We (my parents, two brothers with their families and I with my family) went on a family vacation in upstate (Peck’s Lake) NY this year. My only sister and her family live a few thousand miles away from us, so she couldn’t join us this year. The vacation house was about 280 miles away from our house. I drove more than four hours and reached the destination around 7pm on Sunday 07 August 2022

Swimming

We usually swim every day during our vacation, but lake water next to the house had a lot of algae, so we didn’t swim there. On second day, we (my brother, his son, and I) took a canoe and rowed to the far end of the lake – about two miles away from the house. During our journey we spotted a place of swallow and clean water close to the house and for the next two days we went there for swimming. Water there was only thigh high and warm.   

Fishing

Almost all of us spent a significant amount of time trying to catch a fish. My youngest brother and my father caught one big mouth bass each. They used small fishes that my sisters-in-law caught as bait for the big fishes. Also, two big catfishes were caught in two nights when my father left his fishing rod overnight with bait.

Cold

We went to upstate NY, which is in the north, so naturally it is colder than where we live. Moreover, it rained two days and the temperature dropped. First two days were very hot, so we were using air coolers in the house but the rest of the days no air cooler was needed. In fact, we had to use warm clothes outside the house for some time. There were woods and a fire pit outside of the house, so we made a fire and were able to enjoy time outside during the cold nights around the fire.

Accident

Arif (my younger brother) had a little accident and hurt his left leg quite badly, so he had to go to the emergency room of the local hospital. Luckily, x-ray didn’t find anything bad, but they gave him crutches and advised him to see an orthopedic doctor as soon as possible. Though limping, he was able to drive a day after that incident.

Overall, it was a good family time spent together. The kids were given a lot of freedom to do whatever they wanted. The checkout time was 11am, so we left the house around that time on Saturday 13 August 2022.  My second son may have bonded too strongly during the vacation – he was crying in the car on the way home because he was missing his cousins. Here is a short video on our vacation.