Lake George
So a lot has been going on. As I mentioned earlier, the existence of my life is inversely proportional to how much I post, and as a result, I have not posted anything recently. At any rate, I think I'll make two posts today; one to talk about my recent trip to Lake George, and another one just to babble about things that happened since last weekend. I really need to rub toothpaste on my watch. It's getting all scratched up, now, and toothpaste is a good buffer.
Anyway, last Friday I went with Adam (little brother) and my parents to visit some family in New York. My dad's cousin, Rich, owns a cabin-like house at Lake George. Very nice, in the rustic, wipe-your-butt-with-leaves sort of way (note: we did not actually have to wipe out butts with leaves--although if we felt so inclined, I'm sure it's an option, but then again, it's an option wherever you can find butts and leaves together--but there was minimal electricity and it was very outdoorsy place...but I mean that in a good way. It was fun.) At any rate, it was pretty cool. Very nice weather (around the cool, comfortable temperature that Florida reaches on the coldest days of the winter). The lake was refreshing. It was fun. My uncles (John and Bob) as well as my aunt (Joanne) and her husband and youngest son (Danny) were there, and Uncle John's girlfriend, Eileen, and her kids (Bobby and Jenny) were also there, along with Rich and his girlfriend (obviously). Anyway, it was fun.
The journey there, however, was not so fun. We were supposed to arrive AT Lake George at noonish on Friday. We arrived closer to 1 AM. We had to fly into Albany Airport which is a rather small airport, implying that there aren't many flights going into there. We had a layover in Washington DC, at Ronald Reagan Airport. Not too bad, we could see the Washington Monument and the Capital building from the terminal, which was pretty cool. Our flight from Ft. Lauderdale to DC was nice and eventless; when we arrived at DC we went to the terminal to wait for our connecting flight. We arrived at the terminal and they told us our flight had been moved to another one, not that far away. We arrived at the other terminal and waited a bit. Strange, the plane was supposed to take off in half an hour and it hasn't even arrived yet. All of a sudden, they decided to announce that the flight had been canceled. We got in line to talk to someone at the desk fairly quickly. There was a lengthy line in front of us, but it shied in comparison to the line behind us. Nonetheless, due largely impart to the general IQ of the American Airlines management being...slightly, erm, below average...there was only one person working in the entire AA section of the airport to deal with this. We spent 3.5 hours on line only to find out the lovely people there had decided to put us on an 11:45 flight to Albany (despite, as we later learned, a 9:00 flight that was barely filled, which they had somehow conveniently forgotten to tell us about). Apparently what happened was the night before the flight coming in from Atlanta was canceled due to inclement weather. As a result, the crew for our flight never arrived and so they decided to cancel a few flights last minute (and the lack of staff just made things worse). Now, here's my gripe: they obviously knew the flight would be canceled when the crew did not arrive the night before. Why did they not announce that it will be canceled until right before it was scheduled to take off? Had we known the flight to Albany would not occur, we could have scheduled a flight with another airline or even gone a day later and my parents could have gotten more work done, instead of wasting a day at an airport. Anyway, four and a half hours after arriving at the airport, my parents spoke to the manager. He could not refund us because the cancellation was "due to weather"2 and they can't control the weather. At any rate, my parents managed to convince them to give us some money and we decided to drive there. We could only get a one-way rental, because we'd be driving back to Albany airport when we left, not to Reagan, but one-way rentals are ridiculously expensive. Eventually we managed to find a relatively cheap car, though, and drove it up to Albany where we got a two-way rental (MUCH cheaper) and drove out to the lake. That was exciting. Once we arrived, though, things were nice.
