Autumn Reflections at Laurel Creek Reservoir

It was the second of my "Freedom Fridays," and what a fabulous day it turned out to be. The weather was perfect for visiting, and so we traveled down route 322 to McAlisterville to visit my parents. It had been way too long since we'd seen them, and this coming Monday is my mom's 86th birthday. So it was high time to go!

My husband and I stopped along the Juniata River on the way down to check out the colors, only to find that in many places, the trees were still mostly green. The angle of the light makes a big difference, though; the tippy-tops are starting to glow with color.

And we had a fine visit with my parents. We talked and talked, and laughed and told stories, and had fine hot lunch from the local Creme Stop along route 35, most likely our last time to eat there this season. I enjoyed a steak hoagie with tomato dressing, a vanilla milkshake, and the best onion rings I have had in years (the food lovers may enjoy the picture in the extra photo area).

My mom and dad had their honeymoon photo album out, and so we enjoyed flipping through and having a look. There were my parents, looking like just babies really, at age 20, smiling, arm in arm, looking out over Niagara Falls, where they celebrated their honeymoon in 1950.

It was a fun little trip into the past to see our family's beginnings. And here's a status report on my parents: they seem well and happy and full of beans. We are thankful for these, our many blessings, and we take none of them for granted!

And then it was time for us to leave, as we wanted to try to get one little hike in at the Laurel Creek Reservoir in the Seven Mountains before making our way back home. And so that is exactly what we did. We parked my car at the access area, then took our chairs and sat down along the water's edge for two hours in the sun.

The fall foliage update from the Laurel Creek Reservoir is this. While the foliage there is still mostly green, there is a single band of golden trees along the water's edge, and they made for some mighty fine reflections indeed. I couldn't decide which picture to include so I picked two of them; there's another foliage reflection shot in the extras - the extra photo is of the area to the LEFT of the shot above.

Here's two cheers for the power of gold! The soundtrack: Dan Fogelberg & Tim Weisberg, with The Power of Gold.