The Woodloch Blues

HI so this is long overdue.  I just get kind of emotional in a bittersweet way whenever I take this out to finish, so it took a few installments.  It won't make much sense or be of much interest to a lot of people and CERTAINLY won't top the 140 views I got on my rant about Italians, but this has to exist anyway.  

Generally, I'm not one to glorify nature.  Sure, I love skiing and I can appreciate a nice panorama, but it doesn't go much further than that.  The sprawling suburbia I call home is pretty, but I don't miss the gardens and pond behind my house when I'm living in a city, nor do I miss the assortment of wildlife that makes my yard its home.  Flowers smell like funerals, beaches require too much sunscreen, and--call me spoiled, but--I'm even pretty unfazed by the myriad of colors in the view of the sunset from my deck every night.

Now that you understand my general lack of enthusiasm for nature, I hope you can feel this as deeply as I mean it: Woodloch Pines is the most beautiful place I've ever seen.

Scintillating Lake Teedyuskung

The love I have for this beautiful corner
of the universe is unreal.

Zip lining

Woodloch is a family resort we've visited every summer since 2002.  Think of Kellerman's in Dirty Dancing.  It's a family vacation spot plopped in the middle of beautiful, nature-y nowhere with activities scheduled all day long to satisfy the whole family.  The lake is open all day for swimming, canoeing, kayaking, and water skiing.  There are indoor and outdoor pools and kiddie pools.  There are all the outdoorsy activities-- biking, hiking, zip lining, rock wall climbing, and trapshoot-- plus go karts, bumper boats, bocce ball, paintball, you name it.  Meals are served in the Main House and are fairly delicious.  Everyone gets dressed up for night shows and events.  

Annual battle of the bumper boats.

We spend four days every summer, and we come away each year insisting that was the best trip we've had yet, (with the exception of the years Mrs. Schizzano sprained her ankle and my mom had kidney-stones, of course).  We missed Woodloch last year to go to Florida for the first time since fourth grade.  We loved seeing Grandma Mary and Aunt Tara and meeting our new little cousin Emma.  It was fantastic to see Ginger, Mom’s best friend from high school, and her daughter Erin.  It was absolutely unreal to live out my childhood fantasy of standing on the Hogsmeade bridge and staring up at what honestly could have been Hogwarts.  I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything, but it was weird not visiting Woodloch for the first time in a decade.  We built this trip up so much in our minds, it seemed impossible it could live up to our expectations.  We had counted down, spent weeks preparing for the Scavenger Hunt, made T-shirts, gotten our nails done, and spent hours agonizing over our evening outfits.  (That moment when Chelsea's boyfriend is explaining which outfit is more cute and which outfit is more "Sydney.")  We sat fidgeting nonstop on the four hour car ride, laughing nervously and practically twitching with excitement.

Scavenger Hunt Gold,
anyone?

Then we stood in front of the Main House, with its duck pond, hook-on-the-ring game, pristine garden, and classic green awning over the painted red wooden doors, all that tension just floated away.  It felt as though we’d never skipped a beat.

I swear they aren't paying me to sound like an infomercial.  I just sincerely wish everyone could experience the intense appreciation I have for this place.

Insane love for
employees

I'd love to list all the events (Scavenger Hunt Gold anyone?) and traditions (It's a CRIME if we bid on any horse besides our numbers) and inside jokes (DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A MUSTACHE?) and insane love for the employees (This year is for Nick and HIP HIP JORGE!), but the truth of it is that no one besides our families would care.

OUR Horses

     

Just know this all this goes on for a jam-packed four days in the most beautiful little corner of the universe filled with hills, winding roads, pine trees, flowers, wildlife, and the huge, scintillating Lake Teedyuskung.  

Priceless Bonds

The most beautiful thing about Woodloch is the priceless bonds it forges.  The Schizzano family and mine are beyond blessed to have spent ten Woodloch vacations together.  I'll forever be thankful for how close we've become, from diving through chocolate syrup and Cheerios for Double Dare with Chelsea when we were nine to kayaking to the end of the lake at nineteen.  

Sealed with chocolate syrup and cheerios.

It’s not the Buckingham Palace, Times Square, or Mount Everest kind of beauty.  It’s sunlight poking through loose hills of pine trees beautiful. It’s kayaking along the lily pads with kids laughing on the dock beautiful.  It’s home-away-from-home beautiful.

Home.

Lord, we needed that vacation.  Going on this trip proved our nightmare months of a broken jaw and liquid diet were over.  Actually, because of those hard times, every minute of this vacation was that much sweeter.  It’s more than that though.  In the time that passed since we had last dangled our toes off the dock, many of the constants in our lives have changed: some of us graduated and spent a year living somewhere new, while some of us adjusted to having one less family member live at home.  Some of us got our licenses, while some got their permits.  We were in our first school plays and picked what new language classes to take, and we bought our first cars and picked colleges.  We gained some relationships and let some others go.  We each had our fair share of laughter, tears, and growth. Then, without needing to discuss, we sat in our usual spots around our window table Saturday night, and watched the sky paint itself a hundred different colors as the sun set behind the lake.  Not all that much seems to have changed after all.  

All the symptoms
of the Woodloch Blues

When we got home I showed all the symptoms of the Woodloch Blues in full force:  I snuggled in my Woodloch sweatshirt, wore my gold medal and bracelet, savored every sugar crystal of my slice of crumb cake, and obsessed over the pictures Chelsea put on Facebook.  This time though, there was less sad nostalgia and more of the sweetness of happy memories.  A million more things will change in all our lives, but we’ll be back before long.  We’ll always find our way back to Woodloch for more of those perfect, golden days.  

Perfect, golden days.