Best. Vacation. Ever!

The dock for our cabin on Silver Lake.

Vacation is over. Tomorrow we return to reality.

But what a great vacation it was! We spent a week at Silver Lake in the town of Hawkeye, NY – very close to Lake Placid. Kris’s uncle owns a cabin right on the lake and generously offered it to us for a week.

The cabin is in an absolute perfect location, surrounded by mountains. In fact, you have a clear view of Whiteface in the distance. The lake is just the right size – not too big, not too small. Although there are some power boats and Jet Skis on the lake, it’s still pretty quiet. There isn’t any public access to the lake, so there aren’t a whole lot of people there.

The cabin we stayed in was a good size. It and several other nearby structures were once part of a boys’ camp that opened decades ago. It has been remodeled in the years since. It has a large, rustic living room with hardwood floors and a beautiful stone fireplace. The kitchen was filled with windows that offered a corner view of the lake and mountains. Thomas had his own bedroom. Nolan slept in a loft above the living room that he had to climb up a ladder to get to. We slept on a bed placed on a screened-in porch that stared out at the lake. Each night the moon rose up over the mountain across the lake directly into the center of our window.

We arrived at the cabin Saturday afternoon after stopping at the outlets in Lake George while on our way and having lunch in the village.

The first couple of days we just hung out around the cabin. We did a lot of swimming and fishing and Kris and Nolan did some canoeing.

At night we would sit inside and play games. We’d often make S’mores for desert after dinner. Once the kids were in bed, Kris and I would kick back and read or go down and sit by the lake.

I started reading a great book I found in the cabin about the history of the Adirondacks and was fascinated reading about tales of the French and Indian War and the ordeals of Isaac Jogues, a Jesuit priest from France who became the first European ever the lay eyes on what would become known as Lake George after being captured by the Iroquois.

On Monday we went to Lake Placid to do some shopping. There is a free trolley service that circles through town. So while Kris went shopping for school clothes for Nolan, the boys and I went for a trolley ride. For a while we were the only ones on the trolley, so the driver let us stop and get off for about 10 minutes at the depot for the Adirondack Scenic Railroad so we could see the choo-choos up close.

On Tuesday we took the kids to Santa’s Workshop in North Pole, NY. That was a huge highlight for them. They both saw Santa and told him what they wanted for Christmas (a choo-choo for Thomas, a Rescue Hero toy for Nolan). Nolan has been talking it about everyday since.

I got a kick out of it too. It seems like not much has changed there in 50 years. It was like stepping back in time. It reminded me of what Storytown (now the Great Escape) used to be.

Wednesday was mountain climbing day. We hiked up Owl’s Head, just outside of Keene, NY. It was a pretty easy hike for Nolan. Thomas rode in the backpack. This was his second and likely final mountain in the backpack. Next year he’ll be too big. And after getting left behind for two days in a row, Chester got to come with us this time and hiked his second mountain. When we reached the top the view was spectacular and the blueberries were ripe for picking. The only downside was that the batteries had died in our camera, so we couldn’t take any pictures.

Hawkeye is only about 90 minutes from Kris’ parents. So on Thursday morning they came out to spend the day with us. They brought some bait and helped Nolan do some more fishing, but we still didn’t catch anything. That’s ok. For Nolan, really, the fun is in casting the line out into the water.

At the opposite end of the lake there is a small beach with lots of shallow water that is only accessible by boat. We asked the kids Friday if they would rather drive up to the top of Whiteface or go to the beach, and overwhelmingly they chose the beach. So we loaded everyone into the canoe paddled down the lake. It took about 30 minutes to get there, but was very much worth it.

The plan for the rest of the afternoon was to pack everything up so that Saturday morning we could just get up and leave. But then we realized that if we left as soon as Thomas woke up from his nap we could be home by bedtime. We knew we had a lot of work to do at home – our living room floor was refinished while we were gone, and we had to moving everything back into the room. Plus, we were having such a great time that we really hated to leave. So I guess we sort of figured that, since there really wasn’t anything left to do, leaving Friday was like “ripping the Band-Aid off.”

We returned home Friday night to the rude awakening of a soaking wet basement from a torrential storm that we had missed and the chore of putting the living room back together. >>Sigh<< Back to reality.

We had such a great time. Everyday was fun. It was terrific to spend so much time with the kids. And I can’t remember ever feeling so relaxed for so long. Continually Kris and I kept smiling at each other and saying how happy we were to be there and how much we didn’t want it to end. It was without question our best vacation. Yes, even better than Disney.