After spending a week at the beach in Cape May, NJ vacationing with my husband’s family, we drove on to our cabin outside of Albany, NY.  It’s up in the mountains, surrounded by forest on a small spring-fed lake.  Our children and their cousins make up the fifth generation of extended family to enjoy spending their summers swimming, fishing, canoeing, sailing, and hiking around this rustic and hidden Spring Lake retreat.

Seven years ago, after restoring the wooden canoe in which his grandmother learned to canoe when she was a girl, my husband rowed me out onto th lake one evening at sunset and proposed.   Though completely surprised, I managed not to tip the wobbly canoe into the water as I happily accepted.  (He had visions of diving in after the ring.)

Now, a few years later, we’re bringing our own girls to Spring Lake, and teaching them to appreciate and conserve nature in a setting that is as beautiful today as it was when their great great grandparents began coming here.