In July 2026, Gail and I joined CJ and Morgan in attending the 2026 Yearly Meeting of the New York State Quakers. It was held at the Silver Bay YMCA on the shore of Lake George in northern New York. The meeting ran from Monday to Friday, with registration on Sunday and checkout on Saturday. On Saturday, Gail and I drove up from Maryland. Then on Sunday, the four of us traveled to Silver Bay. At about 246 miles, this was the longest journey, by far, that Morgan had ever taken in a car. For protection, he was stuffed in his car seat. It wasn't terribly comfortable for him, but he bore it fairly well with two stops for food and recreation. At the end, a steep downhill from I-87 to the shore of Lake George was too much and he began to sob. The best we could do was hurry to our destination where he could be free and active. Registration was slow. The Quakers had a series of tables on the porch of the Inn where we signed in, and got name tags and other materials. Then inside the Inn, we had to register for our accommodations with the YMCA, which was even slower. Finally, we got our keys to room 243 in the Inn. It was like a motel room with two queen-sized beds, a private bathroom, and even an air conditioner. Our home for the week! Lake George is long in the north-south direction and narrow east-west. Adirondack Mountains block winds from the west so the beaches do not have the high waves found at places like Coney Island.

Individual congregations of Quakers gather for business once a month, groups of congregations gather quarterly, and all the Quakers in the state gather once a year. This was the annual meeting. The calendar was filled with meetings for worship, meetings for discernment, meetings for business, and more.

It wasn't all business. There were gatherings for singing, for dancing, for early morning swimming, and more. The Quakers had organized a tennis tournament. The YMCA provided kayaks, sailboats, canoes, board games, jigsaw puzzles, chess sets, balls, shuffleboard equipment, etc. All of it was used.

We attended portions of some of the meetings. One of special interest was whether the New York meeting should adopt a statement that condemns Israel’s genocide in Gaza. No consensus was reached on that.

Day care and other activities were provided for children so that their parents could attend the meetings. Morgan enjoyed being in day care once he was there, but he usually did not want to go.

The Inn, where we slept and napped	The Auditorium
There wer many locations of interest on the campus: cottages, houses, and a dorm for people to stay in, a gymnasium, the boat house, beaches, tennis courts, trails, parking areas, a dining hall, a store, a chapel, maintenance facilities, and more. If you lost your map, the arrows on this sign post next to the Inn would help you find your way.
Slim Point, where the swimming beach is, and the mountains across Lake George	Looking north at Lake George from Slim Point

Morgan enjoyed playing with the duplo blocks and wheeled toys in the nursery. But there were things here that he could not do at home and those were more fun. Wading on the beach and in the lake. Playing in a sandbox. Pushing shuffleboard pucks around. Throwing balls. For our future mountain climber, walking on the wall between the road and the field. Note: He also excelled in the 5- and 10-meter dash, for example, both into the dining room and towards the road. Shouts of “Stop!” and “Red Light!” were not effective. Fortunately, CJ still was faster at the dash than Morgan. Friday afternoon, we borrowed a row boat and I rowed us around the bay.
Mountaineering on the wall	Wading by the Boathouse

At the beach on Slim Point	The yellow tint is due to smoke from Canadian wild fires
More beach fun	Just a simple sandbox, but it stimulated the imagination
Even without sprinkles, ice cream was a big hit after dinner	Birding and Hiking?
	I did not expect to see any rare birds at Silver Bay and I did not. There was a family of Common Mergansers, lots of ring-billed Gulls, lots of Canada Geese, some Mallards and Black Ducks, Red-winged Blackbirds, and a Great Blue Heron. I did not plan to hike the trails going up the mountain behind the conference center, and I did not. Nonetheless, I got a fair amount of walking in. I got over 10,000 steps on three days, 9,700 on a fourth, and just over 8,000 on the fifth.

Prepared by Albert Holm, 25 July 2026