Norwich, NY- Saturday, June 30, 2012

Julie is working at a summer job this year in order to help pay for a big trip next summer, probably to Britain and Ireland. She’s helping young adults with special needs to learn job skills at a local agency. She’s just gone through a week of training, and she’ll start at the actual job next Friday, but she has almost a week off now and we decided to get away.

Originally, our destination was supposed to be a surprise, known only to Julie. It drove the girls crazy. Eventually, we did guess that we were going to Cooperstown, NY. Julie also planned some time in the Catskills, a part of the state we’ve never explored.

Julie had defensive drivers’ training for her job this morning, and when that was done, we hit the road. The girls were reluctant to leave our new pool behind, since we only just got water into it yesterday, but a week away from it will help the water warm up some.

Once we left the Thruway near Syracuse, we found we were going through some very beautiful towns with many gorgeous old homes. We stopped at the lake at Cazenovia and watched a couple of young Canadian geese. We passed by the campus of Colgate University. Eventually we came to our hotel for the next few nights in Norwich, NY.

Along the way, Scott realized the he had left the still camera at home. He had plugged in the battery to charge it, but hadn’t replaced it in the bag with the other electronics. After checking in to our hotel, we all walked across the street to a Rite Aid to buy a “cheap” camera and a memory card. We probably could have used the iPhone to take pictures with, but something about that idea made us nervous. We forgot to buy batteries, though, and Scott took a walk for a few blocks to a Tops (since the Rite Aid had closed) while the girls checked out the pool.