Vacation: Calm With Scattered Clouds

We returned to Henry's Cottages, on the north end of Lake Champlain, for a week in mid-August.  We really love it there.  It's quiet; the cottages are comfy and cozy; the people are friendly (but not overly so); and the fishing's good.  

This year, we had the end cottage, so it was more private, which Don and I treasure.  Sarah made friends with the family next-door (Lori, Keith, Peter, McKayla, and Danny), which satisfied her need for socializing.  It worked for all of us.

Sarah and Don went fishing every morning, while I walked and read.  We went on short trips in the afternoons, then all went out in the boat after dinner.  

Sounds blissful, no?  It was...except when our uninvited traveling companion -- Sarah's anxiety -- took center stage.  Unfamiliar surroundings put her into survival mode, which manifests as controlling and defiant behavior.  Not the stuff vacation dreams are made of.  But let's get to the pretty pictures, shall we?

Scenes from cottage-life:

Sunrise during an early-morning walk

All about the angling:

Dock girl

Don and an 18" smallmouth bass

Sarah with a pumpkinseed

19" and 22" walleyes

Sarah with Don's walleyes

Don with a 36" northern pike

And a 33" northern pike that Sarah caught soon after

My roughly one-pound pumpkinseed
 (which was probably close to a state record)

Evenings on the water:

An afternoon at nearby Alburg Dunes State Park:

A couple of afternoons on Isle La Motte, a few miles away:

Sarah and I found our first geocache on our own at St. Joseph's Cemetery.  (We also found one on North Hero Island later in the week.)

Samuel de Champlain landed on Isle La Motte in 1609, and the French built Fort St. Anne there in 1666.  The fort included a shrine to St. Anne, the mother of Mary and grandmother of Jesus.

Quatercentenary plaque

Statue of Champlain and Iroquois guide

Shrine of St. Anne

The Fisk Quarry Preserve protects the Chazy Fossil Reef, with coral fossils 480 million years old.  Limestone was quarried here in the 19th century, which led to the discovery of the ancient reef.  Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was attending a meeting on the Fisk Farm in 1901 when he learned of President McKinley's assassination and his own promotion.

The duck weed was growing so thickly on the water's surface
 in this abandoned quarry that Sarah thought it was
solid ground -- yikes!! 

Our friends Chris and Mark came for dinner by boat one night.  It was wonderful to see them, and I wish I'd taken a better photo!  They left at dusk, just as a thunder storm was approaching.  We learned later that they also had engine trouble on the way home.  We'd better drive to their house next year.

We drove to Swanton, VT, to visit Mississquoi National Wildlife Refuge and hiked the Stephen J. Young Marsh Trail.  It was hot and humid, and Sarah was unenthused.  Fortunately, leopard frogs were in abundance on the mowed trail, and nearly every step produced an airborne amphibian.

This stunning photo I took the morning we left sums up the week for me.  Calm waters overlaid with scattered clouds.  As Sarah put it on the drive home, "That was the best vacation ever...except for the misbehavior."  I agree wholeheartedly.

Post-script:  Our neighbors left the day before we did (ironically, because the kids "weren't appreciating the experience anymore").  Lori, the mom, brought Sarah a monarch butterfly caterpillar as a farewell gift.  We brought it home and kept it supplied with fresh milkweed until it pupated a few days later.  Less than two weeks hence, a beautiful butterfly emerged.  Sarah determined it was a male (because of the small spots on the lower wings -- I never knew!) and christened him Daniel Butterfly Prince.  We released him into our yard, with best wishes for a safe flight to Mexico.  It was exhilarating to see him lift into the air for the first time.