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Adirondack Fall Colors

By on October 2, 2025 in The Pearl
“A fallen leaf is nothing more than a Summer’s wave goodbye.” – Unknown
The colors are just beginning to change on the lake in New York and at our home in Lewisburg….but the colors were fantastic in the Adirondacks. Every day we could see how much they were changing. It was absolutely gorgeous. What a wonderful time to be in the mountains.

“When everything looks like a magical oil painting, you know you are in Autumn!” – Mehmet Murat Ildan

Sept. 21-27 Adirondacks Vacation Part II

By on October 1, 2025 in The Pearl

“And into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul.” – John Muir

We spent a wonderful week in the Adirondacks. We had a great mixture of sunny days and rain. Just a few days of rain gave us a chance to take it easy and enjoy the house. Sunny days gave us time to hike and explore. There is never enough time in the Adirondack to do everything. So many great places to hike, towns to visit, views to see and out of the way places to explore. 

CONTINUE READING HERE…»

Sept. 21-27 Adirondacks Vacation Part II

By on September 30, 2025 in The Pearl

“And into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul.” – John Muir

We spent a wonderful week in the Adirondacks. We had a great mixture of sunny days and rain. Just a few days of rain gave us a chance to take it easy and enjoy the house. Sunny days gave us time to hike and explore. There is never enough time in the Adirondack to do everything. So many great places to hike, towns to visit, views to see and out of the way places to explore. 

The house

The living area

The kitchen

The bedrooms

The basement and second floor study

This is the same view just a few days apart. We were here at the perfect time to watch the foliage change color.

Just a few photos of some of the fun we had at the house.

We enjoyed eating outside about half the time…rain kept us in the other days.

On those rainy days we played games, worked on puzzles, watched movies and painted.

The view of the house from the fire pit.

Having fun with the clean up app on my phone…one touch removed the bike. So fun.

Fun around the campfire.

Fun in the house.

One morning we had family photos taken at the Jay Covered Bridge. While we were waiting for the photographer we took a few of our own photos.

Just a few of the amazing photos the photographer took.

One afternoon we went to the Experience Outdoors. Kyle, Bryt and Graham had a blast on the zipline. Here they are getting fitted for their safety gear. 

I went along to take pictures. The views and colors were spectacular. 

The girls had fun playing on the adventure center’s rope course and small zipline.

On another pretty day we hiked along the Ausable River to the Wilmington Flume Falls.

That same afternoon we played in the water near the Jay Covered Bridge. I think this was our favorite place.

Graham and Hattie didn’t mind the cold water.

Everyone had fun climbing over the rocks.


And playing in the water.

After getting wet the kids rode their bike around the park and played in the leaves.

On our way home Stan and I stopped at Split Rock Falls. What an incredible place. Just one more place in the Adirondack that you could spend the day exploring.

So many place to swim and relax.

Sept. 21-27 Adirondacks Vacation Part I

By on September 30, 2025 in The Pearl
“Life is too short to worry about what others say about you. Have fun, be yourself and give them something to talk about.” -Aunty Acid
This was our fourth trip to the Adirondacks and our longest stay. We spent the week with our family in a pretty house in the woods not far from Jay, NY. I usually only do one blog post on our trips together, but this time I’m going to break it up a bit. The Adirondacks deserve more attention than one post can give. 

The Adirondack Park was established by the state of New York in 1892 to protect the region’s vast forests and vital watersheds from rampant logging. It was also established for “the free use of all the people for their health and pleasure”. At 6.1 million acres, it’s the largest park in the contiguous United States. Unlike a national park, the Adirondack Park is a patchwork of public and private lands, governed by special state provisions to balance conservation with the needs of the communities. 

The park contains 46 High Peaks, 2,800 lakes and ponds, 30,000 miles of rivers and streams, an estimated 200,000 acres of old-growth forests and is home to 105 towns and villages. The park makes up approximately one-fifth of the entire area of the state of New York. The Adirondacks also have the largest system of hiking trails in the country. With more than 2000 miles of trails wind through this amazing wilderness. There’s something for everyone in this unbelievably beautiful park. 

