A good weekend at Powell House
I'm back safe! Have been since Sunday, but haven't had time to post, I had to help assemble deusinnomen's couch and get some of my own packing done, plus go rescue my wife from her dad's place after her brother's maniacal 12-hour drive from albany (yes, that's about 4 hours faster than it should be).
So yeah, I had no problems flying standby to albany, though I squeeked on as the last passenger on a full plane both times... if someone hadn't no-showed on the return flight I'd not have made it. Thanks, nameless passenger! :) On the way out I cut it kind of close though, the bus that was supposed to get to the airport at 5:30 wouldn't let us off until 5:45 (had to get to the far end of the passenger area, with a HUGE line of cabs in the way), and then of course the security line was HUGE, took me about 25 minutes to get through it. I opened up my stride and moved briskly to the gate (farthest possible gate in terminal 1 of course)... got there with about 15 minutes to calm my breathing but boy was I worried while I was in the security que!
Turns out the airport was about 40min from Powell House (yahoo maps said it was closer), even with Chey driving. Let met tell you, you've not experienced the true thrill of a roller coaster until Chey takes you down a wet gravel hillside road in the dark. They had very spotty cell reception in the area, so I ended up waiting around the airport an hour longer than expected, and didn't get out there until almost midnight. I changed out of my nice clothes, noel showed me where the tent was (down the wet grassy hillside and through the muddy paths, glad I changed), we stopped by the campfire for a bit, then went to sleep.
Friday was a lot of meeting people and helping out in the kitchen, swimming, talking, a variety show, and getting tapped to make the big campfire (who told?). Saturday was hiking to the top of the hill (they have big hills out there), a carnival of sorts (sno-cones and cotton candy, ultimate frisbee, bouncy playground for the kids), a concert in the evening, more good conversation, a silly fun game that was half wrestling match - they called it Wink'em, but some net research seems to imply they play it rather differently than the game was designed - and another campfire in the evening, this time with a drum jam and joke-off in addition to the requisite s'mores.
I took a lot of pictures btw. They're huge, once again I've not had time to downsize them.
Sunday we packed up and I said my goodbyes, then cut out before lunch to make sure I had plenty of time to deal with security at the airport this time. Naturally I breezed through in about 2 minutes, and had a lot of time to read my book. Isn't it always the case? :) Kat picked me up from the airport (thanks love!), we remembered at the last minute to pick up my car from work as well, then went home, decompressed for a bit, and went over to Chris's place to see what help he still needed.
Monday was work, then packing, then rescuing Noel (see above) just before the sky opened up in lightning, thunder and rain. It was quite impressive to watch, we got home JUST in time to get half of her stuff in before it rained, I still have the rest of it in my car. *Grin*
So yeah, I had no problems flying standby to albany, though I squeeked on as the last passenger on a full plane both times... if someone hadn't no-showed on the return flight I'd not have made it. Thanks, nameless passenger! :) On the way out I cut it kind of close though, the bus that was supposed to get to the airport at 5:30 wouldn't let us off until 5:45 (had to get to the far end of the passenger area, with a HUGE line of cabs in the way), and then of course the security line was HUGE, took me about 25 minutes to get through it. I opened up my stride and moved briskly to the gate (farthest possible gate in terminal 1 of course)... got there with about 15 minutes to calm my breathing but boy was I worried while I was in the security que!
Turns out the airport was about 40min from Powell House (yahoo maps said it was closer), even with Chey driving. Let met tell you, you've not experienced the true thrill of a roller coaster until Chey takes you down a wet gravel hillside road in the dark. They had very spotty cell reception in the area, so I ended up waiting around the airport an hour longer than expected, and didn't get out there until almost midnight. I changed out of my nice clothes, noel showed me where the tent was (down the wet grassy hillside and through the muddy paths, glad I changed), we stopped by the campfire for a bit, then went to sleep.
Friday was a lot of meeting people and helping out in the kitchen, swimming, talking, a variety show, and getting tapped to make the big campfire (who told?). Saturday was hiking to the top of the hill (they have big hills out there), a carnival of sorts (sno-cones and cotton candy, ultimate frisbee, bouncy playground for the kids), a concert in the evening, more good conversation, a silly fun game that was half wrestling match - they called it Wink'em, but some net research seems to imply they play it rather differently than the game was designed - and another campfire in the evening, this time with a drum jam and joke-off in addition to the requisite s'mores.
I took a lot of pictures btw. They're huge, once again I've not had time to downsize them.
Sunday we packed up and I said my goodbyes, then cut out before lunch to make sure I had plenty of time to deal with security at the airport this time. Naturally I breezed through in about 2 minutes, and had a lot of time to read my book. Isn't it always the case? :) Kat picked me up from the airport (thanks love!), we remembered at the last minute to pick up my car from work as well, then went home, decompressed for a bit, and went over to Chris's place to see what help he still needed.
Monday was work, then packing, then rescuing Noel (see above) just before the sky opened up in lightning, thunder and rain. It was quite impressive to watch, we got home JUST in time to get half of her stuff in before it rained, I still have the rest of it in my car. *Grin*