Girl's Weekend - 2015 Edition

- June 14, 2015

The girls hit the BIG CHAIR

I'm a little late getting to the Girl's Weekend 2015 edition because...work, family stuff after work (like dinner...dishes...dog walks...porch sitting...), but mostly because of binge watching different shows on Netflix rather than updating the blog. MY BAD. In other words: laziness.

Anyway, last weekend five of us girls headed to a cabin in the woods on Fourth Lake in the Adirondack town of Inlet, about 10 miles from Old Forge. Every year we begin the planning for our weekend in January or so, and this year it seemed extraordinarily difficult to find a date that worked for everyone. We must have gone back and forth 10 time before we "penned in" June 4-7, then deciding on a location, well, that took another bit of time. Last year, Girl's Weekend was in September, and this year, going in June, it seemed like we just got back from our last get together! After much deliberation, we finally settled on returning to the Adirondacks and renting a cabin. Kudos to Sue for finding us a nice one on Fourth Lake and making all the arrangements!!

Sue flew into town on Wednesday night (getting in around 7:45pm), after which we had a delicious dinner at Good Luck. YUUMMM. In the morning we got up and prepared a family breakfast for cousin Kara, her girlfriend, Beth, daughter Piper and Aunt Sher. Since I would be gone for Aunt Sher's Big 75th Bash, I wanted to be sure to see Kara and family before I left town.

After breakfast, we hit the road for the ADKs, stopping at Wegman's in Syracuse, and having a quick bite at Heid's of Liverpool (we each had one of their famous hot dogs ~ what a treat...even though my hot dog rolled onto my little cotton dress, staining it forevermore). Then, back on the road we went, meeting Lorie and Heather at The Screamen Eagle (intentionally misspelled?), before heading out to our pretty remote A-frame cabin. It's weird these days to have NO Internet whatsoever, and a little unnerving. Fortunately, there was a house phone in case of emergencies. Did I mention we were at this remote cabin when the the two prisoners escaped Danemora prison, which is not far from where we were staying. Um, yeah.

So, on Thursday night (Gina was not to arrive until Friday) we made a leisurely dinner and got caught up. Dinner was delicious, the wine was flowing, and the company was wonderful. The cabin was really nice, right on a bay of Fourth Lake. It was veerrrryyy quiet, and quite cool yet buggy (Black Fly season!). We all ended up sleeping in the loft, mostly because of the novelty of sleeping in the loft.

We got up on Friday and had a leisurely morning before heading into Old Forge to poke around and get some breakfast. We shopped for a bit, and spent most of our time at the famous and meandering Old Forge Hardware, where I bought Mark yet another Orvis fishing shirt. We decided to go back to the cabin for lunch (we had tons of leftovers from the night before), and *surprise*, Gina was there! We had been trying to reach her all morning with no success so we were shocked that she had actually found the cabin on her own...it's not easy to do!!

We ate a late lunch and had a bit of a happy hour hanging on the deck and listing to great tunes, until we left for a later dinner at The Red Dog Tavern, which was also really good.

On Saturday, we got up and drove to Blue Mountain Lake to go to the Adirondack Museum. Everyone had been to the museum (which has been around for ages but is apparently quite changed) but me. It was pretty interesting, and could use a little updating, but was otherwise good. As the day wore on, we decided to eat dinner at The Old Mill, which is an Old Forge tradition, which was pretty good but pretty standard fare. Whenever I go to Old Forge, I have to eat at The Old Mill in honor of Charlie and Pat, who loved to go there as part of their yearly fall golfing trip. Memories!

On Sunday morning it was time to say "so long" to Girl's Weekend for another year. I cannot stress enough how important Girl's Weekend is for my mental health. Spending time with "my girls" laughing and acting crazy is such a stress reliever for me...a chance to get away from the every day routine (and sometime drudgery that comes with working full-time and homeowner upkeep/obligations), and have fun with people I've known since I was in Kindergarten, with no drama - it's priceless. I feel so blessed have these girls in my life!!

Some ideas for next year include Salem (Mass), or a cabin that Sue's friend owns in West Virginia. Until next year...