On our way from Montreal we stopped in Rouses Point for lunch. This was our entry point back to the US in 2012. We checked out the marina we stayed at and then moved south to the Ausable Chasm. The chasm is a scenic gorge carved by the Ausable River near Keeseville, New York, sometimes referred to as “the Grand Canyon of the Adirondacks”. It’s one of the oldest natural attractions in North America, opening to the public in 1870. We wanted to visit this amazing spot on our trip to Lake Placid last summer but the area was a bit flooded at that time. Just seeing it from the bridge is all we were able to do on this trip too. It’s beautiful and one day I hope we can explore it a bit more.
Our final stop before checking into our house was the Jay Covered Bridge. The bridge spans the east branch of the Ausable River. The original bridge was built in 1857. We spent two days playing in this beautiful spot.
We could literally watch the foliage changing colors before our eyes while we were here. The top photo was taken at the covered bridge on Sunday…the bottom photo was taken on Wednesday.
The first day of our vacation we hiked through High Falls Gorge. It’s a 22 acre privately owned nature park along the Ausable River. This park was opened in 1890’s offering a safe trail to view the narrow granite walls of the gorge with four spectacular waterfalls. We hiked the gorge trail and then returned to the entrance by way of the nature trail. After our workout we drove into Lake Placid for lunch.
Lake Placid is beginning to see some beautiful colors.
Whiteface Mountain is the high peak on the right.

Sept. 21-27 Adirondacks Vacation Part I

By on September 30, 2025 in The Pearl
“Life is too short to worry about what others say about you. Have fun, be yourself and give them something to talk about.” -Aunty Acid
This was our fourth trip to the Adirondacks and our longest stay. We spent the week with our family in a pretty house in the woods not far from Jay, NY. I usually only do one blog post on our trips together, but this time I’m going to break it up a bit. The Adirondacks deserve more attention than one post can give. 

The Adirondack Park was established by the state of New York in 1892 to protect the region’s vast forests and vital watersheds from rampant logging. It was also established for “the free use of all the people for their health and pleasure”. At 6.1 million acres, it’s the largest park in the contiguous United States. Unlike a national park, the Adirondack Park is a patchwork of public and private lands, governed by special state provisions to balance conservation with the needs of the communities. 

The park contains 46 High Peaks, 2,800 lakes and ponds, 30,000 miles of rivers and streams, an estimated 200,000 acres of old-growth forests and is home to 105 towns and villages. The park makes up approximately one-fifth of the entire area of the state of New York. The Adirondacks also have the largest system of hiking trails in the country. With more than 2000 miles of trails wind through this amazing wilderness. There’s something for everyone in this unbelievably beautiful park. 

On our way from Montreal we stopped in Rouses Point for lunch. This was our entry point back to the US in 2012. We checked out the marina we stayed at and then moved south to the Ausable Chasm. The chasm is a scenic gorge carved by the Ausable River near Keeseville, New York, sometimes referred to as “the Grand Canyon of the Adirondacks”. It’s one of the oldest natural attractions in North America, opening to the public in 1870. We wanted to visit this amazing spot on our trip to Lake Placid last summer but the area was a bit flooded at that time. Just seeing it from the bridge is all we were able to do on this trip too. It’s beautiful and one day I hope we can explore it a bit more.
Our final stop before checking into our house was the Jay Covered Bridge. The bridge spans the east branch of the Ausable River. The original bridge was built in 1857. We spent two days playing in this beautiful spot.
We could literally watch the foliage changing colors before our eyes while we were here. The top photo was taken at the covered bridge on Sunday…the bottom photo was taken on Wednesday.
The first day of our vacation we hiked through High Falls Gorge. It’s a 22 acre privately owned nature park along the Ausable River. This park was opened in 1890’s offering a safe trail to view the narrow granite walls of the gorge with four spectacular waterfalls. We hiked the gorge trail and then returned to the entrance by way of the nature trail. After our workout we drove into Lake Placid for lunch.
Lake Placid is beginning to see some beautiful colors.
Whiteface Mountain is the high peak on the right.