It was weird, though. There were these strange tumors growing out of the ground along the lake, much higher than any naturally occurring land that I have encountered in Florida. I believe the geologists of the region referred to these most likely benign tumors as "mountains". Something like that at least. But it was certainly a sight to behold. And the alien landscape got even weirder. At night, when the sun set, there were these strange things in the sky called "stars". It was amazing, you should really see it. The sky looked like it did post-Wilma, except even better and without the debris everywhere. It was awesome! You could actually see the Milky Way and more stars than I knew what to do with. And to make things better, the Perseid meteor shower was while I was there :D. It was so beautiful. I wanted to take a picture but I've experienced in the past that my camera cannot capture images as amazing as the sky, and I'd rather not defile my memory with a photograph. That and I didn't bring my camera, and didn't feel like borrowing my mom's. The meteor shower was Saturday night to Monday before dawn. Saturday night we unplugged the extension cable that lit up the cabin and Rich took us all out into the middle of the lake to watch the meteors. Wow is about all I can say. Wow. The kids (me, Adam, Danny, Bobby, and Jenny) all sat at the front of the boat while the adults were in the back. I kind of wish I had gone to the back, too. I didn't mind being the oldest of the kids so much as the fact that the others could not sit still and relax. It was rather annoying; I just wanted to watch the stars and the meteors but the others (mostly Bobby) would not stop pointless blabbing. I don't mean that Iwanted complete silence or anything like that. If they were conversing or whatever I'd be fine. But Bobby found it necessary to sing and make as much noise as he could conceivably produce, making the whole relaxing and watching the sky thing rather difficult. On the whole, though, it was a very nice experience. And Jenny's obliviousness just made it better.
Me: "Wow, this is awesome, you can see the Milky Way"
Jenny: "What's the Milky Way? The candy bar?"
Me: "..."
Adam: "The Milky Way is...the galaxy we're in."
Jenny: "Ooooh, okay. A galaxy? Are there other galaxies?"
Me: "Yes, the Three Musketeers"1
(later, about 50 seconds after a couple meteors shot by)
Jenny: "Ooo, the sky is so pretty. Although it would be so much more perfect if there were a meteor shower tonight."
It amused me. Am I mean for posting this and laughing? Hopefully not. I just thought I would share the funny.
Other than that, lots of fun was had in the lake (it was very fun and refreshingly cold, not to mention that the fresh water felt extraordinarily clean--it didn't feel the slightest bit slimy, like how fresh water normally feels). I picked on Adam for wearing a wet suit into the lake. We went tubing, too. Rich took us around on his rather fast boat as we (one at a time, obviously)laid on a tube and held onto a rope connecting us to the boat. It was actually a bit of a workout. My back muscles are still sore from that. But it was so much fun! :D
A few more things happened that I remember thinking I should blog about, but I can't remember what they were, so I guess I shall terminate this post here. 3
1 Before you brand me as being mean, let me at least defend myself by stating that I told her I was joking and gave a more straightforward answer later.
2 WTF? Due to weather? It wouldn't have been a problem if weather were the only thing that went wrong. The horrible way they handled it by not letting anyone know it was canceled was what made things bad.
3 Actually, the post didn't terminate there due to the following subscripts. As a result, the post actually ends here.
Anyway, last Friday I went with Adam (little brother) and my parents to visit some family in New York. My dad's cousin, Rich, owns a cabin-like house at Lake George. Very nice, in the rustic, wipe-your-butt-with-leaves sort of way (note: we did not actually have to wipe out butts with leaves--although if we felt so inclined, I'm sure it's an option, but then again, it's an option wherever you can find butts and leaves together--but there was minimal electricity and it was very outdoorsy place...but I mean that in a good way. It was fun.) At any rate, it was pretty cool. Very nice weather (around the cool, comfortable temperature that Florida reaches on the coldest days of the winter). The lake was refreshing. It was fun. My uncles (John and Bob) as well as my aunt (Joanne) and her husband and youngest son (Danny) were there, and Uncle John's girlfriend, Eileen, and her kids (Bobby and Jenny) were also there, along with Rich and his girlfriend (obviously). Anyway, it was fun.
