The Last Horah!!

The count down to kindergarten is coming to an end with ONE DAY LEFT. As summer is coming to an end I decided to take the family on one final camping trip. We decided on Lake Warmaug state park in New Preston, CT. Autumn actually did a wedding several years ago at the country club right down the road. The days prior to our trip had me a little worried because the fuel pump on the Saab broke and had to spend some time in the shop. So I was a little uneasy about going away an not knowing if I was going to have a car on Wednesday to get to work. Everything did work out and Barney and the boys at Swedish motor works took care of everything while we enjoyed the cool night by the campfire and kayaking around the lake. It seems that the company that rents out kayaks close down at 4:00 and by the time we had set up the camp site and gotten our bathing suits on they were no longer renting for the day. No worries, Autumn and I just took turns chauffeuring Jaedyn around the lake. After dinner, smores and a good nights sleep we woke up to a cool morning and a nice hot fire to eat breakfast by.

After packing up the camp site we headed off to Kent to see the falls and check out down town. The falls were nice; I can only imagine what they'd be like in the spring time after a good rain. Autumn was talking the whole time about filters and her other cameras and coming back in the spring to photograph the falls again. All in all a good couple of days to relax before we take on a new adventure with Jaedyn and for us.

When Sean is away...

Well, for the past four weeks I've been opening a new "Stir Crazy" in Estero, FL, which by the way went amazingly well. Before I returned home my parents took Jaedyn to Vermont to give Autumn a little break. While I was gone my family had several momentous events happen. The first being my daughter Jaedyn riding her bike by herself for the first time. My sister, Melissa and my brother in-law Dan, are expecting their first child. The one big project that has been dragging since I left is the new deck my father is putting on there house. It looks great now and is the final stages of being complete.

Another good day at the Gunks...

Seeing as how I'll be leaving for Florida in about a week to open a new restaurant, I won't be climbing any time soon. So I was going to make the most out of the time I had. I was meeting up with several people today, Meghan at Rock and Snow, and Danny and Angela at the base of Horseman. A foursome, I've never had one of those before... So, after suiting up Meghan with all the appropriate gear we were off to the Gunk's. Despite the many times I've visited, I'm still amazed at how easy the access is to some of the best climbing in the north east. We literally got out of the car walked down a flat carriage trail and were climbing in under 10 minutes. Yeah, I got a little side tracked...

Danny and Angela were running late so I decided to set up a top rope on the first route I saw, Black Fly. A nice little warm-up to get the blood flowing. After cruising that route we headed down the carriage trail even further to meet up with the rest of our group. With guide book in hand and eyes looking up to the cliff, like a Japanese tourist, I knew this had to be them. They had that look about them that I all know too well. The look of excitement and awe that most of us get our first time to the Gunk's. So lets get it on...

Getting four people to the top of a 110 ft. cliff is no easy task with two ropes. I lead, of course, and Meghan followed cleaning the gear as she climbed. Nice job by the way. Danny was next to climb. He seemed to struggle with this one a little. Trust me, going out on to the traverse can be a bit scary. No worries though. We all made it to the top and down safely. Next up was Rhododendron, a beautiful 5.6 crack. This was my highest on site at the Gunk's and it felt great, I only wish the route was longer. Angela did a nice job using some text book techniques and Meghan learned a couple of new ones herself. The ever popular foot jam and her first lay back. (tear)

To finish off the day I was looking for a nice easy multi pitch, Belly Roll is what I found. (I love the names) The first pitch might have taken a little bit too much out of Meghan, that or it had just been a long day of climbing but she just couldn't muster up the energy to finish the second pitch, so I lowered her to the bottom. Luckily two climbers on a route near by were willing to do a double rope rapell and let me clean all my gear on the way down. Thanks Max and Dan. The sunset from the top made the day a little bitter sweet. By the time I had reached the bottom the darkness had closed in and we were collecting our gear by flash light. I've said it before and I'll say it again, "I've never met a climber I didn't like." Today proved me right once again. Thanks again to Dan and Max as well as Angela and Danny for another good day at the Gunk's.

Her first time...

Well, Jaedyn and I finale got my wife, Autumn, to go kayaking with us. I was expecting the worst and hoping for the best. It turned out to be the later of the two. She did really well despite some unforeseen challenges. For example, I thought she would use my sister's kayak witch is smaller and thinner which makes it easier to paddle, but the seat wasn't comfortable, the boat wobbled more and the cockpit opening was smaller, all of which made our boat more appealing. The only problem was, jaedyn has to ride in our boat because it has the storage compartment which she rides in. Normally not a problem but for someone who has never been in a kayak and is still trying to get the technique down, Jaedyn doesn't exactly make things easy.

So, we were on our way up the saugatuck river. I got a couple good shots of my two girls paddling. Too bad they were going in different directions. So after ducking under two bridges and letting the tide take us up river for a little break we arrived at the first small dam. I can't tell you how proud I am that Autumn made the trip and not only did it but, actually looked like she enjoyed herself.

As always I'm proud of my little girl Jaedyn who not only enjoys riding with mommy and daddy but has taken a real liking to kayaking. She even paddled by herself, of course I was close by to make sure she didn't get in over her head.

Forget dinner mom, I'm commin home with Crabs..

Another beautiful day Kayaking on the Saugatuck with my favorite girl, Jaedyn. We headed down stream and out to mouth of the river to cockenoe island. We paddled into the small bay on the island and took a little swim, took some pictures and stumbled on to a baby seagulls nest that their mother didn't want us near. After leaving the island we paddled over to what Jaedyn and I have rightly dubbed "crab island."
After flipping over some rocks to find sand crabs scurrying all over the place, I started to search the shallow waters of the sound to see if we could find some more. She thought it would be better for me to collect them. She wasn't into going any where near the crabs especially once we started finding bigger ones. Jaedyn really wanted to go swimming but after realizing how many crabs were in the water, she changed her mind about swimming. We found a lot of small sand crabs, one spider crab and a large horse shoe crab. None of which, Jaedyn would touch, but I did get her to step on the horse shoe crab, for all of one second.
With as much paddling as I'd done and exploring that Jaedyn did, we were getting pretty hungry, so we headed back home. What better way to celebrate a good trip on the water better than to go home and cook up some tasty crab cakes.

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