YL Frontier Ranch (69 photos), by julie walas

The photos (on Snapfish) from Frontier Ranch. Enjoy!!

9,000 Feet

10 days on a trip with bus loads of teenagers driving across the country may not be your cup of tea... but it may have just been the best week of my summer.

We left Friday July 31st after work and drove for 34 hours straight (or some such rediculous number) watching a collection of great 80's baby movies along the way... making me realize how much of an age difference is now between me and high schoolers. We reached Colorado Springs LATE Saturday night and proceeded to check into 20 hotel rooms at the local Best Western. Up early again, we were on the road to Buena Vista- with a quick stop at the red rock formation of the Garden of the Gods. We had lunch in Buena Vista- a suburb of a small town kind of place, and then started heading up and up and up... til we reached Frontier Ranch at about 9,000 feet.

Camp sat amidst the Collegiate Peaks and at the entrance to the Mt. Princeton trail. It's a place where beauty surrounds and magesty reigns. The magnificence was magnified by the fact that the camp trip I was chaperoning was for the Christian group YoungLife... and we were reminded that God created this beauty for our enjoyment.

And enjoy it we did. From rock-climbing, repelling, hiking, horse back riding, ropes courses and ridgerunners to swimming, running, playing, water sliding and bracelet making. It was a great week, in an unbelievable place. If you're ever asked to go to Young Life's Frontier Ranch... know that it's a privelege. Drop your life and go, it's well worth it (even with the 550 teenagers).

Enjoy the photos!

The River.

For the longest time my roommate Elle has been bragging about her summer haven to my best friend Binh... who's constantly and relentlessly poked fun at her enthusiastic and undying passion for this place.

I'd been fortunate enough to visit a few times before, but this last weekend, we brought Binh up to the great St. Lawrence and the 1000 Islands. A few boat rides, hikes, cocktails, family dinners, front porch swings, fireworks, river baths, and sun-soakings later- he was convinced. If we had a cottage up at the river, we'd be the crazy people sneaking out early each nice Friday afternoon and heading up 81 to a summer paradise. Elle lives on Grenell Island, one of the smaller ones... which gives the feeling that everyone knows one another and shares a casual friendly atmosphere with a community church, library and store.

Fantastic weekend overall, and the next time someone invites you to their cottage at "the River" - don't hesitate to join them. Pack your bathing suit and a good book and step back to a more simplistic time.






Delightful.

PHOTOS!

These are all the Chicago photos as well as some from FLIPT (a program I did with a few others for middle schoolers at church)... enjoy! The 10 or so in the last post are some of my favorites, but to get a better look at all the "work" I did while in Chicago, check out the rest on snapfish.

Chi-town

So work sent me to Chicago last week for a Library Conference... (Did you know the iSchool at Syracuse has one of the top Library programs in the nation? I went to exhibit and recruit librarians interested in a masters degree for our program). With 27,000 librarians in town, I needed some time alone. Luckily there was so much to do right around me that it was some great exploring. Enjoyed some invigorating runs, a lot of reading, awesome food, and some time with family. Some photos are below:

Looking north from the museums:

Sue and Julie on the Architecture boat tour:

Millenium park and the Chicago skyline:

Me in the Bean:

The Wrigley Building and the new Trump Tower:

The water tower:
My aunt and cousins came down for my last night in Chicago, here at the end of Navy Pier:

We went to Shedd Aquarium to meet the Belugas:
A beluga!!
With the penguins:

New Places, Familiar Faces

I've visited the quaint Finger Lakes village of Skaneateles quite a few times, and love bringing out of town friends for a truely unique CNY experience.

I've eaten at many of the restaurants (Joe's Pasta Garage being my favorite by far), hung out in the park for caroling at Christmas times, and shopped at many of the quaint boutiques. But yesterday I experienced a Skaneateles that I hadn't yet.

Yesterday a group of 7 of us took a boat cruise on the lake... taking us around the northernmost tip of the lake. The tourguide (still in training, leaving a bit to be desired) shared the stories of the mansions and families that have given the lake such a majestic feel and reverance. The boat cruise was a great discovery- only happening in the summers and only $11 a person for the hour long cruise. (Though we also found coupons for buy-one-get-one-free rides.) Totally recommended.

