Ben & Jen Shepard

For Valentine’s Day this year we went up to the Adirondacks with some friends of ours, Pete and Kerrie.  Pete has been Ben’s best friend for something like 22 years (a 22 years full of great stories about the adventures and mishaps of boys growing up) and he was the Best Man in our wedding.  His wife, Kerrie is one of the sweetest people that you will ever know and they have an adorable little boy, Logan.  Kerrie’s parents manage a lodge and conference center and when there are no groups using the place, we can sometimes go up and enjoy the beautiful Adirondack mountains.  There are two lakes and a nine hole golf course of the premises and a fleet of snow mobiles.  The Lodge itself is several hundred years old, three stories and sits overlooking the lake.  It’s absolutely beautiful.

The guys had been planning a special dinner for us ladies for weeks.  They pampered us with a cozy couple of hours on the couch watching a movie and brought us delicious appetizers and wine while we luxuriated, winter-style, next to the blazing fireplace.  While we watched the movie, they cooked us a delicious dinner in the Lodge’s restaurant-style kitchen.  I think Ben was in heaven with all that space in which to cook and the professional appliances to play with.  In the dinning room they lit candles and put a dozen roses by each of our plates on the huge wooden table.  When we sat down, there were lots of toasts to good friends and good wives and we dug in!  As if all this wasn’t enough, the boys served homemade ice cream sundaes for dessert.  And they wouldn’t let us help clean up!  It was such a treat and I realized again how great my husband is!

There was only one thing that put any sort of damper on the weekend: Charlie.  According to many stories I’ve heard, the Lodge is haunted.  Now, whatever you believe about ghosts, demons or the spirit world, there is something creepy about a humongous, very old twelve-bedroom lodge tucked away in a very remote location in the woods.  At night.  Sounds like the perfect setting for The Shinning, if you ask me.  The story goes that Charlie was a caretaker of the place a long long time ago and he died in the woods from a heart attack.  Now, supposedly, he hangs out on the third floor and has been seen and heard by several people.  I admit, I was a little freaked out.  I didn’t sleep well at all the first night (we were on the second floor).  The Lodge makes many weird noises because it’s so old.  I still don’t understand why they only happen at night, though.  Also, it was also stiflingly hot that I couldn’t even stand “hiding” under the sheets.  But the second night, after a long day of snow mobiling, goofing off, a romantic dinner and a couple movies, I slept like a baby.  Just don’t leave me alone in any room for too long…

Only two more days left in Florida before we face the Fargo that we call home.  What better way to ward off the anticipation of snow and cold than with a day at Siesta Key beach?  The sand at this beach is very unique – it feels like sifted flour under your feet and it always stays cool.  I kept thinking to myself as I walked barefoot next to the tide, “It’s January.  It’s really JANUARY.”

I think if I lived nearby a beach like this I would go running or walking every day.  It’s so welcoming.  The water tantalizes you, coming close and then dashing back into the Gulf.  It just begs you to come out and play.  I am sure that a lot of it has to do with the vacation nature of this visit, but there is something about the ability to be outside in great weather all year round that is absolutely invigorating!

And I apologize for throwing so many photographs at you, but they really do a much better job than my words ever could of conveying how beautiful the beach is…and how funny Ben’s special photograph face is…

Irony.  It’s when a Buffalonian escaping the sub-zero temperatures at home flees to Florida where the people are all bundled up in gloves and hats and jackets against the unbearably cold 60-degree weather.  56 with the windchill.  It’s tough not to laugh a little.

This happened about a dozen times yesterday.  Most people who actually commented to us on the chill didn’t really have much to say when we told them it was minus-5 in Buffalo and that 60 degrees was actually a dramatic improvement.   They just sort of stared at us.  I guess I can’t blame them.  Why someone would choose to live anywhere that sees minus-5 must seem to them like its own brand of crazy.

Despite the “cold” here, Ben and I are having a lot of fun visiting my parents in their new condo.  The place is still mostly unfurnished but they are fervently working on decorating it.  Their bedroom already looks awesome.  It’s the first matching brand new bedroom set they have ever owned in 38 years of marriage.

We still have almost a whole week here to look forward to.  Today was sunny and warmer and the temperature looks like it’s only going to improve.  Here are some pictures of us and of the condo.  Vacations are so awesome!  That’s pretty much all this Buffalonian is thinking about right now!

Since I didn’t post anything about our Christmas and New Year’s vacation yet, I wanted to at least put up some pictures.  It was a really nice vacation and we enjoyed the time with our families.  It’s amazing how a few days with the right people can make you feel so refreshed and revived.