July 26-27, 2013: Lake Placid and the Lake Champlain Ferry

We went through this town and Elizabeth wanted her picture taken in front of the sign with her name on it.

A little bit of a detour to see some of the sights leftover from the Winter Olympics.  

Impossible to show in this picture, but this ski jump still used for training, is so much higher than it looks; we were amazed by the heights.

This gives a little bit more of a perspective.

Countryside looking the other direction from the town of Lake Placid.

The town of Lake Placid was packed!  We read in a book about all the events which are constantly going on, training, games, tourist attractions, but lots and lots of sports activities; this is a "fit" town.  To complicate the traffic further, an Ironman Competition is being held on Sunday.  We saw the 2.5 mile corridor marked off for the swim and everywhere we drove we saw painted green arrows and people running and biking preparing for the 110 mile bike race and 26 mile marathon race to follow the swim.  These amounts of exercise are just too hard for me to comprehend.

Leaving Lake Placid and going over to Plattsburg, New York to spend the night.

Saturday morning, July 27, 2013.  Time to cross into Vermont.  The Ferry acoss Lake Champlain will take us to an island in Vermont which has roads built on marsh connecting to the mainland.

A little windy and chilly.

The other ferry boat returning.

Getting ready to dock

The Green Mountains of Vermont

Crossing the bridge is how to get to the very small town of Montpelier, the capital of Vermont.

The State House in Vermont, just across the river.

More Vermont beauty

One of my favorite things about coming or being up North is looking for these statues in every town we go through; it's like a scavenger hunt for me.  Almost every single town, hamlet, village, or city has one of these exact same statues in the center of their town.  Each is worded slightly different but all memorialize the dead of the War Between the States and refer to it as the War of the Rebellion or the War of the Great Rebellion.  For some reason this amuses me so that I find myself looking for each one knowing I will never see anything different, just different names.  

New Hampshire and the top of Mt. Washington in the White Mountains.  You can just barely see the buildings up on top.  We went up there last year, up the Auto Road and spent some time.  Jeff, Jackson, and I went up 6 years ago when we spent some time in Maine so this year it's not on the "to do" list although this is a beautiful day to go.

An Abandoned Garnet Mine in NY

Friday, July 26, 2013

Hiking to the mine.

Looking for garnet in the rocks.

Finding flecks of garnet in the rocks.

Wildflowers growing everywhere.

Looking up at the original walls of the mine.

Scenery in the distance of the mine.

Pock marks where the garnet was dug out of the rock

An interesting "red" find on the trail!

Another amphibian

Scenes Along the Way to Maine

A pretty little girl.

Looking at some of the original Erie Canal.

Original Walls of the Canal

Exploring a lock on the canal.

An interesting barn somewhere in New York; it has a garage door.

Summer Travel to Maine

As usual all good blog posts pop into my head and right out extremely quickly if I don't get them onto paper.  In this case, that's what happened so this post will be "Just the facts ma'am, just the facts." 

In the past 4 days we have traveled hundreds of miles, spent a small fortune on diesel gasoline,  gone through multiple states, cleaned out a grocery store, ate lunch in the car 3 days straight, walked along the Erie Canal, hiked in the Adirondacks, explored an abandoned garnet mine,    

crossed Lake Champlain on a ferry, nestled ourselves in a cabin (ok, a camp) in Maine, jumped in the lake a hundred times (only the boys have made it to that number), canoed, kayaked, visited an 1850 era church, hung out with our friends, and whined a little (mostly children), ached a little (mostly the newbie waterskiiers), and laughed so hard that now we look at each other and start giggling.  And lastly, but not the least of which, the bird whisperer, and if you know who the duck whisperer is, you're ahead of the game, this bird whisperer helps a frightened wren who is trying to get in our screened window tonight, seems she likes the light but the bird whisperer easily catches, holds, and calms her before she hurts herself and lets her go in safety.  Maine has that effect on you I guess with it's soothing temperatures (not hot Charleston), it's glistening lake, beautiful mountains, loons calling to you in the early evening or morning, and the breeze.  I admit, there are a few bugs, mostly mosquitoes which should qualify as the state bird even though they are insects, but nothing a can of spray can't hold at bay. 

 

As busy and GO GO GO as our life has been, it seems that relaxing a little has been good for all of us!

 

Dress Like A Cow Night

Written by Sarah Kelly Rowe, age 12

Yesterday was free food at Chick Fil'A,if you dressed like a cow.

 We took this sign seriously, hey a little work equals FREE supper!

 So we begin.

 Everyone had a lot of fun painting old T- shirts for our cow costumes and

 the little ones loved making paper noses and ears, for us to wear.

 Daddy with his hilarious reputation dressed as the farmer with a milk pail and a empty gallon jug of milk  tied to his belt loop. 

 Here we are ~ cows and all.

 While we are walking in, someone snaps a photo with their phone. Now that we are dressed up people really stare at us.  And of course Daddy is calling out:   "Time to get the milk" while jiggling his milking pail.

Sweet baby girl is cow-cute in her own small costume.

 After we order, Sarah Kelly and Abby, our neighbor who lives down the street, get straws, napkins and lots of ketchup for everyone  

 Harris puts on a excited cow pose.

 This is how much it cost us for dinner:  FREE!  Unbelievable what it would have cost us!

Katharine enjoys the yummy chicken.

 After all the cow bellies are full we head back to our own neighborhood, looking forward to next year when we will do it again.