Girls Just Want to Have Fun

-
And now a rambling long-awaited account of our girls weekend:

We had a great time at 1,000 Acres Ranch! It was a beautiful setting with the Hudson River running along one side of the ranch (a great way to great the morning from my balcony) and a mountain on the other side. The year was 1986 (probably the last time it was painted and the carpets were replaced), and we stepped into a time warp that was a cross between Dirty Dancing ("nobody puts baby in a corner") and the Wedding Crashers (we were the crashers). Most of the people were from the New York City area and New Jersey, and they all seemed to know each other. It turns out that most of the 200 visitors to the Ranch that week have come back year after year and have developed lasting friendships that go on long after the pool is closed for the season. The 1,000 Acre Ranch lives up to its name of being family friendly - boy, were there a lot of kids around, including in the bar at 11pm.

Enough about the setting, and onto the girls. Everyone was really happy to be together for a change of scenery and a bit of escape from our day-to-day lives. The ranch had various activities (talent show and bonfire on the beach on Friday night, and country line dancing lessons on Saturday night), including a great horseback ride through the woods. Meals were included, and of course, there was beer involved. Sue and I got into the martinis on Saturday night and the bed hasn't spun that way for me in a long time!

Poor Gina, she didn't feel well all weekend. She was battling a cold and fever, but was a real trouper. Kathy was not able to join us as tragically, her sister passed away on Friday, the day we left for our adventure. She was in our thoughts all weekend, though, and we hope she'll join us next year. That left just the five of us, including Heather and Lorie, and we had a lot of laughs. On Saturday, we took a ride to Lake George, which was about 20 minutes away from the ranch, where we spent the afterenoon and had lunch. We all got temporary tattoos with the Chinese character for "friendship." I tried to rub mine off before work today but it's not budging!

So, until next year, it's back to the real world until we can escape again!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Last Dance

-
Image
Another milestone alert: last night was the last high school dance for the Bakers. Since Cam did not really do any of that formal dance stuff, we had to get the best bang for our buck out of the second child, and she definitely delivered. It's been four years of fancy dresses, updos and makeup, and walking the dog last night came the realization that "it's over." Here's a retrospective of the "worn only once" dress club: The Long Awaited Much Anticipated Freshman Dance Fall Dance 2011  (Weekend Update) 10th Grade Dance  (Mother's Day Recap) We Survived: Prom 2012 Fall Dance 2012   (It's Hip to be (a) Square (Root)) Cheeky Monkeys Annalisse and her date and great friend, Blake, looked so cute together and were happy to be hanging out for the night. After pictures at our house, we met the kids at a GINORMOUS (and a little bit tacky, truth be told) house outside of Fairport for group pictures. This year certainly featured a lot of ...
Read more

Ride 'Em, Cowgirl

-
Image
My pal Sue is en route from Virginia for our annual girl's weekend - the one weekend (Friday night, really) a year that I actually drink a little beer (and eat a lot of snacks). This year we're heading to 1,000 Acres Ranch outside of Lake George. There will be six of us, and Sue is the only holdout for riding a horse (she claims it's because someone needs to take the picture; I told her that's what the shirtless ranch hands are for). We'll have to see how it goes...I'm sure it will be fun...I hope there aren't too many families with young children around...
Read more

The Long-Awaited-Much-Anticipated Freshman Dance

-
Image
Last weekend Annalisse went to the freshman dance with 18 of her closet friends. Unfortunately, she did not have a date with an actual boy, but that's really a blessing in disguise because, as much as she likes to "talk the talk," she's not ready to "walk the walk" and is very hesitant about boys (Whew! I can relax a little longer on that one!). Anyway, between having her braces off and a new hair-do (combined with a new dress, new jewelry, and new shoes), she was all gussied up and off to a friends house by 5:30pm for group pictures. All the girls looked so nice! The best thing was they had a lot of fun at the dance itself - not always the case as sometimes the prep is funner than the actual event. I'm sure talk will now turn to next year's 10th grade dance, during which the kids will kick it up a notch with gowns, tuxedos and limo rentals. As Nonnie used to say, oh mamma mia!
Read more