One big perk of being a semi-decent photographer? You can trade away your services for vacations!
My friend, Kim, recently acquired an adorable cabin in the Poconos near the town of Hawley:
She graciously let us stay during Labor Day weekend! We arrived in plenty of time on Friday to play in her creek that runs right outside the cabin doors:
Michael spent many a time throwing rocks into that creek! But I have no pictures because my camera (or operator - haven't decided which yet!) really barfed on all the pictures! They are all fuzzy and pretty terrible! So I apologize in advance for the quality of some of the images in this post.
Here is Michael - so excited to travel and help out with his items. So responsible!
He brought his rest mat from school - so cute. His Thomas the Tank bag is FILLED to the brim with stuffed animals. This was in addition to his thomas the tank SUITCASE that was filled with clothes. Michael has not yet learned how to travel light! :)
Here he is preparing his bunk bed in his room:
On Friday, we basically arrived, bought groceries, went to eat at a terrible rib "barbeque" joint and called it a night! Michael spent some time throwing rocks in the creek and we got settled.
Kim had lots of fun toys and games - so we were well cared for!
On Saturday, we woke up and enjoyed a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage. Brian had coffee on the chairs set outside by the creek
After a relaxing breakfast, we drove first thing to Bushkill Falls, the Niagara Falls of Pennsylvania. Bold statement.
On the way, we took a picture of Lake Wallenpaupak:
We drove about 45 minutes and hiked to see the Niagara Falls of Pennsylvania, Bushkill Falls:
It was a rather hot and humid day, but I wanted to make sure we made it to one of the big reasons I have been wanting to go to the Poconos in PA!
Mother and son with the waterfalls back there:
Family picture - just happy we could get something and that it was in focus, kind of:
Love my guys!
A very short ways into the hike, we reached the falls. After the many stairs down, we started to hike along a trail and found ourselves facing this sign:
I turned around and immediately saw this sign:
Let me tell you what Lazy Phuong was voting for! :) Luckily, we went on the hike! In all honesty, I really love to hike. I'm pretty slow going and not sure-footed at all, but I do like it!
Here's a "spectacular view of Delaware Valley":
One of the many falls we saw on our hike:
My guys scrambling up a wall and being happy:
Here's a view of where they were going up:
Michael's posing with his hand on his hip lately:
We did lots of hiking alongside streams. Michael LOVED hiking. Like Seriously Loved It. He was MANY times better than me!!! Here he is playing by a stream:
This would have been an adorable picture because right before this, Michael was kneeling down and playing in the water. However, I was busy enjoying the moment as his mother and just barely got this picture to help me remember.
Then, very fuzzy out of focus family picture at the bottom of this falls:
Oh well - you get what you can get with a stranger and a 5 year old DSLR! :)
We saw several of these along the way, which I have never seen before!!!
Chipmunks!! So cute! Brian kept reminding me they were rats.
After the hike, Michael enjoyed a Dole Real Fruit Strawberry popsicle while Brian lost his phone (which we had to go back to get!).
Then, Brian found himself some funnel cake. I volunteered for a marketing survey because I'm one of those sick people who enjoy marketing/business items. To my great surprise, they gave me 2 tickets to visit Bushkill Falls again!! SWEET! That's a $22 value!!
We were excited to see that we avoided the HUGE crowd and line that formed after noon. So glad we got our hike in when it wasn't busy.
Michael spotted some putt putt. He LOVES him some putt putt. ESPECIALLY when a totem pole is involved:
Or a bear:
Can't believe I have a little boy now:
You should have seen this picture before I saved it in Photoshop.
On Sunday, I had a busy morning. While I was reading my magazine outside with my morning coffee right by my running stream, I see a deer come up to the edge of the stream and look around. I stayed quiet and saw the deer look behind it. At this time, I saw a baby fawn emerge from the brush with another adult deer. I assume it was a family!
Well, I tried to stay quiet, but then a chipmunk came right up to my chair so I stood up to shoo it away.
The deer didn't like that so he eyed me, and stomped his feet at me. I ran inside because I'm a city girl who is scared of nature.
Then, I went back outside after the deer ran away. Enjoyed the rest of my coffee.
When the rest of my family woke up, we had another relaxing breakfast and headed to the little town of Milford, PA for church. Brian found us a Catholic church there so we went for mass.
Then, we headed over to Greys Towers, a national historic site. I had seen pictures and thought it was picturesque - PERFECT opportunity for family pictures - especially for our Christmas card.
Note to self - you got to FEED your family before they go.
Michael - was great. BRIAN was a BEAR. Our session ended with me saying: "If you don't fix your attitude, I am buying airplane tickets to Albuquerque and letting KIM deal with your bad attitude for family pictures."
and
"Forget it. I'll set up a tripod and get pictures of my only son with me BY MYSELF since you can't be patient and do this for me."
All of this was in response to Brian yelling at me about Michael:
"He's not doing anything he's supposed to and he's going crazy. How am I supposed to get this picture?
Me: "What, you think all children just light up when I take their picture? You have to play with them and make it fun!"
Brian: "Well, it's not MY job to do that."
Oi - VAY.
So we got what we got - which is under wraps until Christmas.
We went to Milford, PA - ate lunch - and the Bear named Brian found himself in a better mood.
And I thought to myself - I'm going to PAY someone next year to do this for me. Or photoshop Brian into my family picture that I already took with Michael and I. I keep it real around here folks. Not every moment is peaches and cream here although we do have many happy moments!
We had lunch at a cafe (read - cheaper option!) attached to historic Hotel Fauchere restaurant. It was a perfect lunch. We shopped a little bit in the quaint downtown street that was there and headed home.
It was a low-key vacation, which I loved! As Brian said, "This is just like our woods and our house."
I beg to differ! Their stream and fire pit are RIGHT outside their door. We have to hike down a steep hill to get to ours and our firepit is 2 stories below our deck. This lazy girl sees a difference!!! :)
Also, I loved that our hikes resulted in something exciting - waterfalls! Our hikes here result in fields, fields, and more fields. Oh yes, maybe a covered a bridge. The views were also very nice as well in the Poconos.
We left just in time because it rained for our whole drive back. We stopped at Hobby Lobby in Easton and Ikea in Conshohocken. Might as well! It's on the way! :)
Fun break after our semi-week at school! We missed apple pickin' but that ended up working out well as we apple picked with Brian's parents when they came to visit the following weekend!
That post up next! :)
P
