Growing up in Hong Kong: Visit Old Friends in Dryden NY

This summer, our vacation took us to New England USA. We had always wanted to visit New England in the fall. However, with the kids in school, an extended vacation in the fall is just impossible. So, here we were, in New England, in summer.

Before we started our journey, we made a detour to visit some old friends at Dryden NY. So, once we landed and collected our rental car, we set off immediately to Dryden. The ride should take about 5 hours and we had hoped to get there for a late dinner. As it turned out, the traffic out of NYC was horrendous, it took us 3 hours just to get out of NYC! We made it to Dryden in about 8 hours, arriving at the Barry's house just after the fireworks ended.....but we made it!

We were really excited to see Arthur and Sandy Barry after almost 20 years! And of course introduce them to the girls for the first time.

With Sandy and Arthur at their farm house

Gina, their dog

Other than the farm house and the enormous piece of land around their house, the Barry also has one more thing we don't have - a giant trampoline! Tasha was really excited about it. She can't even wait till Arthur finished cleaning it before jumping on it!

Later in the afternoon, after watching the Netherlands vs Brazil game (Geoff was so excited to be able to watch the World Cup!), we went to canoe in a nearby lake.

The girls were really excited

Off they went

Another Andrea was here!

My turn

The canoe rides were fun and the girls rather enjoyed it when Arthur took us around the lake. But when Arthur offered Geoff and I to take the girls out by ourselves, the girls weren't so keen.........guess they were well aware of our abilities.......

Back at the house, Molly and her family arrived. The girls had fun with Molly's kids, Rowan, Cora and Pearl, especially on the trampoline!

Later that evening, Arthur built a great big bonfire for the kids. And luckily, the weather is cold enough for it. The kids grilled marshmallows and played with fire crackers.