lake house

this weekend was everything i needed it to be and more. the berkshires, uncle ron's house in particular- is amazing. it's right on garfield lake, in monterey (mass.).

we got there friday night and were welcomed with wine and bread and cheese and salami (!) as uncle ron set about bbq-ing fresh veggies and salmon and skirt steak. that enough was a welcome change from my more recent nights without cooking in my broken-down apartment. we continued drinking and eating and listening to music until finally we could take no more and all fell into our beds around 2am.
saturday was filled with so much fun! uncle ron and i went canoeing at 9am around the lake, and we were practically alone out there- due to the overcast/rainy weather predicted for the weekend. it was amazingly peaceful. we woke up arielle and ben, then made pancakes with fresh berries and hung out for a while as the rain came down outside. uncle ron took us to a local farm that has a bakery, where we got dessert for the evening and a ham and cheese croissant to take with us in the car for lunch. he drove us around monterey and great barrington and showed us the sights. it was adorable and i absolutely fell in love.
in the afternoon we went out on uncle ron's boat- he showed us around the lake and where his friend's lived. it was still grey out, but the lake was amazing. we decided to try water skiing- and to my amazement i made it up on the ski's! (arielle took pictures. they'll be up on facebook soon). i learned that it is one thing to get up on the ski's, and another to cross over the wake and stay up on them. i worked muscles i didnt even realize i had.
we came back and took warm showers and ben and uncle ron prepared dinner as it poured outside. arielle and i relaxed and read magazines. we had more fresh veggies, as well as seafood: tuna and divers scallops! it was so amazing my mouth is watering just remembering it. of course we had to break out the cakes for dessert as well. (i will be rolling myself to the gym tomorrow)

this morning we couldnt eat a thing until noon. we got up and hung out for a while, then went to a goat farm where we saw baby goats! and got fresh goat cheese! then headed back to gould's farm/bakery for some more ham and cheese croissants and a look at some chickens and piglets! plus hogs so large i didn't even have words when i saw them. (don't worry, we didnt eat the ham croissants in front of them- we didn't want to be rude).
all four of us went out canoeing this afternoon, before heading back to reality.

there was great food, great music, great company, fun on the lake, and an amazing house to boot! seriously- it made me realize that i need to start saving my pennies (and make more pennies to save) so i can one day have a 'country house' on a lake somewhere- and have a slice of heaven for myself.