The journey there, however, was not so fun. We were supposed to arrive AT Lake George at noonish on Friday. We arrived closer to 1 AM. We had to fly into Albany Airport which is a rather small airport, implying that there aren't many flights going into there. We had a layover in Washington DC, at Ronald Reagan Airport. Not too bad, we could see the Washington Monument and the Capital building from the terminal, which was pretty cool. Our flight from Ft. Lauderdale to DC was nice and eventless; when we arrived at DC we went to the terminal to wait for our connecting flight. We arrived at the terminal and they told us our flight had been moved to another one, not that far away. We arrived at the other terminal and waited a bit. Strange, the plane was supposed to take off in half an hour and it hasn't even arrived yet. All of a sudden, they decided to announce that the flight had been canceled. We got in line to talk to someone at the desk fairly quickly. There was a lengthy line in front of us, but it shied in comparison to the line behind us. Nonetheless, due largely impart to the general IQ of the American Airlines management being...slightly, erm, below average...there was only one person working in the entire AA section of the airport to deal with this. We spent 3.5 hours on line only to find out the lovely people there had decided to put us on an 11:45 flight to Albany (despite, as we later learned, a 9:00 flight that was barely filled, which they had somehow conveniently forgotten to tell us about). Apparently what happened was the night before the flight coming in from Atlanta was canceled due to inclement weather. As a result, the crew for our flight never arrived and so they decided to cancel a few flights last minute (and the lack of staff just made things worse). Now, here's my gripe: they obviously knew the flight would be canceled when the crew did not arrive the night before. Why did they not announce that it will be canceled until right before it was scheduled to take off? Had we known the flight to Albany would not occur, we could have scheduled a flight with another airline or even gone a day later and my parents could have gotten more work done, instead of wasting a day at an airport. Anyway, four and a half hours after arriving at the airport, my parents spoke to the manager. He could not refund us because the cancellation was "due to weather"2 and they can't control the weather. At any rate, my parents managed to convince them to give us some money and we decided to drive there. We could only get a one-way rental, because we'd be driving back to Albany airport when we left, not to Reagan, but one-way rentals are ridiculously expensive. Eventually we managed to find a relatively cheap car, though, and drove it up to Albany where we got a two-way rental (MUCH cheaper) and drove out to the lake. That was exciting. Once we arrived, though, things were nice.
It was weird, though. There were these strange tumors growing out of the ground along the lake, much higher than any naturally occurring land that I have encountered in Florida. I believe the geologists of the region referred to these most likely benign tumors as "mountains". Something like that at least. But it was certainly a sight to behold. And the alien landscape got even weirder. At night, when the sun set, there were these strange things in the sky called "stars". It was amazing, you should really see it. The sky looked like it did post-Wilma, except even better and without the debris everywhere. It was awesome! You could actually see the Milky Way and more stars than I knew what to do with. And to make things better, the Perseid meteor shower was while I was there :D. It was so beautiful. I wanted to take a picture but I've experienced in the past that my camera cannot capture images as amazing as the sky, and I'd rather not defile my memory with a photograph. That and I didn't bring my camera, and didn't feel like borrowing my mom's. The meteor shower was Saturday night to Monday before dawn. Saturday night we unplugged the extension cable that lit up the cabin and Rich took us all out into the middle of the lake to watch the meteors. Wow is about all I can say. Wow. The kids (me, Adam, Danny, Bobby, and Jenny) all sat at the front of the boat while the adults were in the back. I kind of wish I had gone to the back, too. I didn't mind being the oldest of the kids so much as the fact that the others could not sit still and relax. It was rather annoying; I just wanted to watch the stars and the meteors but the others (mostly Bobby) would not stop pointless blabbing. I don't mean that Iwanted complete silence or anything like that. If they were conversing or whatever I'd be fine. But Bobby found it necessary to sing and make as much noise as he could conceivably produce, making the whole relaxing and watching the sky thing rather difficult. On the whole, though, it was a very nice experience. And Jenny's obliviousness just made it better.
Me: "Wow, this is awesome, you can see the Milky Way"
Jenny: "What's the Milky Way? The candy bar?"
Me: "..."
Adam: "The Milky Way is...the galaxy we're in."
Jenny: "Ooooh, okay. A galaxy? Are there other galaxies?"
Me: "Yes, the Three Musketeers"1
(later, about 50 seconds after a couple meteors shot by)
Jenny: "Ooo, the sky is so pretty. Although it would be so much more perfect if there were a meteor shower tonight."
It amused me. Am I mean for posting this and laughing? Hopefully not. I just thought I would share the funny.
Other than that, lots of fun was had in the lake (it was very fun and refreshingly cold, not to mention that the fresh water felt extraordinarily clean--it didn't feel the slightest bit slimy, like how fresh water normally feels). I picked on Adam for wearing a wet suit into the lake. We went tubing, too. Rich took us around on his rather fast boat as we (one at a time, obviously)laid on a tube and held onto a rope connecting us to the boat. It was actually a bit of a workout. My back muscles are still sore from that. But it was so much fun! :D
A few more things happened that I remember thinking I should blog about, but I can't remember what they were, so I guess I shall terminate this post here. 3
1 Before you brand me as being mean, let me at least defend myself by stating that I told her I was joking and gave a more straightforward answer later.
2 WTF? Due to weather? It wouldn't have been a problem if weather were the only thing that went wrong. The horrible way they handled it by not letting anyone know it was canceled was what made things bad.
3 Actually, the post didn't terminate there due to the following subscripts. As a result, the post actually ends here.