Sept. 20 – Jean-Talon Market

By on September 29, 2025 in The Pearl
“Farmers’ markets remind us of the simple pleasures in life. The joy of fresh food, the beauty of community and the connection we share with the earth.” -Unknown
On Saturday we took the Metro to the Jean-Talon Market located in the heart of Little Italy. It’s one of the largest farmers markets in North America and one of the oldest public markets in Montreal opening its stalls in 1933. 

CONTINUE READING HERE…»

Sept. 20 – Jean-Talon Market

By on September 29, 2025 in The Pearl
“Farmers’ markets remind us of the simple pleasures in life. The joy of fresh food, the beauty of community and the connection we share with the earth.” -Unknown
On Saturday we took the Metro to the Jean-Talon Market located in the heart of Little Italy. It’s one of the largest farmers markets in North America and one of the oldest public markets in Montreal opening its stalls in 1933. 

The market is open year round and offers a vast selection of fresh produce, artisanal products, and gourmet ready-to-eat foods from over 300 vendors, including bakeries, cheese shops, butchers, fishmongers, wine merchants and ethnic food kiosks. There are plenty of specialty little vendors that serve ready to eat things like tacos, poke bowls, fish and chips, classic poutine, crepes, Syrian dishes, smoothies, desserts and an endless array of other delicious items. There’s literally something here for every taste. 

We love these types of markets and used to envy people who lived close enough to shop at them every week, but now we live close to this same kind of place. Although our markets aren’t as large and don’t offer the ethnic ready to eat items as this amazing market.

There were beautiful flowers in a lot of the stalls.
This was just a small part of the inside stalls.
A few of the butchers.
This little market had any kind of meat you could think of…including horse meat.
Seafood of all kinds.
There were even more stalls around the sides of the market.
Entertainment 
We shared some falafels and a beer for lunch.

Sept. 18-21 Montréal, QC

By on September 28, 2025 in The Pearl
“Memories are like seashells we collect along the way.” –Unknown

Today we moved from the 1000 Islands to Montréal. It’s our third time visiting the city. The first time was on our boat in 2012 and the second visit was on our way to Québec City in 2018. We tried to visit a few different places on this trip. Our first stop was Mount Royal Park. The park is known to locals as “the mountain,” and is a beloved landmark and beautiful park that overlooks the city and the St. Lawrence River. Filled with walking trails, ponds and wonderful viewing points of the city below. The triple-peaked mountain inspired the renaming of what was then Ville-Marie to Montréal in the 18th century.  

CONTINUE READING HERE…»

Sept. 16-18 Clayton, NY

By on September 23, 2025 in The Pearl

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” – Heraclitus

We’ve been to Clayton by car three times and by boat several times in 2012 and 2018. We truly love this little town and enjoy just hanging out taking in the beauty.

Clayton, NY, was established in 1833. It became a major tourist hub in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the arrival of the railroad. This led to the development of grand hotels and a steamship line, making it the gateway to the Thousand Islands resort region. Today, Clayton remains a significant cultural and historical center, known for its Antique Boat Museum, the Thousand Islands Museum and its amazing location on the St. Lawrence River. It’s known as the “Gateway to the Thousand Islands” and with its 15 miles of shoreline it’s a major destination for fishing, boating and sightseeing.

CONTINUE READING HERE…»

Sept. 16-18 Clayton, NY

By on September 23, 2025 in The Pearl

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” – Heraclitus

We’ve been to Clayton by car three times and by boat several times in 2012 and 2018. We truly love this little town and enjoy just hanging out taking in the beauty.

Clayton, NY, was established in 1833. It became a major tourist hub in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the arrival of the railroad. This led to the development of grand hotels and a steamship line, making it the gateway to the Thousand Islands resort region. Today, Clayton remains a significant cultural and historical center, known for its Antique Boat Museum, the Thousand Islands Museum and its amazing location on the St. Lawrence River. It’s known as the “Gateway to the Thousand Islands” and with its 15 miles of shoreline it’s a major destination for fishing, boating and sightseeing.

CONTINUE READING HERE…»