500 pieces

Although I still think a tent is the ideal place to stay in the mountains, I have to say it was nice to come back to the old mountain inn, where we had a real bed and could take hot showers. After a long afternoon hike, my husband and I ate dinner in the inn's restaurant, sitting at a table near the window, looking out across the porch, where an elderly couple were sitting in rocking chairs. A man and his two small daughters were feeding the ducks down by the docks.

The inn has several canoes and kayaks that guests are welcome to use, but in the quiet of the evening, my husband convinced me to that we should take the inn's paddleboat instead. One nice thing about the paddleboat is that we could sit next to each other and talk. (In a canoe, I'm always talking to the back of his head. ) You pedal a paddleboat just like a bicycle, which meant that my hands were free for taking photos. Luckily, the wind had died down, and the water was still as we moved slowly along the shoreline, churning our legs, talking, and trying to guess the history of the old buildings at the water's edge.