My last Adirondack Adventure

Hi again everyone, welcome back.
This past summer was a tough one, with my hectic work schedule and little money to do anything when I did have time. But I do have memories of summers past, especially when the boys and I would spend a week at Lake George in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State. I was looking through my collection of photos and came across pictures of one morning  Kayaking on Lake George, during our last trip up (2007).
In Bolton Landing, on the shores of Lake George, is the home of the Lake George Kayak Company.
They have a store located on route 9N in the heart of Bolton Landing, but their boats are on Green Island, next to the beautiful Sagamore Hotel.
I wanted to do some kind of boating on Lake George, kayaking seemed to be the simplest and cheapest way to do that, so one morning I took a ride up there to rent a kayak and get out on the water.
    Now you are probably asking about my boys, Josh and Chris, and where were they.
They had no desire to go with me, having never kayaked and were in fact sound asleep back at the cabin.
Our typical morning was to get up around 8AM, go have breakfest at the breakfest restaurant where we stayed, great breakfests too I might add, and then the boys would go back to the cabin, turn on ESPN Sportscenter and fall back asleep.
I would have loved to have them with me, but I'm not one to push what I want to do on them, so I let them nap, while I experienced the lake:-)

Ready to launch....Here's a view from the boat house

A party of paddlers make their way away from the boathouse.

I would follow the same route as them and cross this channel to go under the bridge and out to the main body of the lake. I have kayaked before, but it was all on the sheltered waters of the Gunpowder River and Dundee Creek here at home. With Lake George, you are talking "Big Water" that's much deeper and larger boats.
           Below here is my view of the boat house from the lake.

As I left the boat house and headed to the channel, I really enjoyed the beautiful green mountains surrounding the lake. The waters were calm and the boat moved easily through the water.
Once I got out past the bridge and into the open waters of the lake, the boat and water came alive with wave action. Now I had to concentrate on keeping the boat balanced, while watching out for the various powerboats coming to and fro.
Kayaks are more stable than a canoe (in my mind), but they still give you the feeling of going over quickly when hit by a wave, and there were lots of waves/rollers coming in on this day.

I paddled around Green Island and the Sagamore Hotel on my left, to the right and in front was the main part of the lake and the western shore of Lake George.
At times I would take a pause in paddling to sip my drink and just take in the beauty of the lake and surrounding mountains.
I thought I took photos, while out on the water, but don't see them in my computer:-(
Perhaps I was too busy trying to balance the boat to take shots.
 As I went around the island, I came across one woman, reclining on her kayak, with her dog, while reading a book. I don't think Daisy would go for that.
It took me about an hour to get around the island and back to the boat house, and it was an hour well spent.
Here's a parting shot of the boat house.

When I got back to the cabin at Alpine Village Resort, the boys were out throwing a baseball around, so I was glad to see them out and about. The rest of the day was spent either in the pool or down by the beach and of course the night was left to visiting the Village of Lake George for dinner and Mini Golf.
The next day, I had the urge to get out on the water again, so I grabbed a tube and headed down to our beach and floated around the little cove we are in. 
This time I had my camera ready to get some waters edge photos.
Below is from me in the tube, just off the beach at Alpine Village looking out to the lake and Tea Island.

Here's a photo of the Mini Ha Ha, as she cruised back to the Village of Lake George. I waved but don't think anyone saw me.

A closer view of the Mini Ha Ha. If you ever go to Lake George, take a one hour cruise on this boat. It's a great way to see the lake and the beautiful camps along the shore

While I was out on the water in my float tube, I came across a beautifuly colored dragonfly, that had basically gotten stuck to the water surface. I scooped it up and let it dry out on my tube while I floated around. It's wings looked like spun gold.

After awhile it took back off and then I headed back to the beach and lunch.

In the picture below, you can see the boys playing catch as I made my way back to shore.

Yep, the lazy hazy days of summer by the lake.

It doesn't get better than that.

Now days the boys and I are busier and in some ways not as connected as we were back in 2007.

Life goes on, kids grow up and life changes for all of us.

But we always have our memories of places like Lake George, Alpine Village Resort and the Lake George Kayak Company.

And the memories linger here in Mr. Joes World.

Thanks for reading.

Joe