My Adirondack Vacation Part One

In September, I took vacation with the intention of attending the ACFW conference in Minneapolis. However, I ended up rethinking my plans and taking a trip back to my home state of New York to visit family.

I was gone from September 19 – 28. It took me a few days to get pictures from my sister, since I didn’t have a camera (another story for another day). Now that I have them, here is a little summary of my vacation.

My sister and brother-in-law live in a small town in the Adirondack Mountains where the Adirondack Marathon Distance Festival takes place. It so happened that I had planned to be there that weekend. When I called and told our son, who lives in NYC, he decided that he would fulfill his dream of running the marathon.

I began my trip by leaving my house in Colorado at 3:00 AM in order to make my 8:00 AM flight out of Colorado Springs. My sister, Terry, was still at work when I arrived in Albany airport, where she was to pick me up, so I collected my baggage and settled down with my laptop for an hour or so until she arrived.Saturday was a busy day for my sister and her husband since they are both involved in the marathon activities and the event was to occur the next day. However, we did get a little while in the morning to relax and enjoy catching up with each other. Terry is taller, I'm older! We never did catch Terry's husband in front of a camera, but then, Wesley is king of the house anyway, make no mistake.

In the afternoon, we made a couple of trips to the high school where packet pickup was taking place. It was bustling with activity, as runners received their packets and perused the array of items for sale, from hats and shirts to power bars and sports drinks. An excited buzz dominated the scene as contestants and their families chattered about the upcoming competitions.

Mom arrived on the bus around noon that day. Wesley loves it when grandma comes to visit! Mom and I were nervous about my son and daughter-in-law finding their way up from the city in their rental car. My sister assured us, “if they were able to find their way into New York City from Colorado, I’m sure they can find Schroon Lake!”

She was right and they arrived at 4:30 without any problems.Jaque and Jason barely had time to say hello when out the door we went to the pasta dinner that is held at Word of Life Inn the night before the marathon.

Accompanying us was one of my sister’s dearest friends, Rachel. The food was fabulous and there was more than enough. Jason was a bit nervous Saturday evening, but come Sunday morning, I’m sure butterflies were beating their wings madly in every corner of his stomach. He had been training for the marathon in Central Park for about two months and decided he would register for the half-marathon instead of the full. Still, that meant he had thirteen miles of running to look forward to! The longest race he had ever run was the two-mile event in high school track eight years ago. During his training, he had worked up to eight miles with his sweetie, Jaque, riding her bike beside him and encouraging him every step of the way.

Terry got Jason to the start line for the half-marathon and Jaque in place for the spectator bus barely in the nick of time before the roads closed for the event. Then she came back to the house and picked mom and me up. We headed to our destination, water station 20.

I had never attended a marathon before, let alone worked a water station, so everything was new tome. Our tables were already set up and several gallons of water, bottles of sports drink, fig bars, and paper cups had been delivered. Now it was our job to pour water and sports drinks and get ready for the runners. My sister manned the karaoke machine,shouting encouragement to the runners as they appeared around the curve, grabbed a drink or offered a friendly wave, and disappeared on down the course toward the finish line.

Jason had told us he was sure he’d be ready for a break by the time he reached water station 20, but when he got there, he whizzed by with a wave and kept on going. He looked good and had a great pace.Jaque had been at the starting line to see him off and was waiting at the finish line. He told us later those last five mile s were tough, and when he got to water station 26, he thought he had a whole mile to go. He said the feeling of having that completion medal placed around his neck was well worth it.

The next day, we spent some time at Schroon Lake, enjoying the scenery.....Then we headed to the Schroon Lake shoreline and did some sitting around on the beach...and somebody decided to go wading, even though it was a bit chilly.My sister offered me the use of her swim suit if I wanted to come back for a swim, but I declined! After Jason had the opportunity to relax those tired muscles on the lake shore, he and Jaque had to head back to NYC that evening.

The rest of us spent the next few days visiting and enjoying each others company. Come back soon for my post on our trip to The Wild Center in Tupper Lake. Thanks for reading my blog.