Lake Placid

As Pat said, since Winter didn't come to us this year, we decided to go to Winter. This last long weekend for Presidents Day, I planned a very last minute get-a-way to Lake Placid, about 5 hours north of Manhattan.

We left on Saturday morning and rented a car from Laguardia Airport. From leaving our apartment, getting our rental car, to getting out of the city took about 2-3 hours. We weren't really intimidated by the long drive since we were just really excited about being in a car. It was a nice drive, but as we got closer the Lake Placid we realized that we probably were very ill prepared for the elements. We weren't expecting any snow, as a few days earlier I called and they said they didn't have any. However, this definitely was not the case. We ended up being fine, but did have a hard time staying out in the cold for long periods of time.

We managed to find a hotel that allowed pets, so believe it or not, we took Montee along! We thought he would enjoy the trip a lot more than he actually did, but for being a cat he did surprisingly well.

While we were there there just happened to be a bobsledding competition, since Lake Placid held the 1980 Olympics. It was really fun to be right up close to the blobsledders, even though we only saw them for a split second as they zoomed passed us at 80 miles per hour. It became a kinda of game for us to try to see if we could capture them in a picture--it only works about a third of the time.

Later on that day we went on a little hike to a 700 foot frozen waterfall that had these wooden walk ways and bridges. It was really nice to be out in nature and just take things slow. 

After our hike they had all the supplies to make s'mores. It was a nice little treat and I will NEVER turn down a s'more.

Lake Placid is a very quaint town. It had your touch of the modern with retail stores on main street, but it also kept its history with all the mom and pop shops. It was fun to see so many people engaging in winter activities, such as ice skating on the frozen lake, skiing, and even dog sledding.

All in all, it was really good to be spontaneous and to get out of the city for a day or two. As is anything when it comes to city living, it was a lot of work and money to actually get out city, but we were glad we did it. I think we need to keep life exciting and splurge every once and while to maintain happiness and sanity.