23

This year, I decided to spend my birthday in upstate New York. I had been putting off setting a date to visit to Erin with Claire for some time, because I had too many jobs, and then was unemployed. We decided to book the week before I had found a job because sitting around obviously wasn't helping anyway. Of course, I found the Mutter Museum a week before I was set to leave, and they weren't exactly thrilled that I was going away for 5 days. But I worked both weekends surrounding my vacation, and everything worked out just fine.
Claire spent Monday with me, and we left first thing Tuesday morning. The 4 hour drive wasn't even that bad!
We got to Round Lake NY with only the stories Erin has told of her "village without street signs" and we really didn't know what to expect. I know I was expecting less colorful houses at least:





This place really is magical.
On account of my birthday, Erin's dad cooked every night. Her family is probably the closest, happiest, best family I know.
Claire and I had been discussing awesome bridges, and then had seen this BEAUTY, but only were able to photograph it later, on the way to Erin's residency in a church in Troy NY.


This place is awesome, and so is Erin. We only stopped by for a minute to pick up some boots and her camera, since we were on our way to The Abandoned Village.
Claire took all these photos of the Abandoned Village, since I was taking photos with my twin lens camera.






Fun in the snow with the help of self timer:

After two hours of driving and two hours of walking around, it was surprisingly warm, and we made hot chocolate!


The last day Erin took us to the Round Lake at Round Lake:
We said goodbye to our dog of choice:And we stopped at the Grease Trucks at Rutgers on our way home. We got a little lost but made it back ok, and even had time for The Random Tea Room before I took Claire to the train. I drove a little more to Celia's to visit her friends who were in town, and to claim my cat and got home for a shower and sleep before working at the Mutter all weekend. Today I have off, but will be working all week except Friday when I will visit Sarah and say goodbye before she leaves for another semester of higher education.

Not bad for an old lady.