Vacation Day Three

David and I started the day by leaving Alexandria Bay at 6:30am for the 3 hour ride to Lake Placid and Whiteface Mountain Ski Area. On the way we stopped at Saranac Lake where we saw ice castles, a sailing ship and a pyramid made out of ice blocks. One on the many ice sculptures at Saranac Lake.

David and I "walking" on the "water" at Saranac Lake.
Welcome to Lake Placid New York. This is Whiteface Mountain just passed Lake Placid. This is the actual place where the 1980 Olympic skiing events took place. This place is huge and makes yesterdays skiing look like Gatlinburg, which made Gatlinburg look like a patch of ice. It was also more crowded, colder and windy than yesterday.

Snow making machines were working all day making fresh powder.
After several runs, I went back to the lodge to take a break.

There was an upper deck at the lodge and the view or the resort made it a great place to people watch.

David coming up from skiing and ready to take a break for lunch.

I got the $7.50 chili and a coke. I should have had the $12.50 hamburger and fries like David did.

After lunch we were back out again. The snow was not groomed ice as yesterdays slopes. During the first run of the day, I found my left ankle was in worse shape than I had estimated. When I had a hard time getting my boot on should have been a hint. When I could not get my swollen hand into my glove should have been a hint. I don't do hints well.

I could turn to the left, but not the right, so I would pick up speed going left, then try to cut to the right and not be able to. I could not slow down by changing direction or by making the "V" with my skis. So going left was good, going right I had to stop by "laying it down." Since my left ankle was bad and my right thumb also bad, I had a hard time getting back up.

I needed one of those heath alert things that old people have. Push the button and just say, "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up."

After three runs and laying it down several times per run, I took a break.

So I adapted and sat by the fire and drank hot coffee and watched people interact with each other. To me this is like a good movie, you kind of know what the plot is about, but lots of twists and turns.

The upper deck at the lodge from the lower deck.

The view from the lower deck up Whiteface.
The view from the upper deck up one of the runs. While I was people watching David was climbing this monster mountain. He make it to the top and back down two times. He's the man.

What was left of my right hand, made it hard to grip the ski pole.

After skiing we went back to Lake Placid for dinner. This is the view from the Crown Plaza Hotel drive. The hotel sits above the city and we walked town to the city for dinner. We explored the village and went back to the hotel to meet Jason and David (the other David) to watch the Daytona 500.

David and I decided that on the way back up we would take short cut up this hill rather than following the road back. Yea, it turned out as bad as you would think.

David came up the last part on his hands and knees and I crawled up the side using the small bushes as handholds. But with only had one hand made it difficult.

This is part of the Olympic Village, this is where the 400 meter speed skating was held, it's now a huge place for the people of Lake Placid to ice skate.
This is the arena in the Olympic Village where the USA beat the Russian in hockey.

Inside the arena where the "Miracle on Ice" took place on Feb 22, 1980. I was surprised that the arena was so small.

While in the village we stopped at a coffee house overlooking Lake Placid.

The view was awesome, dogsleds, ice and hockey playing kids and even parents walking with their children on the lake.
We met Jason, Kara, Gavin, Starla, Paula and the other David for dinner at the Northern Exposure restaurant. Most of the restaurants had an hour wait except this one. But took an hour to get our dinner after sitting down. Then took another 30 minutes for the waiter to finally close our tickets. but the food was good and it was nice to sit and watch Gavin. It made me miss Emma even more.

Jason, Gavin, David, the other David and I walked back up to the hotel after dinner. We decided not to take the "shortcut" we took earlier.

After good byes, David and I got back into his car and a little over three hours later we arrived back at Alexandria Bay just short of midnight.

Today, back in grown up mode. An afternoon movie, dinner then to the airport for the trip home.

And how was your weekend?

This is what happens when you think your taking a photo and because you fell so many times the camera settings changed to video.