Scenes from Our Vacation to the Adirondacks and Vermont

Yes, I know, these are a heck of a lot of photos...but in my defense, this was a heck of a lot of vacation!  I will compromise with more photos, less wordage (ya right):D

and without further adieu.... Niagara Falls!  (ok, ok, I MUST talk, but just a little...our plans changed a bit, but hey we're (mostly:) flexible people...except when we're super busy and super exhausted, which when we're traveling we tend to be, then we just do our best to be fair...but, due to J's father needing some additional help for his move on the front-end of our vacation, and due to a job interview coming up on the rear end of our vacation...our vacation was completely shortened....by about a week!  So, we finally made it to Niagara Falls...late, on Monday evening...but the good news was....we did NOT have to pay for parking, and since it's the off-season and a weeknight, we did NOT have to deal with crowds!  SCORE

And because Niagara Falls just wasn't TALL enough for our tastes (though it was quite wide:), we decided to hit High Gorge Falls, in Willmington, NY, in the Adirondacks.  (Ok, they weren't really taller than Niagara Falls?  at least I don't think they were?)  As a note, I received a visit from a Dragonfly here!!!!  Seriously, the weather has gotten chilly, I did not see ONE single dragonfly on the entire vacation...and when I was standing by the falls, alone (as you can see I took a picture from quite high of my fam...as that photo was zoomed in:)...I realized I was in good company...a beautiful dragonfly really struggled to find its "sea wings" as it was flying in this vortex area of rocks and powerful falls....and the air pressure made it very challenging to fly...but it got my attention, said hi, and I'm grateful to this dragonfly;)

Oh, hey there, how's your day?

These photos were taken from the car ferry that travels across Lake Champlain from Essex, NY to Vermont; both photos taken to accomodate the height and vantage point of a six year old:)

 And this was seriously one of the highlights of our trip!  And, as luck would have it, it was located just five miles from the Ferry!!  This is a fantastic tour, our only regret, ok J's only regret, he wishes he had made himself a teddy bear too:(  poooor J (I made MYself a Teddy Bear!;)

 The Cider Mill in Stow Vermont was fabulous as well; as were their cider donuts...
DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

 This was taken from the property of the Trapp Family---sorry for trespassing; but may I add, you have a lovely home; quite in the likeness of your former Austria property (I know this because I was there too, ok, not their property, as I don't think they have property there anymore, but I was in Austria, and we sang "The Hills are Alive" in honor of you, from our bus:)

 And one can NEVER go to Stowe, Vermont without touring the infamous Ben & Jerry's Factory!  I think, this was actually the first time I've ever tasted Ben & Jerry's icecream, and it was quite delish!  It very much tasted like the icecream we make from our icecream maker (which sadly I regret not bringing with us when we relocated from WI to SC;(  No worries, we will aquire a new one, so the girls can start making our own organic icecream!  (sorry Ben and Jerry, not that we don't want to give you the business, but we are little by little trying to get back into making as much as we can...thanks for the inspiration!)

 And, thankfully, because we got caught in construction traffic, we JUST made the last ferry that goes back to New York!

 This is what we did for Fairy Girl's 7th Birthday North Pole, NY! ....this was located just a few miles from our campground...and the cool thing is, the rides are the SAME rides my husband rode...we have black and white old movie footage of this...which means the rides are at least 46 years old:O

 But we had a BLAST!  This place is adorable!!

 Dear Santa, I want a PUPPY!  (surprised? :D)

 And, as luck would have it, the colors started changing half way into our stay!

 This is a view of White Face Mountain...we wanted to drive up to the summit (because you can), but, as you can see,  visibility that day would have been ZERO!

 Lake Placid was just a few miles from us; it's a very cool little town...and the ski jumps from the (82?) Olympics were FRICKIN SCARY looking!

And, on our way home, we made a brief little detour to go visit Raleigh, NC, just to take a look at this the Savory Spice Shop---because we miss PENZEYs that much!  (it was a close second...but Penzey's will ALWAYS be my favorite....too bad they are privately owned and not franchised:)