Our day in Old Forge

I love fall camping in the ADK.  However its getting harder and harder to do so. Tyler is now in school and has soccer.  David and I always busy.  We wanted to go up and do some things in old forge on a fall day so we opted to just get a hotel room.  The kids have only stayed in a hotel like 2 or 3 times so it was exciting to them.

We arrived around 7pm and there were 2 deer waiting for us!  the kids were so excited they were jumping around the room.  We took them to the indoor pool to get some energy out.   Finally they crashed. David and I didn’t sleep two well – we were waiting for one of them to fall of the bed, around 2am Tyler did.  The kid slept right thru it – David picked him up sleeping off the floor and put him back into bed.  They wanted to know if we could sleep in hotels more often!

We took the kids to the muffin patch for a very expensive breakfast! Who knew that old forge had its own inflation rate.   lol  None the less, the kids loved their ginormous strawberry waffles!  The food was great!!

It was still rather brisk about 45degrees, so we decided to do the train in the morning.  we would be inside the car and its heated.  We were hoping to go south to otter lake but the 10am train goes to carter station. As we were waiting the conductor came over and said he couldn’t get the heat working so dress warm! lol

The kids had fun, they saw deer and turkeys, even some kayakers!  The views were nice as the leaves are starting to turn!

After the train we headed over to McCauley Mountain for the scenic chair lift.  I wasn’t sure how this was going to go.  I have a fear of heights, Tyler gets nervous up high; David and Emma have no fear.  On the way up David took Tyler first, I was stuck with Emma.

She had no fear.  She was moving all around trying to look behind us, and then under us.  I could feel the chair swinging – I was freaking out inside.  This is why I don’t ski, okay its only 1 reason why I don’t ski! How do you keep a 2 year old still when your body is paralyzed by fear?  after a few minutes I started to relax (till the way down!lol)
It was so worth the ride to see the views.




Tyler was so funny on the way down (yeah I made David take Emma) he says look mom – look at that lake. if we didn’t go up this mountain we would of never known it was there!  He was looking at 1st lake!!
After that we had lunch and walked around the village.  We sat at the coffee shop and watched the firemen’s parade.  The kids received fire hats and tons of candy.  After that we headed south but we took a fast detour to the Buffalohead for dinner!!
It was a great trip that like all others, went too fast.

Rock Mountain – Inlet NY

Its a pretty regular thing for us to hike bald mountain when we are in Old Forge.  We have seen the parking lot for Rock Mtn and Black bear mountain but never stopped.  I think it was fear of the unknown.

During a camping trip to 8th lake in august a lady with a yellow lab and  I started talking.  Funny how labs link people!!  anyway her family had just hiked black bear on the day we did bald mountain.  She told me that you could see 7th and 8th lake and about the path.  Right then I decided we would climb it during one of our fall trips.  My plan was Rock Mtn while we were camping at Nicks in September and Black Bear while camping Columbus weekend.  So my plan didn't really workout…we hiked within nicks lake park in September and decided that tyler was not up to the 1.9 or 2.2 one way trip up black bear last Saturday.

A so the hiking began.  Emma strapped to my back, Wyatt pulling David up the mountain and Tyler looking for “Clues” (aka trail markers).  It was a beautiful trail, I love the fall colors.  The recent rain had made the trail kind of muddy and the leaves were all over the trail so at times you really did need to use the trail markers to find what way to go.

Mommy take my photo on this rock….

  

The quick .5 one way hike was well worth it for the great views on this fall day:

  

David, Tyler and Wyatt rested at the top..Wyatt found his inner-puppies on the way up but crashed at the top.  Miss Emma fell asleep about half way into the hike up.  See missed the entire views at the top:

 

Our family photo that someone took for us after i tried to get a photo using my timer!  they turned out pretty funny – totally scrapbookable!

Back at the bottom Tyler had fun on the big rock that welcomed you to the trail

 

Some time 2011 we will hike black bear….(Maybe when Aunt heather foot is healed!)

Who wants to do it with me??? 

ADK Adventure

Last weekend we went camping at 8th lake.  the last trip of the season!  It was a brisk trip but we had a great time.  I am hoping this weekend I can update you on the gardens a projects around the house.  but here’s the photos:

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Nick’s Lake

I really love the Fall and I live for the Adirondacks in the fall.  I wish i could take all my vacation time this time of year!  This past weekend we took the opportunity to go up Nick’s Lake for a weekend camping trip.  We had a great site on the water and some friends came with us.

while we were camping, we left the graham crackers out on the picnic table.  It attracted some friends in the name of Ricky the Raccoon.  He managed to get my 4 lock container open and ate every little bit.  But the silly critter left behind footprints on our picnic table..so we know who did it

The next night he came back looking for more while we were sitting around the fire!  He was wasn’t even afraid of us.

Until our next adventure. 

ny beauty

Weekend Trip to Lake Placid

David and I went to Lake Placid this past weekend to celebrate our anniversary a month early.   We left early Saturday and returned Sunday evening.  The weather was amazing on Saturday, so sunny!  As we drove up Route 28 the fog was lifting from all the lakes.

We stopped on the edge of Lake placid to eat lunch at Saranac Sourdough.  The  food was amazing.  I had a Chicken Salad sandwich and David had ham and cheese.  the cheese was Brie and the bread was all different types of sourdough that they make daily.  Considering location and quality they are fairly priced.  it cost us $20 for the 2 sandwiches, 2 drinks and a cookie to go!  Here is the menu     http://www.adirondackguide.com/ncdining/saranacsourdough.html

After our lunch we drove to Whiteface mountain.  This was my favorite part of the weekend.  Whiteface was amazing.  The tolled highway is a 5 mile winding up hill road with amazing views along the way and places to eat your lunch.  The crazy part was we saw so many people climbing it on a mountain bike..these guys and gals are nuts!  Here is a view from the parking lot at the “top”  this is looking down the mountain and you can see the winding road.

The top of the mountain has a castle.  in the castle is a restaurant and a gift shop.

A view of Lake Placid	Zoomed in on Lake Placid (the town)

From the castle you still need to climb another 200 feet to the summit.    Now you can either “walk” or take the elevator.  When i was reading about whiteface online I read that it was stone stairs to the top; what it really said was Stone and Stairs…oops i was in Flip Flops!

   

David and I at the Castle
The Stones	The Stairs

Once you reach the top it is so worth it…

We also visited the Olympic Center on Main street. 

 

We  went in and saw Herb brooks arena!  Its great to see where miracles happen i was shocked how small it was

We also went to the Bobsled Sports Complex on the way home on Sunday:

An option is to take a bobsled ride, its very pricey but i think i need to save the money for next year.  We saw 2 people doing it!

   We stayed at the Golden Arrow, which was very nice.  we had a lakeside view with a balcony:

One of my favorite things is to just sit by the lake with some coffee (all though finding a good cup of coffee in Placid for a non starbucks fan is not that easy)

 

If only we were still there……………