Socks on Vacation - Part Deux

I figured I'd put the title in French, after all, we weren't all that far from the Canadian border! There was one lovely clear day. I was so happy to see the blue sky when I woke up that I had to take its picture! I had nearly forgotten what blue sky looked like. Now, first let me let you in on a little secret. On my Things to do Before I Die list is go to the top of Whiteface Mountain. I have been trying to get there forever and I want to go on a clear day. No sooner had I mentioned this to hubby, "Today could be the day that we go to Whiteface" than that beautiful clear sky looked like this.

It was incredible. I had never seen so much rain in all of my life. Day after day, storm after storm....so, I waited. I said, "No more saying that mountains name". Instead, I started working on a new sock.

I had recently purchased some Wildfoote, "Blue Blood Red" and decided that this would be a lovely color to make Waving Lace out of. So, I resurrected my pattern, whipped out a needle and casted on to do the scalloped edge. Due to one of the storms, the yarn got wet and I couldn't knit with it, plus I had stretched out the yarn a bit and didn't want my scallops to be ugly so I took out one sock and continued with the other.

Here is Waving Lace visiting Lake Champlain. You see, if you look closely, you can see the storm to the north at the far left. Straight ahead is Vermont, those clouds there were building into another storm. Also, to the south, there was yet another storm rolling in from Albany and Central NY to hit everything East of that. You could say we were in the garden spot. I seized the opportunity to photograph my little sock against the only patch of blue sky in all of the Northeast. I'm not kidding, here's another picture taken shortly after of a different part of the sky. And, here's looking North up Lake Champlain. To the far left of the screen is the edge of that gray mass and the bulk of the blue is going away....

I love the weather. I like to look at it, I like to take picture of it, I like to watch it on TV. I was particularly concerned about it during this trip because my neighbor at the campsite, dry and comfy in her motor home, told me, "Bad storm coming through, they're predicting up to 70 mph winds". That was about an hour before these were taken! OMG! That's nearly hurricane force. Luckily, that didn't happen by us. (Phew!) Remember, we were in a tent. BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES! When it passed over us, pouring hard but minimal went, we went off to Ticonderoga. We needed to go to Rite Aid for some itchy medicine for DD and some more drugs for pneumonia suffering DH. DS and I were just fine, although he got a little carsick. The elevation sets him off so I picked up some more Dramamine. Figuring I would need it for the ride to the top of the Mountain-Who-Should-Not-Be-Mentioned.

I was thoroughly disgusted, figuring that I was having a birthday in a few days and life was half over, God willing, and I wasn't going to make it. I asked God to cut me some slack and let me get there this year. I said that I would be good and not torture my husband too much. And, while he was listening to me, please cure DH, he's been feeling horrid for a few weeks. And, you know what? God said, "OK".

The next day, I woke up, saw blue out the little window in the tent and said, "Let's go! Let's have a quick breakfast and go to the top of the Mountain-Who-Should-Not-Be-Mentioned". The sky was clear. It was also a bit on the chilly side, say about 58 when I woke up that morning. That meant, minimal haze. (Ok, I was up early, like a little girl on Christmas morning...)

Oh, I forgot to tell you, I am somewhat afraid of heights. I had to have husband drive up the highway and I couldn't really look over the edge. You can see for miles and miles and it's breathtaking. My heart was pounding and my palms were sweating though...I couldn't take any pictures on the way up. Then, we stopped at the nice little castle they have there to use the restroom. You can actually climb a staircase to the summit, along the edge of the mountain. I didn't do that. It was too scary for me, the railing offers minimal protection and I didn't have my Timberlands on. (Note to self: Do not do mountain climbing in sneakers.) So, we took the elevator. Yep, they have an elevator there. The work was all done by private contractors just before the Great Depression. You walk through the side of the mountain, into the middle somewhere, a wet ramp. You can do it in a wheelchair, it is so smooth. You can even see the top because there is a circular paved path around the weather station. Amazing that this is equipped for the physically challenged and built 80 or so years ago.

It looks like this when you get to the elevator. It's nearly 500 feet through the tunnel. I was at the elevator when I took this.

Then, I went to the Top of The Mountain. No words can describe this...there is a little Boardwalk type landing there. I didn't go out to the edge where those people were. I was really scared. It's 4800 feet up. There is Waving Lace, with NYS High Peaks, all 46 of them (maybe), at the top of the picture.

