Heading Home, Alas

Happy Birthday, Aysegul

It's 8:00, and I am sitting in the Shawnee Inn lounge, the only one up so far. Unfortunately, the wonderful weekend with my former students has to end, and we are all heading home this morning. It's been an amazing weekend and I only wish we could have done something like this every couple of years instead of waiting for 50 years. 

Hiking Deleware Watergap

Sunday began with getting up at 7:20 and coming downstairs for coffee, to read the various newspapers and write the blog before everyone got up. I took a coffee up to Evie around 9:00, came back down as others were beginning to rise. At ten, a group walked to the General Store for breakfast, a quarter of a mile walk. Erol and I, however, went on a hike with Andrew, back to the same area but we took a different trail, to waterfalls and an interesting plateau overlooking the Deleware Gap. We were hiking for only an hour and I doubt if I could have gone much farther after Saturday's marathon. 

Hiking With My Lise I Student, Erol

We were back by 11:30, relaxed with some of the group but by 12:30, six of us had skipped breakfast so we walked down to the General Store, a good choice. Evie ordered an egg sandwich with cheese and I had a Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich which was way too much but I managed to eat it. Of course, we had fun reminiscing about the good old days, something we did all weekend, remembering classes, students, sports, and sharing photos of grandchildren. 

A Polish Dinner

We then relaxed, napped or read the rest of the afternoon. Many had spent the afternoon talking and doing puzzles and we joined them at 5:00 and by 5:45, we were on our way to Chris's, a new Polish restaurant in downtown Stroudsburg, a fifteen minute drive. We did not know what to expect from the restaurant, especially since it's been open for only two weeks, It ended up being, however, a great choice, a full menu of Polish goodies as well as typical fair, a great wait staff and we ended up staying there till 9:00 even though they probably wanted to close at 8:00 on Sundays. We celebrated Aysegul's birthday, 39 right, with various delicious cakes and Turkish coffee. For dinner Evie had mushroom barley soup, and then peirogies and I had Ukrainian borscht, then potato pancakes with sour cream and applesauce. Others had the goulash or other Polish delights. It was a great choice. 

Murat And Nesilhan

Sami And Tijen

Tuba, Lale, And Ayse

Refik, Suleyman, And Tony

Aysegul And Refik

Ani And Evie

I have to salute one of my Lise I students, Lale Ansen, who was responsible for the weekend, picking out this great resort for us to gather, choosing restaurants, and generally making it a wonderful weekend for everybody. We were never bored, had lots of activities, great food, and we never seemed to run out of things to talk about.