When Quinn's teacher asks for his essay on what he did during his summer vacation, she may be in for a surprise when he writes something like this:
We stayed at a mansion in Saratoga and I bet on the horses and won $110.00! I mostly bet Win and Place but sometimes I would bet an exacta. The Dads let me and my friends do flips on the air mattress in the movie room when the Moms went out to lunch, and I also played pool and keno in a couple of bars after dinner. One night, I played a game with Mei where I would lean over the balcony railing to try to reach for a balloon. I slept on an air mattress, but a couple of times I fell off and ended up under the dresser. I also got to stay up really late and get up really early to fish. I only hooked myself once. Dad lost his phone in the lake. I also got to ride on a tube behind my friend Drew's boat and my Dad drove the boat as fast as he could and tried to dump me in 180 feet of water in Lake George. We were pretty safe about some things. My Mom only really forgot to give me enough sunscreen one or two times, and I was wearing a life jacket when Drew's Dad's boat engine died and all the kids had to swim back to our dock. It was a really fun vacation! Oh yeah, I forgot about the coyotes and the giant water snake! And the time the toilets backed up. Good times!!
Seriously, the vacation was wonderful. No, 23 days was not too long. The part that makes it long is when you get home and have to catch up on real world stuff. We had really good weather, and everyone stayed very healthy, no injuries or sniffles to slow us down! We had a lot of fun visitors including: Steve Franklin, the Anastasios, the Trenholms, Alison and Deke, Henry, Grammy, Diane, the Hucker clan, Emmet, Rob, the Brookes and the Chandlers. I think everyone had a good time. Probably the biggest winner at the races this year was Matt, which was unusual for him. That made it fun for everyone because he is so generous with his friends! We went through a lot of wine during the trip, but that's not a big surprise. Lots of great meals with pretty views of the sunset from the porch. Dinners out included one night at Prime with Nealy and Rob's generous gift certificate (what a beautiful outdoor setting!) and one night at a restaurant downtown called 28 Tables. I think my favorite meal of the trip was the ladies' lunch at Maestro's on their big veranda. That was a lot of fun!
Let me count how many times Quinn and I played mini-golf. Once at Mill Creek, once at Saratoga (old course), three times at Saratoga (new course), two times at Exit 17 mini golf, once at Clifton Park mini golf on route 9 and once at Gooney golf. WOW...that's a lot of blue and pink balls!
A few of the things we did that made this year unique included: going to the Big Apple Circus in Lake George (the trapeze act was fantastic); going on the tube behind the Anastasio's boat; (I loved trying it, even though it was embarassing that I couldn't get on the darn thing!) having lunch in Bolton Landing; having lunch after docking the boat in Lake George; going up the stairs in the Schuyler monument; learning more about Benedict Arnold after visiting the Saratoga National Battlefield, and finally visiting the Schuyler Pond House furniture store (what a great place to shop!)
Some of the fun things we did right at the house included: playing Apples to Apples sometimes with kids and sometimes not; teaching Quinn to play rummy; having great pizza nights from Harvest and Hearth pizza; going kayaking several times; having the kids fish off the dock and off of Mike's and Ed's boats; taking Mike's boat out for a night ride; watching the Olympics, doing puzzles and simply enjoying the porch and watching the water. Quinn and the Anastasios boys played "balloon volleyball" for hours on end. It was very cute to see how well Buster and Sidney got along, even sharing toys and meals. One thing that was not so fun? Riding that silly exercise bike.
Next year I have to remind myself not to overpack....I think we had too many outdoor toys (ladderball was never played) and I had way too many dressy clothes. One dress up night at most!! As usual, the fridge clean out was a little bit of a nightmare, but it always is. Not that big of a deal. And Kathryn was a huge help with everything.
I think that's our trip in a nutshell. I do think Quinn grew about an inch, and he now is loaded with good 7-year old questions which I tried my best to answer. We had a lot of really good conversations in the car, and I was really happy with him on the day we came home...he didn't seem to have that post-vacation let down that he has had in the past (who hasn't?). Now we're into hockey camp and getting ready for school. See you next year, thoroughbreds!!
