Lake Time

   It was perhaps our last stay in the little cottage in Lansing that Gail found to get out of the house during COVID.  The people we've rented it from finally pulled the trigger and sold it.  We enjoyed staying there for the end of June/beginning of July for six years.

This is the boathouse, not the cottage.

  The location was great: right across from Taughannock and the newly-named Three Falls state parks, and between two large Finger Lakes Land Trust preserves.  Excellent destinations for paddling and hiking.

  I enjoyed getting up to see the moon set a couple days, and on this one paddled over to Frontanac before it got too hot.

Frontanac, or one feature of the Three Falls State Park.

   Of course, if you're going to paddle, it's important to practice self-rescue.  And practice near shore in case things don't go well.  I did successfully get back in eventually.

The closest falls to the cottage.  I'm not sure I'd ever walked up this stream to the falls before this year.

Lots of people came to swim with Gail.  Taughannock in the background.                                                  

  

The regular contingent of former students came to paddle, as did Tom.                                                         

                                                       

 

Yardana brought her brothers for some swimming and a sunset.                                                               

                               

 

She even had a special "sunset bikini".  Her brother was tasked with the photo shoot using her fancy camera, but she allowed me to take this one from the balcony of the boathouse.                                                                                                                                        

 

 I spent quite a bit of time up there.  It was shady until mid afternoon and the sun got hot as soon as it      came over the trees.                                                                                                                                                    
   

Nano and Tin Cho always come for a visit.

   The big excitement this year was the house next door was finished.  There was quite a bit of construction noise last year, and we were relieved it was finished.  Then someone showed up with a chainsaw and         started removing boards from the dock and we thought we were in for a few days of repairs to the               dock and boathouse.                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

                            

  Then the one-guy with a chainsaw (wearing sandals) was joined by a barge, three other boats and a crew of about a dozen shirtless guys, mostly in sandals as well.                                                                                                         

 

I didn't let a little noise interfere with my routine.                                                                                 

                                                                                                                  

After just a couple hours, the barge was too full to take it all away in one day.                                                                              

  The next day, the crew was considerably smaller, and when stuff fell into the lake, some of it started drifting away.  I hopped onto a paddle board and helped gather debris that floated out to deep water.  Most of it was cheap particle board, but the first thing I pulled out of the water was a CD.

   We already have this in our collection, but due to circumstances, I feel this is one of those special keepsakes that I'll talk about often.

  Over the years, we've made it a point to not go anywhere while at the cottage, but this year there was a memorial for a friend that I didn't want to skip.  Tim, Becca, Hannah and Connor have been dear friends, and Tim's death shook many in our community.  He led an amazing life, and it was reflected by the outpouring of love and support during his illness and after his death.  It wasn't exactly a surprise to me who provided the music at the memorial.

  The view without the boat house is considerably more pleasant.

  I didn't manage to salvage any of the lumber from the boathouse demo, but did find this 16' 2"x12" on the rocks and got it home.  Someday I hope it, and maybe material from the marina company, will become boardwalk on the muddy sections of a local trail.

   I tried to get Roxy to help me snag some of this Medina Sandstone and marble, but she wasn't having it and I couldn't do it by myself due to a sore back from getting the plank out of the water, on to the car, and home.

   We're going to miss our excursions there.