10 years...almost

Okay, okay...before I bore you with photos and long drawn out stories, let me thank my in-laws. They drove all the way to our house and took care of all 3 kids so that we could run away for half a week and pretend that we were newlyweds again. God. Bless. Grandparents. Jeff and I are the luckiest parents ever...to be blessed with 2 sets of loving grandparents for our kids.


Now...let's see...Jeff and I were married August 7, 1999. As you will notice, it isn't even JULY yet. So why were we pretending? A) Um, available childcare? Hello?!? B) We're not anticipating any marital dissolve in the next 7 weeks, so we feel safe celebrating early. C) When 2 people offer to take care of 3 kids under the age of 6, you just GO. You just GO....quickly.

Sunday we left before breakfast. Jeff wanted to leave before the kids woke up, but I needed to say goodbye to my babies. We prepared Lily by telling her that we were going to climb a mountain and she was going to go to Sesame Place. She was pleased with this exchange of fun times, and happily kissed us goodbye. Andrew rolled his eyes as I smothered him with kisses and got ready to spend the week with 2 of his favorite people. Michael was oblivious.

We drove quite easily up to the Adirondacks. We stopped for lunch at McDonalds, and I almost shrieked with excitement that we could simply park and walk in...using the restrooms and eating our own meals. No diapers to change, no children to keep from touching nasty things, no scary parking lots to maneuver through. Lovely. Jeff rolled his eyes and announced that we could have just gone to our local McDonalds to achieve this. Imagine his contempt later on in the day when I gleefully called out from the hotel bathroom that no one was trying to reach into the toilet bowl or get me my toilet paper or ask me questions.

Before we got to our main destination, we stopped at one of the oldest tourist attractions in the US. Seriously, they have been charging admission to the AuSable Chasm since the 1800s. And we soon fount out why...

Gorgeous gorgeous water...reddish and so peaceful sounding.

Jeff near the start of the walk. Falls behind him.

Elephant's Rock. Good name, eh?

The narrowest part of the gorge.

After that little walk, we got up to Lake Placid and enjoyed our hotel. Did you know that the winter Olympics have been in Lake Placid twice? 1932 and 1980. It is shocking since the town is so tiny. But we saw the ski jumps on the way in...who starts in that sport? Suicidal people? They were UNBELIEVABLY huge. Gorgeous little brooks and streams everywhere. We couldn't see many mountains because of the rain clouds. We walked down to the main street and darted in and out of shops in between rain showers. Ate GREAT food. Went to bed to prepare for our early start on the hiking trails the next morning.

Monday was Jeff's 32 birthday. I forgot to mention it first thing in the morning. It wasn't raining the, but since it had been raining the previous 5 days, it was WET. Really WET. We started on the main trail and were amazed at the peaceful forest and the beauty and serenity around us. Not much wildlife...except for some humping chipmunks. Jeff saw them and said, "Must be his birthday too." Nice.

The birthday boy.

Bear print? It was about 5 inches across and had 5 toe prints. We saw it sporadically on the trail. If it wasn't a bear it was a HUGE dog. 5 inch paws? Dave Henry...I'm looking for an answer here.

Seriously was envious of the Native Americans. So amazingly beautiful.

Look at those big boulders!?! They are everywhere. Apparently, the glaciers left them behind. Very cool.

Here I am! Looking very happy still. Just wait. The story isn't over. See how nice that trail is? It's about to get very very bad.

Marcy Dam. Mt. Marcy is the highest mountain in the state of NY...and we were on the trail to go up it. We weren't THAT stupid...we were planning on breaking off in a bit to go up Phelps Mt.

Here's where things started to go awry. We had the option of crossing the raging river on foot or taking the high water bridge. With just one handle. You can't quite see my face here, but it is a mix of "ha ha, isn't this cool?" and "oh shit, I think I could slip and die here."

Boulders. Everywhere. This was a relatively small one.

Okay, so the trails got harder. A lot harder. They had become small streams, and the incline grew steeper. I took this picture thinking, "Oh! Wow! This must be a bad part of the trail, with the slippery boulders and all." Later I would find out it was the GOOD part of this trail.

Despite being a challenging trail, we were still following this gorgeous river. It would go away when we broke off onto the Phelps path.

I wish I had taken a picture of the start of the Phelps path. It was like looking into the Heart of Darkness. This is Jeff looking back at me. Yes, I'm on the trail. Can you see it? No? Those boulders and mud are the path. I believe I was cursing something like, "If it wasn't your birthday..." or "Say goodbye to my children, and make sure you tell them that you killed me." Something like that. Oh, and it's hard to see...because we're in a FREAKIN' CLOUD. As in, "even if we kill ourselves making it to the summit, we still won't be able to SEE ANYTHING!!!"

