A Jaunt Up North: Part One

That title is kind of misleading as 'up north' is really just about 100 miles and not so far as it implies, but this past weekend we all trotted off up to the Poconos for a long weekend away. It was just us--me, my parents, my nephews, my sisters, and my brother in law (my brother had to work and so couldn't come). We rented a house in an area that we don't usually stay when we head north (it's pretty much smack dab against PA's eastern border instead of further west) so we weren't too familiar with anything. We headed up Friday afternoon, and just vegged for the first evening. Saturday dawned gloomy and rainy and we thought the day would be a total wash, but eventually the sun broke through. If it wasn't for some humidity you would never know that it was pouring earlier.

Our plans were weather-dependent so we kept switching things around. We got a late start on Saturday so our options were limited. We were all very excited to head to what sounded like this absolutely marvelous bazaar and flea market that promised everything you could think of. It was decidedly not that way and short work was made of it. We decided to just drive and see what was around. What we saw was a go-kart place. It was kind of creepy. It looked like the kind of place where a serial killer would work, or that would be the haunted place in a horror movie. My guess would be that this rabbit that looks like it has to use the men's room and is holding it in comes to life after dark and wields a hatchet against anyone who tries to get extra kartin' time.

My overactive imagination was not helped by this image of an insane clown. Sincerely--why would you put this on a children's ride? No wonder people have clown issues. I might have them now too; I'm not sure yet.

The fuel smell and the juddery engines would have worked their way into my brain and given me a migraine for sure so I stayed track-side and snapped photos while the others went scooting.

 Aiden and his daddy (my BIL Matt). He kept that expression the whole time, as though he was trying to decide if this was fun or weird (Aiden, not his dad. His dad had a good old time).

Classic Rachel. If there's a camera she will give a little pose. Always has. As opposed to me, who tries to dive behind the nearest obstacle while screaming "I will break your thumb if you take my picture!"

I love this pic. They both look so serious, getting ready to race. My dad is 6'5, so he looked quite crammed into his car. He had more fun than anybody, though.

Zach didn't want to go. He decided to take advantage of me going to bed early to see how late he could stay up the night before, so he was a little cranky and not in the mood for much. The place where we stayed had a swimming pool within the development, so he went swimming Saturday night with everyone. He was absolutely exhausted afterwards, and slept longer than I've ever known him to.

We had passed a few antique shops so we stopped at those on the way back to the house. They had some pretty neat things, but I was very focused on this print that caught my eye--

It's actually quite small. There's something about this that had me staring and staring, and thinking of which house I'd live in and what the rooms would be decorated like and how cozy the lamp-lit windows look. It was priced a little too high for my taste, but after my third stop-and-stare the shop owner told me that she could tell I wanted it and she needed to make room for new things so she knocked off a third of the price. Sold! I just have to find a place for it.

The house we stayed in was by far the nicest vacation home we've ever gone to. You can definitely tell when people buy a property just to rent it out, and when people stay at the property and rent it out as well. This was definitely the latter--so nice, so comfortable, with everything you could possibly need. The master bath had a jacuzzi in it. The only person who used it was Zach. And he usually prefaced this by saying something like "Do I have time to get in the jacuzzi? I need to relax." 

It was a very quiet area, with tons of trees and shade out back. After the rain that morning the droplets glistened so brightly in the sunshine filtering through--

And the deer! My goodness, the deer! Little groups would wander through eating leaves and grass. They weren't afraid of us being out there taking pictures, but they were very aware of our presence. So glad I brought my better camera with the wicked zoom--I never would have been able to get close enough to get decent pics otherwise.

My mom almost got close enough to feed them, and I imagine the older ones would have eaten out of her hand, but their protective instincts were up due to the presence of the fawns. When they finally scampered away it was so adorable--their little butts going up and down under their long skinny legs. Too pretty.

I've got one more day to share with you. I got a little camera happy :)