Various pictures from our vacation upstate. The first three nights we stayed at Big Moose Lake in a historic hunting lodge. Most of time was spent on the lake in kayaks and canoes provided by the hotel. The last day we flew over the Adirondacks in a antique sea plane, including flying over our hotel. After our days in the woods we headed north, taking a break in the wine region, to the Thousand Island region where we saw antique boats and visited many state parks (click any of the pics to enlarge, which we highly recommend).

This is it, Big Moose Inn. Cozy rooms, folksy owner, and the site of an infamous pre-boating lunch. Also, they had free kayaks which you'll see in a moment.

This is the beach at Big Moose. We sat in Adirondack Chairs in the actual Adirondacks. Also we made s'mores and hobo pies.

The view from the deck at Big Moose.



















A gazebo exactly across the lake from big moose. We rowed over there our first night, and sort of thought of it as "our" gazebo.


Karen loves ducks.









We spent a lot of time in these kayaks. We discovered kayaking is our new favorite thing.












Chris Chafin is an athelete.













An (almost) deserted island in the middle of the lake.












The view from the beach of the (almost) deserted island.












This is the deck at the Adirondack Air Service, an abandoned sea-plane dock near the hotel. There was also an abandoned hobie cat there.
















WE ACTUALLY DID THIS










In this plane! A real gleaming, awesome, beauty.













This is what a seaplane pilot should look like. Karen and I had a good time imagining his life story. I say, former test pilot, living out his final days in his version of paradise.








That's Big Moose, right above that blue thing (in the little inlet).












Honestly, honestly, who knew there were all these wind farms in upstate NY? We certainly did not.












My book jacket photo. As soon as I have a book.
















The view from our little table at Tug Hill Vineyard.












We stayed in this tiny little hotel our first night in the Thousand Islands region. It rained the one night we were here, so we didn't get to go swimming or lounge around in these chairs reading, as was our plan.









We had a drink here at The Rum Runner. Not, as you might have guessed, the most well-kept-up of places.
















The Thousand Islands Inn! Birthplace of Thousand Island Dressing and a lovely place to stay. It's on the market! Only $800,000. I would be happy to operate it if someone would like to buy.







A simply stunning young woman, captured in an antique speedboat.










There are a bunch of pictures following from inside our ride in a 1930s speedboat, courtesy of the antique boat museum. It was fast!

































No offense to the Adirondacks, but these last two pics are from what was probably the most beautiful place we visited: Wellesey Island State Park. About equidistant between New York and Canada, it was totally deserted and totally beautiful. We saw a chipmunk! And, as you can see, took arty pictures of each other.