It did not disappoint! Lake George is stunning! I honestly did not expect it to be so beautiful. One of the major reasons I wanted to go was because my 4th great grandfather was from there and joined the church there. He owned an island on the lake and sold it when he moved to Kirtland. The island and his other business were worth a lot of money, but he gave all of his fortune to the Church and gave all of his (numerous) posterity a greater inheritance of membership in the Lord's kingdom. Unfortunately his house had just recently been torn down, but we still saw the island he owned, which now has a super posh hotel on it, the church he used to preach at (he was a lay minister), a graveyard where some of his family is buried, and the lake he was baptized in. It was fantastic for our family to get to experience that. Our kids were excited about it too because a few years ago someone made a movie about this ancestor and we have it. It's one of the only things our kids are allowed to watch on Sunday, so they know the story backwards and forwards, and were duly excited by visiting where he was from.
We stayed at a fantastic hotel/lodge. We had multiple rooms, so we could all actually sleep!!! We also had a kitchen and a grill that patrons could use. As a result of the grill, we ate like kings on this trip. My mother's day dinner was grilled salmon, asparagus, and pineapple. I don't quite understand why grilling makes everything taste so good, but it does. It had its own private beach, and because it is the beginning of the season, we had it entirely to ourselves - heavenly. There was also a playground and a heated pool. It could not have been more perfect.
Sunday, after we'd made our pilgrimage to the John Tanner sites, we headed down to the lake to let the kids dip their toes in. Ha! Naivete at its finest. I'm sure the kids were just trying to keep the Sabbath by reenacting John Tanner's baptism by immersion in Lake George. :)
On Monday we drove to the other side of the lake and did a beautiful hike to a spectacular lookout. We were so proud of the kids for hiking all the way by themselves. Brad created a genius game for them that facilitated all the good hiking - each tree with a trail marker was a monster that James needed to get with his "sword". Annie was the lookout and James was the knight. Our fatal flaw was thinking after a good rest we could convince the kids to make it to the waterfall. After about 45 more minutes of hiking (and no waterfall within sight or earshot) we turned around. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped and rewarded our great hikers with some ice cream. Then we spent the afternoon at the lake - swimming, wading, and canoeing. It was completely idyllic. After another fantastic dinner on the grill, Brad took the kids swimming while I put Kate (the most perfect, easygoing baby EVER) down. We let the other kids stay up and have a cookie and some popcorn while they watched Mary Poppins on our 7 inch DVD player, completely ignoring the 60 inch flat screen right behind it.
It was the perfect little getaway for our family. I LOVED spending so much concentrated time together. I love having Brad around and I'm getting so nervous for what lies ahead . . .
2 comments:
that sounds so fun! Im glad you guys got one more vacation in before residency!
That looks like an awesome vacation! Don't you wish it could last forever. I think you will love SF.
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