The summit...naturally, a cloud rolled in, that's Lake Placid.

This might be the best picture I took while up there. The water at the top left is Lake Champlain and that's the Green Mountains of Vermont across the Lake. Notice it's clouding up. It was only 48 degrees up there and still my palms were sweating. I was sitting on the rocks most of the time.
The weather station is there at the top.
Again, looking towards the Northwest. You can see the walkway that you can climb up along the edge. More of the flatlands, the very very top of the screen would be Canada. I'm told that on a very clear day you can see Montreal.


That's all I have today. Stay tuned to see my souvenirs...
I hope you liked my pictures! More yarn coming up for the yarn fans and more sky coming up for the sky fans!

Socks on Vacation - Part I

Let's begin, "Vacation Series", a group of smaller posts because I have a lot to say and alot to catch up on. First off,

I'm Back! Froot Loops are Done!

We took a week's vacation in the Adirondacks, starting on August 5. Yes, something weird did happen on that day. I had everything packed up and we needed one more bag for extra shoes. DH went downstairs and brought up this bag and I opened it up and found out that it was an old overnight bag that my father used for golfing. It had his had, a pencil, a change of clothes, a hairbrush and his glasses in it. Weird that I should find that on the five year anniversary of his passing. It was like he was saying hello......

Anyway, we packed up everything for car camping...in a tent...in the Adirondacks. The weather forecast was rain every day. Wet...damp....DH being sick, kids coughing. So, we went. Little Zoey went off to the vet's to spend a week on vacation in a crate being boarded and getting a spa treatment. I gave my son a half does of dramamine for the ride, my neighbor watched Bonnie, my 15 year old Shelty, and off we went. Not having any compassion, I let DH drive all 286 miles so that I could finish up Butter Peeps socks....We later found out that he does, in fact, have pneumonia, which explains his lack of doing anything so I have cut him some slack and allowed him to sleep in this morning. We arrived at the Yogi Bear Campground in North Hudson, NY around dinner time, August 5th. It was dry when we got there but they were predicting rain. We were able to set up the tent and have dinner and get the kids to bed before the rain came. And rain it did. Hours and hours of nasty rain, thunder, lightening, luckily with little to no wind. The next morning, a deluge. We got up and went out for breakfast. There was a small amount of water that came into the tent. It came up from the bottom, through the tarp, through the floor and through the interior tarp. The ground was so wet that I seriously doubt that that could've been helped.

The whole time we were there, it rained. Every day. Even so, we were able to squeeze in a few activities between the raindrops. We hit Lake George the first day, where it cleared a bit. We went to Fort Ticonderoga to go to Rite Aid and visit Lake Champlain briefly. We did make it up to Whiteface Mountain for the Memorial Highway Drive, something that was on my "Things to do Before I Die list". We made it over to Lake Placid for a stroll through the town. We also stopped at Lake George on the way home for breakfast and made a stop in Saratoga for a snack. I have many, many pictures for you and will show you a few each day. My socks had a great time. DH is worn out. I was a sport and drove home from Lake George to the bottom of the NYS Thruway in the driving rain for a good part of the trip. He finished up the last 80 or so miles. As for the kids, they could care less about the weather. They were happy to be away, running around and having fun. I am not a fan of camping, especially in the rain, but I must say that is is really good for them. It tears them away from the regular life and gives them a chance to actually play with other kids. Play like in the old days. Bikes, hide and seek, toast marshmallows, things like we did when we were kids.

Now for the first part of the Photo Album..

Home Away from Home...?

Our View of the Schroon River

Flowers at Lake George (Note: I like this photo very much, it is one of the top five I took this trip)

Froot Loops in Smooshy Butter Peeps over Lake Champlain

Fort Ticonderoga Ferry, Lake Champlain

Froot Loops over Lake Champlain

I tried something a little different on these socks, twisting the picked up stitches. I won't do that again. I need to work on neatness there. That one spot of knitting socks is what separates the Men from the Boys. It looks very professional if you get the gussets nice. More on this when I block them and photograph them on blockers.

Well, time to do 18 loads of wash. Please tune in tomorrow for a glimpse of my new project plus some really special eye candy. Here's a sneak "Peak", New Yorks High Peaks and Socks....."Ultimate Eye Candy".