Vacation intro

When a vacation is jam packed with activity, it's tough to decide how best to describe it and organize the stories. Chronologically? By activity type? Random observations? At least for now, I'm going with a day at a time.

Our first day at Boyne Mountain was a mishmash of discovering all that was there and then doing the things that took the least advance planning. For AJ, that meant fishing. The resort featured a stocked fishing pond where AJ could catch and release to his heart's content.

While he did that, Sydney played tourist, snapping pictures with her iPod of the local wildlife.

Cousin Jimmy quickly learned how to say "AJ fishing." And from that point on, was happy to join his older cousin with rod and reel.

When we broke for lunch, the local wildlife decided to do a little fishing of its own. AJ happily shared some of the bread from his sandwich. And then learned the hard way why it's a better idea to fling the bread. Ducks (at least not this one) don't seem to understand the concept of "Take it nice."

While AJ continued to fish, Sydney and I walked up the hill so she could do a little swimming. Pardon me, Sydney wasn't swimming. She performed a water ballet. To do that, one must apparently close one's eyes. But she graciously agreed to open her eyes and smile at the end of the aquatic show.

Next, as AJ continued to fish, Sydney got to go on her first horseback ride. She was a little disappointed to learn it wasn't a pony. The horse's name was DeeDee, but I've already forgotten the name of the guide. She must love horses to work a job that involves walking the same path over and over and over again. Every. Day.

I walked with them around the loop the first time, then left them to do the second lap on their own. The path wove through a golf course, so I positioned myself to get a representative shot of that. And then I waited. And waited. And waited. At last they appeared.

What took so long? Sydney apparently fell off the horse. Almost. The guide described it as "a bit of a tumble". The woman caught Sydney before she ever hit the ground. And as the photos show, my brave girl fulfilled the cliche by getting right back on the horse again.

Now that I've written all this, I'm realizing my memory is not so good. This might be a mix of a day and a half worth of photos. We checked in late on a Saturday afternoon, so I'm suspecting this is a mix of Saturday and Sunday fun. Always the sign of a good vacation when there are so many good memories they end up a blur.