We arrived at my sister and brother-in-law's lakeside retreat on Upper Saranac Lake in the northern reaches of the New York's Adirondack's state park. Heaven on earth was invented here. A beautiful lodge, great weather, great food, plenty of wine ... the list goes on.
But wait ... I'm getting ahead of myself.
A last minute decision to drive though Canada and pass through the Niagara region to New York was paved with good intentions (about those later) but was derailed by my inability to pay attention in 10th grade history class. Cut me a little slack but that was about 50 years ago, but I forgot it was Canada's birthday. You remember...that time in 1879 when the British North American provinces bonded together to form a new entity called Canada. So everyone gets the day off there and all 9 million of them head for the same place I wanted to take my deserving wife ... that is... the casino at Niagara. Maple leafs and Labatts as far as the eye could see with nary a parking spot within 10 kilometers of the place. So my good intentions were in place but just couldn't get it done; we had to keep moving.
We motored on to the Syracuse area staying just north of the city on the western edge of Lake Oneida. Can you believe they would name a lake after silverware? Got out of town just in time as Hillary Clinton was arriving the next morning and who knows what kind of mood she'd be in. Anyway a beautiful ride through the foothills of the Adirondacks catching glimpses of white tailed deer and wild turkey soon brought us to our destination.
All the locals in these here parts call these places 'camps'. I kinda' think of a camp is where bugs eat you alive, you sleep in a wet sleeping bag, and eat 'smores' after beans and franks. Thankfully not the case here as we settled into our sleeping quarters, comfortable and very well treated. The others were not arriving until the next day so we enjoyed the conversation, great lamb chops on the grill and several bottles of good wine.
The next day the weather turned a little sour but the remaining siblings would be arriving soon so what's a little inclimate weather?
Rich, Marcia and Bill and Susie arrived in early afternoon and we all settled in to catching up on each other lives and enjoying the improved weather. Though I have a wonderful sister, I had always wondered what it would have been like to have had a brother. I think I may have missed out on something after being around Bob and his brothers. Though there respective lives have taken them in different directions and locations, which each having notable careers, it's apparent that their formative years were full of great fun and cemented the closeness seen now. Not that a little rivalry didn't still exist and some good natured kidding, but it couldn't hide they were still loving brothers. It was fun to be a part of it.
As the group finally settled in we were soon treated to a grand dinner consisting of Carson's Ribs from Chicago, and assortment of salads and copious amount of fine wine. Oh my ... what fine dining.
The 4th of July is a rather exciting day around Upper Lake Saranac as it is the day of the annual wooden boat parade. We all hopped into Bob's 1949 Christ Craft speed boat and headed off to find the parade. At the southern end of the 7 mile long lake we found the parade marshal and the lead boat in the parade; the newly purchased Upper Lake Saranac fire boat ... complete with powerful water canons to help extinguish fires along the lakes edge. I'd never heard of a lake having its own fire boat, but there it was, on the ready with sirens and flashing lights.
All in all there were about 18 classic old wood boats in the parade and we cruised the entire length of the lake waving to all the on-lookers along the way.
Of course all the men were in the front of the boat do those manly things like steering , navigating, and looking for sharks and the like.
Brother Rich at the navigator position and First Mate Brother Bill in the look-out's chair scanning the seas for pirates (I think) and securring the bloody mary's.
The women, all decked out in their festive sailing bonnets were working the shore-bound crowds with their best Bess Myerson and Mary Ann Mobly hand waves and pearly white smiles. I'm usually not this descriptive when describing folks on a boat ride but as it turns out our nautical magic carpet caught the eye of more than simple bystanders: the local news photographer captured our image and it ended up on the front page the following day. Personally my second front page picture in 58 years. (but I'll leave that story to another day). Next time however it will be important to bring the ice for the Bloody Mary's Judy brought. We did somehow managed to empty the pitcher anyway.
We ended the day with a great seafood salad and various libations. And I almost forgot.... a huge fireworks display. It was bold ... it was showy ... it was the celebrations of our countries independence... it was Sharon's sack of sparklers. Everyone was allotted 6 giant (said so on the box) fire wands to spend the next several second writing their name in script against the darkening sky. Oh to be ten again. Happy birthday USA.The following morning was, what some have coined the Saranac Olympiad. With fuzzy yellow balls in hand, brothers Rich and Bob headed for the tennis court to again confirm the families dominance on the clay courts. Though Bobby Riggs and Billy Jean King were not present, a couple of the areas elder tennis ringers were brought out from the Tupper Lake nursing home to provide a semi-strong counterpoint to the families tennis legends. I was so excited to see this match of champions that I hardly slept a wink the night before. Unfortunately I accidentally did not hear the alarm clock to get up in time to bear witness but Sharon and Marcia managed to find an empty seat to watch the event. Bill could only stay a short time as the excitement and tension were too much to bear. As the match wore on it became painfully clear that the team from Tupper Lake brought some bad mojo. Maybe it was something in those strange leather bags strung from their necks or the smell of 20 years of Ben Gay applications; but whatever it was ... it took the brothers down. Beaten...destroyed...but not humiliated. With sweaty heads still held high they limped back in for a cold drink, shower and 800 mgs of Ibuprofen. As it turned out 800 mgs was not near enough for Rich as his back finally gave out and he'll probably be on the 30 day disabled list at the bank. Neither he nor Bob played to their potential, for sure.
The idea of getting families together was for reasons other than weddings, funerals or graduations is becoming a lost practice. Taking the time to sit and talk with your siblings about old and new times is both entertaining and therapeutic. I'm pretty sure everyone had a great time and we all thank our hosts Bob and Judy for sharing their home with us and allowing all of us to share our lives with one another.
We left with many fond memories and look forward to getting together again soon.
Our trip back to Michigan was uneventful. We were looking forward to picking up our newly painted coach and begin our next trip. We will be motoring on to South Haven Michigan to enjoy the remainder of the summer. But when we arrived home things weren't quite as we left them. More about that on our next blog.
