We had a great but too-short time at Keuka Lake this year. I managed to stay there for 9 days while Julie, Jacob, and Matthew were there for about 2.5 weeks (they normally spend 4-6 weeks there). It was a fun-filled, busy week and a time for both sides of our family to enjoy the lake and surrounding areas. My sister Jennifer and her family (husband James and 5 kids!) joined us for a week, and Julie's brother Mike is there for the entire summer learning the ropes of cottage, boat, and lake management.

Speaking of Mike, he recently earned his pilot's license and took Jacob, Matthew, and I flying around the finger lakes for about 90 minutes. It was a fantastic trip - we over-flew the cottages and the length of Keuka Lake, headed over to Seneca lake, passed by Watkins Glen and the racetrack there, then returned via Corning and Canisteo. I didn't get any solid pictures on my digital camera but I got a few great shots with Julie's Canon Eos body and telephoto lens. That's Mike on the left flying the plane (a Cessna 172 4-seater). The only downside was that Jacob got a bit motion sick.

As usual Jacob and Matthew spent the bulk of their time in the water. Jacob is now a comfortable water-skier (2 skis for now) and even managed to get up on the wakeboard once. Matthew prefers tubing and he was a madman this year, including several rounds of "battle tubing" where we towed two tubes and did some stunts and wrestling between the two.

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