The Silk Road to Siena

"Top of the Mornin' to Ya", as the Irish would say.

I have to admit I really do miss my home town this time of the year. Savannah. They really know how to celebrate St. Patrick's Day back home.

It would be a lot warmer there by now, for sure. All of the azaleas are blooming, water fountains sprouting green water, green beer flowing in the bars, even the schools would be closed for St. Patrick's Day & of course a giant parade with some semi-celebrity as the center attraction. I remember one year it was, Barbara Eden, I Dream of Jeannie. Wow, we were so impressed!

But it's really starting to sound like Spring is on it's way here finally. I heard nothing but birds singing today! And to boot, my bulb flowers are all coming up too. I am soooo ready for it! Those birds are back in my wreath on the door. I hear them now. They are either building a nest in it or pulling out twigs to use somewhere else. Oh well, times are hard. Gotta share what we have, right?

Getting back on track....yes we went on another mini vacation. Siena & I tagged along with Daddy on a business trip to the Adirondacks. We stayed in Lake Placid N.Y. Home of the 1980 Winter Olympics. We drove up in the snow & rain. Siena was pretty good in the car. Momma in the back seat most of the way & a video player helped smooth it all out. But don't get me wrong she had her moments. She's still one to have to get her sleep or she will not be a happy camper. Needless to say, she didn't want to always sleep when she should have. Anyway....it wasn't so bad on the 1st day in town so we ventured out a little. Not much there to do unless you're going to ski. It was a quiet little town with tons of Italian restaurants, which we love by the way, so we got our fill of Italian cuisine for a while. We stayed in a very nice resort which had a large indoor pool. All Siena kept saying was,"I want to go see that pool" once she heard about it. It kept her happy one morning while Daddy was at work. I took her down for a swim but after all that begging to go, she didn't want anything to do with me trying to teach her to swim. She was just as happy hanging out on the pool steps.

Regardless of the weather, which by the way, went bitterly cold, we still ventured out a few more times. Didn't want Siena to get cabin/Hotel fever ya know. So of course it was me, jumping in & out of the car most of the time, to get some scenic pictures along the road. One of my favorite was the big water fall that we caught when we were leaving out of town on the last day. Wish it would have been a closer image but we forgot the camera lens for long shots. I'm sure you can't see it but there was a few feet or yards maybe, of some water that was flowing through all the ice. It was really pretty, just too far away to get a nicer look. There were lakes everywhere. All of them frozen over. Can't image walking on a frozen lake for fear of falling through but we saw a few people doing it. OK...I have to admit the little cottage that I took Siena's picture in front of was just a cabin we saw along the road. It was such a photo op that I had to take her picture there. It's soooo "Adirondack" with that chair! She was holding Ms. Kitty. Yes, I have to let you all know that the Monkey that we got from "Build A Bear" back on Valentines Day didn't go over so well so we traded it in for a Hello Kitty AKA Miss Kitty. She's so in love with Miss Kitty right now that Minnie Mouse even takes a back seat at times.

Since it was an Olympic venue back in 1980 they still had the large ski jumps. We could see those from our hotel and Siena was always saying, "I want to do that". Too funny. I don't think she realized that it wouldn't be anything like our Wii PlayStation's skiing, which by the way she does really well for a 2 year old.

Okay, I have to add this now or I will forget it. I'm sitting here in the office typing away & Siena is around the corner playing on the floor. I check in to see what's up and she said that she put her shoes back on to go to Chic-Fil-A (her favorite restaurant). She said that she is taking Ms. Kitty & Minnie Mouse. I asked who was paying & she said "me". Do you have any money? Checking her pockets, "No". All too funny!

Her conversations and creativity is so great now. She comes up with a lot of her own conversations & questions these days. It's amazing how she is mentally growing. I love it!

OK..back to the trip...like I said it was pretty cold and not much to do but look at the scenery. It was mostly a winter wonderland so just looking at the scenery was nice enough & relaxing. It was really beautiful & peaceful but somewhere I would really like to go back to in the summer unless I can learn to ski someday. My only regret was not getting any pictures of the 3 of us together since by the way was also our Anniversary week. Guess I'm always too busy just getting pictures of my #1 subject. Hope you enjoy the scenery as much as we did.