quasigeostrophy | A Cabin in the Woods (Sort of)

So, Toni and I came home today from a week at a cabin in the Catskills. It was about 4 hours from here, barely over the NY state line from PA, near where those two states and New Jersey all come together. It was the first time she and I have had a chance for a real vacation for just the two of us since before I went back to school in 2006. And because I tended to burn her out and drive her crazy with always going places to see and/or do things, I felt I owed her a vacation where we did what she wanted – a place to get away from home and just hole up and be together and do as little as possible. A new thing for me, I wanted to try that, too. So, we found and picked a place – a little cabin/cottage converted from two barns. We made sure it had an outdoor hot tub (and a very secluded one at that), and we used said hot tub almost every day. It was very nice to get out of State College for a week, even though we still spent time on our laptops and didn’t completely disconnect from the world. Did some reading, had some good food, and just *were* for a few days.

The place was very pretty and definitely captured the rustic look. Here is the front, coming up the drive from the owner’s home:

It’s a big cottage – sleeps ten. Here’s the west face:

Southeast corner, showing the deck (with hot tub tucked in on the right) and kitchen entrance (and the dish network receiver):

View from the kitchen door:

View from the hot tub (sorry – no pics from when we were in it):

View to the west out of the big picture windows in the living room:

View of the living room, kitchen, and dining area (and Toni in her spot on the couch):

Yesterday morning, I came out of the main floor bedroom to see some deer just off the deck. They were cautious, but probably a bit used to people being in this place:

A couple of young ones among the group:

More deer showed up last night before dusk. They even let us come outside to the deck before making their way over to the little four-hole golf course on-site.

Despite how pretty and secluded the place was, we don’t think it is a do-over for us (the concept is, just not that particular cottage). Some of our issues:

Furnace (especially the fan) far too loud for normal conversation volume or TV/DVD watching. We finally watched the first of Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” films on DVD while there, but didn’t bother with anything else.
Regular mattress on bed – uncomfortable pressure points, especially after getting used to our memory foam mattress at home. Also queen sized, when we’re used to king.
Kitchen sink too shallow for its faucet pressure, and no garbage disposal or backsplash.
Main floor bedroom and bathroom side very drafty. It is a converted barn, after all.
Piano grossly out of tune. I checked all the Cs, and only one of them (1st above middle) was in tune. Made me shudder.
No non-bar restaurants within half an hour’s drive.

Had to be out by Noon today, and we were ready to come home. Back to the grind on Monday.

Originally published at Abnormality Locality. You can comment here or there.