Aren't we out of New York Yet?

At the base of Lake Placid, looking up at Mt Whiteface
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Today was one of those days when I was just genuinely thrilled to be alive.

The day didn’t start off terribly spectacular, just a run-of -the-mill cool historical site;). We started off with a trip to Saratoga, site of the battles in 1777 that marked the turning point in the Revolutionary war. (It was America’s impressive defeat of the British at Saratoga that convinced France to support our cause. Without them, we could never have won our freedom. (just thought I’d throw that reminder in there for everyone who has been swayed to “boycott French” in recent years because France didn’t support us in a recent war that turned out to be based on false cause.)) Battlefield is all a national park now -- just trees and grass. Hard to imagine that there was ever a bloody battle there.

At the top of Mt Whiteface, looking down at Lake Placid
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But then (and I have to give Eric 10 points for spontaneity here) when we realized that we weren’t going to arrive in Vermont in time to do anything (see Detour 2:Closing Time J) Eric made a spontaneous turn and we headed toward Lake Placid, NY. We ended up taking the Veterans’ Memorial Highway up Mountain Whiteface for absolutely SPECTACULAR views of the Green and Adirondack mountains. THIS was the truly spectacular, breathtaking part. (and my favorite part of the trip so far.) We actually hiked up a portion of the mountain (only 1/5 mile, but we had to earn every inch of it!) before hanging out at the top, and I could have stayed up there forever.

Climbing up the Mountain
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When we reluctantly left, we drove to Lake Placid to see the Olympic Stadium. We were able to walk around it a little and see the figure-skating and ice hockey rinks from both the 1932 and 1980 games. (for those of you who have seen “Miracle” - we saw that ice rink!) We also took a lap around the speed-skating rink, which is now a running track in front of the awesome high school building. Lake Placid overall is a pretty nice place -- it seems like the “up north” of New York, where New Yorkers might come for an outdoor vacation. After walking around a bit and sampling some fudge, crepes, etc., we finally headed off to Vermont.