This is the point where I stopped. I was crying, certain that I was going to fall and never get back out. Jeff had been telling me, "Just a little bit farther" for the last 40 minutes. My quads were shaking, I was slipping like crazy, and the only other hiker that we'd seen estimated we were still 20 minutes from the summit. And he was a GOOD hiker. Jeff is standing just in front of the "path"...aka, sheer rock wall. Call me a pansy...I was not prepared for this type of hiking.

Heading back down the mountain. I believe that now I was saying things like, "Well, we ALMOST made it to 10 years of marriage...that's good, right?" and "Seriously, Jeff, I should've trained for this." and "I think I hate you." Not my best moment. Kind of reminiscent of Lily's birth story dialog, actually.

We limped back to our car and headed back to the hotel. Our hike lasted from 8am until 4pm. That night made the extra cost of a hot tub in the room WORTH IT. I dreamed that I had terminal cancer that night. It was quite possibly the saddest dream of my life...I was getting ready for Easter with the kids, knowing I'd never have another one. Very very depressing. Jeff laughed when I told him the next morning...he thinks my body was sending my brain a message..."YOU'RE DYING".

Tuesday, we did things my way. Oh, and it was a BEAUTIFUL day. We woke up early and went to a bakery and got coffee and pastries. We ate on the shores of Mirror Lake (the lake that our town butted up against.). We then walked the entire circumference of the lake...about a 45 minute walk. Here are some of the views.

Then we drove up Whiteface Mountain. Mountain climbing MY style. ;) An obscure NY governor named...um...oh, yes, Franklin D. Roosevelt, approved the building of this road. It cost $1,500,000...in 1938, gave lots of Depression era job relief and created a thing of wonder for generations to enjoy. Who would have the balls to pass that nowadays?

Looking down at the ski slopes.

Looking back down at the road we just came up.

Beautiful views. It looks more hazy in the pictures than it really was. It alternated between SUPER windy and not. Weird. This was taken about halfway up the mountain, and I'm certain that if Lily had been with us she would have been blown off the mountain. At the top it was just slightly breezy.

The start of the trail to the top. I had downloaded pictures of the top we were aiming for, but I deleted them in my haste to type. I am too lazy to put them back in. This post is too long anyhow. Also, notice how there are steel cables to hold on to as you climb the ascent. That's all I ask for, Jeff...

Jeff with Lake Placid in the background. It is roughly the shape of an "H", so easy to spot. We actually could easily spot our hotel, and spent the rest of the week pointing out the summit of Whiteface...which we hadn't noticed before. Just gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. I need a thesaurus.

Here's the trail. Lots of rocks...but...RAILS. Bonus. They also built an elevator in the mountain for easier access. We took it to get back down. Imagine. An elevator in the middle of a drippy cold mountain that was built in 1938. It was as exciting as you'd imagine.

Jeff way out on the edge.

Me way out on the edge. That's right. Me.

The next day we went on our long canoe ride. We started right in the middle of a town and canoed for 4 hours. The water was high, the views were fantastic, the water was warmish, it was lovely and relaxing. I think I am definitely more wired for water sports.

We had to wait about an hour for our ride to pick us up. We finished early and there was no cell phone service. Boonies, people, boonies.

Where we ended up.

That night we had a couples massage (super fun and felt sooo good...also, I am WAY a prude about public nudity). After the massage we had dinner at a 4 star restaurant. Yumm-ooo. And, uh, Ka-ching!

We had a lovely breakfast on Mirror Lake Thursday morning, did some last minute shopping and headed home. Even the ride down the highway is beautiful...until we hit New Jersey, that is. I swear...I loathe driving in New Jersey. I think it would be great prep for driving in a foreign country, because "normal" American road rules do not apply. And the people are seriously raging ALL THE TIME. I hate it. Hate. Jeff and I were so hating it, that if he has to find a new job, we think we'd rather move than have him commute into NJ every day. Harsh, I know. But, seriously...have you been there? And if you grew up there it doesn't count because you were raised in the insanity, so you don't know any better.

Whew...got that off my chest. We came home to happy children, tired grandparents, and a hyper dog. And years and years worth of memories of our anniversary trip! I hate to say we are reconnected, because we never got disconnected. But we enjoyed each other tremedously and loved getting back to what started it all...just the two of us. And excuse the crazy spacing...I don't know what Blogger is up to at the moment...