After our early start and eating reasonbly quickly we took the time to have a quick look around Little Falls. http://www.littlefallsny.com/ The centre of Little Falls is really nice and in good condition and it looks as though people have got quite a lot of pride in their town. But if you have a place on the Erie Canal and the Mohawk River that looks like this who wouldn't???
For a relatively small town it has what I am sure will be even better when most of these buildings as renovated and full of people.While it would have been nice to stay around and enjoy Little Falls we were expecting another long day and with that in mind we headed out towards Dolgeville. As we were trying to avoid the major highways we waited until we were there before we put the address of the The Summit Hotel, Lake Placid into Mrs Garmin. She was on her best behaviour and for much of the way she took us along the picturesque Adirondack Trail http://www.nyroute30.com/ The plan worked, and we had a great drive through rural roads on our way to the Host City for the 1932 and the 1980 Winter Olympics, Lake Placid.
The Adirondack Mountains http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adirondack_Mountains are not all that tall, with the highest peak being Mount Marcy (1629m, 5344 ft), but they are certainly scenic with many interesting little towns and hundreds of lakes and streams along the drive.
Amongst the most scenic day's driving I can remember but there were some surprises....
But then again some things remain the same.......
No she didn't race back to the car and get her swimming gear and neither did I!!!!!
About 20 minutes later we arrived at Lake Placid. Whoever named the place WAS RIGHT!! This is a very placid place. Not only is it the host city of two Olympics but it is in a magnificent setting, and even though the end of the ski season in most resorts leaves tham looking tired this place still seems vibrant!
Earlier I said that the Adirondacks weren't exactly lofty peaks but they do get a lot of snow http://www.whiteface.com/mountain/index.php and the venue for the Alpine Events Whiteface sure sounds good to me http://www.whiteface.com/winter10_11.php
As Lake Placid has been the host of 2 Winter Olympics and many of the "in town" are still in use including the Hockey Rink which was the site of the "Miracle on Ice" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_on_Ice The arena is by modern (NHL) standards fairly small but is very nice and very much in use.
As nice as the Hockey rink looks I don't think Eric Heiden would be quite as unbeatable on this surface but then again he was very, very good. The museum that is a part of the centre is great and with us travelling at this time of the year there were very few people here. We went onto and tried to look at the U.S. Winter Olympic Training facility but they may have heard that we were going to try and steal their secrets so they wouldn't allow us any access to the athletes or coaches.We then came on something that was unexpected, a roadsign to John Brown's farm and grave. I only the old song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jso1YRQnpCI but not a lot about John Brownso what does one do. Google of course and what comes up first http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(abolitionist) good old Wikipedia!!! Fascinating story and one of the last things I expected was to be standing in front of the Grave and looking at the statue! This sure is an interesting country!!!
It had been a long day and we were starting to realise that it had been some time since we had eaten so we looked at our options. Many were offering good deals and one that we thought long and hard about was Jimmy's 21. Heard that they had gggggreat ffffffood but
We ate at the Players Sports Bar and Grill which was straight across from our hotel http://www.frommers.com/destinations/northernadirondacks/D53424.html
The food was more than OK, Smoked salmon sandwich for $6.95, value and even better value when you add a beer for $2.00.
AND THE VIEW WAS UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!
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