We then drove down the west side of the lake on 41A to a brand new (has been officially open for tasting and testing for just a few months) winery called Anyelas. It's slowly becoming the talk of the town. The place is absolutetly beautiful, everything is new, trendy and fresh... and tastings are only $2 for 5 different wines. The whites were much better than the reds, but such is true for most vinyards in the fingerlakes. Definitely worth the 3-mile drive out of the village.

Enjoy!

A Catching Experience

A long weekend in Portland, Maine proved enchanting last weekend. Leaving Thursday evening, the drive was only about 6 1/2 hours from Syracuse. While we got in late, it was a great decision because it gave us the full day Friday to explore. While our friend Carly, is from Maine, it was Binh and my first visit there. The goal was to experience what we'd heard- was a truely unique culture, and - being a College Recruiter- visit the prestigious triangle of the private liberal arts colleges- Colby, Bowdoin and Bates.

Friday was spent doing just that. We got up early early to make it up to Waterville and take the Colby campus tour. After barading the tour guide with tough questions about career opportunities, residence life and the admission process, we snuck into the gym facilities to hunt down an "All American" received by our friend Melissa a few years ago for a swim relay. Needless to say, I think they were ready for us to leave. The charming town of Waterville, the environmentalist attitude of the campus, and the sweet and welcoming people... made it a really awesome experience. While it was very impressive campus and tour, even more impressive was the size of the sandwhiches at Big G's in the next town over (which is commonly known as Maine's Best Deli). We stopped for lunch before we drove down to Brunswick, Maine to tour Bowdoin... which was a really great campus visit experience. The students and campus have a lot of spirit, and the town is outstanding. I definitely recommend a visit. The bowdoin mascot is the polar bear... and with my mascot obsession, I needed a photo. While we missed out on Bates this trip, we were super impressed by the two and have a good idea of what Bates is all about. Hope to return one day and see for myself.

We shopped for awhile in Freeport (home to LLBean... a Maine obsession, as well as a ton of other great outlets) and then headed to dinner at Carly's parents house in Yarmouth. They gave us the full tour and a great Mainer perspective of life on the rocky coast. We met friends out for drinks to experience the nightlife and downtown culture Friday night... hitting up all the hotspots - it was a nice night (though very cool) so we were able to be outside for awhile.

Saturday morning brought an early wake up call as Binh and I headed back into downtown Portland- for a lobster catching extravaganza. We went out with "Captain Tom" on his boat "The Lucky Catch"... we hauled in 8 lobster traps (only bringing in one lobster of legal catching size)... but it was really cool to learn about trapping lobsters. We stuffed bait bags, held crabs and starfish, pulled ropes, and saw the portland coast from out in the harbor. We also saw the Portland Head Light-- apparently the most photographed lighthouse in North America, and one of the oldest- commissioned by George Washington.

Saturday afternoon we dropped in on a honey wine maker (mead) in downtown Portland with our friend Alissa-Maine Mead Works. The co-owner gave us a tour as we sampled their products. While the business is still in the start-up phase, its definitely taking off, and we were both super impressed and grateful to have found the HoneyMaker. We found out about them from a post in the NYTimes. In Maine, the Whole Foods and a lot of the bars in Portland are serving/selling this mead, so not only were wer able to taste at the winery, we also ordered it out and bought a few bottles to bring home. The rest of the day was spent doing a "best of" Portland homemade tour. We had lobster rolls at Gilberts, DuckFat french fries, sliders at J's, Portland Lobster Co lobster... and of course included a stop at Maine's famous Shipyard Brewery in Downtown Portland.

The whole city is completely walkable, welcoming and full of Portland pride. Though our particular weekend was foggy and cool, it was a great experience.

Sunday morning we spent the day driving down the coast- along the shore on rte 209. We went through Old Orchard Beach and into Kennebunkport. We loved Kennebunkport and spent time shopping, and eating at Allison's in the village. The food was fantastic, and the day was really enjoyable... a great wrap-up to our Maine trip. As we continued through toward Maine- we made one last stop in Wells at the most incredible antique and used bookstore. Owned for almost 50 years by Mr. Harding, its a charming old barn converted to book and antique map store. We spent almost an hour combing through his collections and recalling fantastic trips we had each made, or finding our hometowns depicted on maps hundreds of years old. A beautiful shop- well worth the drive from Boston or Portland.

Enjoy your trip!