The rest of our stay in New York was fantastic. The amazing weather continued, and we hit the fall colors head on. We spent a day and evening with my aunt in Poughkeepsie, and saw my one and only cousin for the first time in ages along with his four children whom I had not met yet.
My aunt at her cozy place in Poughkeepsie:
The following day, my aunt drove us five hours north through the Adirondacks to Canton, New York where one of my best friends from college is living. We spent a lovely 5 days there on their upstate, country 'estate'. While Sam and Brian were working we would spend our days mowing their immense, vast lawn, playing with their dogs, relaxing, and walking around the area. We had some good downtime while they were working, but as soon as they got home, they made us play hard taking short walks to local waterfalls and to the university climbing wall to get an intro to rock climbing as Sam and Brian have become avid climbers over the past two years.
The weekend activities turned into all day affairs. On Saturday, after a leisurely breakfast of pancakes (and a hide and seek game with the dogs and their pancakes), we headed out to a day of canoeing on the Raquette (?) river which was so beautiful. It was a pretty flat river - so we were able to go upriver first and then back down after reaching our destination without having to deal with all the shuttle logisitics that come with faster downriver expeditions. Of course the downside of canoeing on flat water is that you are paddling all the time, so by the end of the day we were all a bit tight and sore.
On the Raquette River:
Day two of the weekend took us out to Azure mountain where we planned to do some beginner rock climbs. It is not a highly traveled rock climbing spot, but it was closer, and we had the climbing guide in hand so we figured we'd be climbing by noon and back before dark. Things turned out a little bit differently as the climbing sites were not as easily identifiable, and we needed a spot that we could drop a top rope from as none of us are experienced enough to lead climb. Thus started the search for a do-able route for Keith and I that had an accesible trail to walk around to the top. Easier said than done. While Brian and Keith scoped out all the faces reading over and over the description from the book, Sam and I started bushwacking and scrambling looking for a way to the top. After much effort we did reach the top of the mountain. However, with lots of yelling to the guys below, we discovered that we weren't above the proper section of cliff, and it would be a lot of effort to do that climb all again to get the ropes up, so we decided to go back to the first wall we discovered that is not listed in the book and was considerably shorter. So three hours after arrival, we started climbing. It was a fine place to climb - maybe a bit hard for a first climb for Keith and I - but fun nonetheless.
Heading out to Azure Mountain:
There's me grunting my way up.
And Keith:
And Sam - considerably more graceful and talented:
And Brian - also quite impressive:
Our last day was a lazy one for Keith and I, but the evening brought one more bout of climbing. A well established climbing route closer to home, but it was a late start, so by the end, because we had to have just one more go at the thing, we were climbing in the dark. A fun start, and we had some great teachers helping us learn the sport. Maybe Paul will let us use his gear and take us to Joshua Tree over our Christmas break in Cali???
The family (minus Hazel, the other dog who stays home):
Tuesday, we had a long travel day home. We had to take the early bus from Canton to Syracuse where we took Jet Blue to JFK in New York City, where we had a six hour layover. Rather than sitting on the benches in the very crowded Jet Blue terminal (you can tell that Jet Blue is doing well as the line to all the ladies' restrooms are interminable all day long!) we hopped on the subway and went out to Coney Island. We had a Nathan's hotdog (which are apparently famous), walked around looking at the rides then took a short power nap on the beach. Then it was back to the airport and 7 hours later we landed in Seattle where my parents were waiting for us all smiles.
One last comical travel story to share....
As we were waiting for our baggage to come out at SeaTac,I noticed a wet substance on someone's suitcase. I thought it was odd as there hadn't been any rain in either New York or Seattle, but dismissed it. Then the lady next to me picks up her bag that has some of the same wet stuff on it and starts carrying on, saying things like, "What is this on my bag? It's all sticky and sweet like syrup! Look it's all over everyone's bag! Oh, this is awful! Can you believe this?!", as more and more bags come piling out with the same sticky substance on it. By now, I figure out what is going on and am instantly mortified. Being in New York, we thought it would be nice to bring home some local, homemade maple syrup, so we bought a gallon of it. Being as you can't bring liquids on the plane anymore, we checked it in our baggage. Hey, we thought it was a good seal! As our bags came out, we quickly grabbed the sticky things hoping no one would notice us as the culprits who ruined everyone's luggage and loaded up and headed out of there. Hilarious but slightly humiliating. Out of the gallon we started with, we ended up with only 1 tablespoon left...
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