls got books  We also went to the library, the girls met the librarian Deborah though we did not stay long.   Hayden really liked looking at the various houses and churches; I guess we had never taken them there before.

We got home about 5:00 and went out skating for the last time for about a half an hour as it was starting to get cold.  There were still lots of people on the lake, some out in the middle fishing, others just seemed to  be walking, either along or across the lake.

I had made ciabatta bread earlier in the day, so we had that for dinner along with spaghetti and meatballs, a perfect meal after a day spent out side.  After dinner we played LCR( Left Center Right), a fun game for the girls.  They went to bed by 9:00 and Jill and Drew went up at 9:30, tired and wanting to get a good sleep for their ride tomorrow.  Evie and I stayed up and watched The Good Wife, then went to bed.