The Great Outdoors

We just got back from the Adirondacks. The trip was part of my plan to live out the vignette in my head of giving my boys canoe trips and picnics beneath pine trees. A bonus is that I, too, got to experience the great outdoors, not just imagine what I saw in the Technicolor Yogi Bear cartoons of my youth.

It was everything I hoped it would be, minus the wrestling and whining at bedtime. Rather than pitch tents, I booked an upscale lodge. I will hike, sweat, get dirty and eat peanut butter and jelly all day long, but come evening time, I want a bubble bath, a glass of wine and a fish that someone else caught and prepared set down in front of me, preferably grilled.

I am not a princess, just someone who, given the choice, will pick the genteel accommodations built for city people traveling to the country. We stayed at Mirror Lake Inn in Lake Placid. It was lovely and even my boys appreciated all of the charm.

One of the other big spender things I like to indulge in is springing for the kids’ souvenirs. I tell them they’ll have to use their allowance so they choose carefully and then at the cash register, I whip out my wallet and say, “It’s on me!” I am sure they have figured this out, like Santa and other pretend animals and fairies that visit our home, but they humor me just the same.

First Born Prince spent almost an hour on the main street going from shop to shop, looking for a woodsy frame and a postcard of a canoe on one of the lakes to put in it, as his keepsake. He knew exactly what he wanted and we didn’t stop until we found just the right one. It was so sweet, like the time he picked out the little replica of Ellis Island to remind him of our family trip there, too.

Charming Baby chose a walking stick with “Adirondack Mts.” carved into the handle, which I sincerely hoped would be used for hiking and not as a weapon against his brother. This morning I saw him busy in his room, arranging the stick by his bedroom window where he has his current favorite things on display: National Geographic book on birds, drawing pad, and special pencil with left-handed gripper.

The years are flying by and I’ll be damned if you have to ask me twice to create these memories for them. At one point on one of our hikes, we stopped for a break and Charming Baby looked around at all of us, smiled and said, “This is so cool.” I knew what he meant. It had little to do with the mountains and rivers, although those gave what he was talking about a beautiful backdrop.