John's parents flew up from Texas for the weekend and even though it was the "deep freeze" kind of cold in the northeast, we decided to stick with our plans of going yet further north for some fun and sightseeing.
A brief detour through the town of Lake George to check out the ice fishing scene:
Spectacular glimpses of ice walls and ice climbers on the way to Lake Placid:
Whiteface Mountain and a cross-country skier braving the cold in the foreground:
We started our own "braving the cold" adventure at the ski jump site. Lucky for us, the US aerials team was in the middle of practice when we arrived. Jerry caught a couple of awesome photos of these amazing athletes - woo hoo!
No jumping into the pool this time - only the real thing in January:
We were happy to have sunshine and blue skies as we made our way to the chair lift and elevator to take a tour:
Nowhere near as cold as some winter rides up ski mountains:
Yep, still insane:
Go Jenny!
Great views from the top:
We had time for a look around the John Brown Farm where the man himself is buried:
Then it was time for an appointment with the bobsled crew over at the Olympic Sports Complex! Go Jerry and John!
The van to head up the hill:
The ride down the hill (along with a driver and a brakeman):
Jenny and I watched on the TV screen from inside and tried to take pictures. Here you can barely see the guys getting ready on the upper right of the screen:
Once the ride started my camera couldn't keep up with the sled zooming by each camera and I got a bunch of shots of empty track - but Jerry and John can tell you, they were definitely there! 2 G's around the big turn :)
Congratulations on your successful run! Awesome.
To celebrate, we went for Mexican food for dinner. It was in the same place as the Chinese/Japanese restaurant (although you have to pick one menu or the other for the whole table). Not your typical Mexican food, rather more Asian-inspired, but surprisingly good:
The next morning we hung around downtown for a little while:
We could watch the happenings on Mirror Lake from inside a hotel lobby. We spotted a fast dogsled team across the way:
Also a bunch of rinks where folks were playing Can-Am hockey:
Jerry and I decided we would really enjoy a dogsled ride ourselves, and since I believe neither of us has plans to live somewhere where we could do this anytime we like, we jumped at the chance.
Mush!
Happy mushers:
Time to make our way over to the ice rinks and Olympics museum. First we saw the rink from the 1932 Lake Placid Olympics:
Not many seats back then, but a nice rink:
Then the coolest part - the rink where the 1980 Miracle on Ice game was played. Yes, right here. Wow.
There are events going on all the time here, including many hockey games last weekend:
On to the Olympics museum - small but full of interesting things to see, especially for Olympics buffs.
I'm quite sure no one is talking about taking her gun away:
Torches from previous relays:
They were replaying the US vs. USSR hockey game, so we watched the 2nd half and it was as exciting as every time I see it. Not as exciting, I'm sure, as the live broadcast that Jerry remembers watching!
Bobblehead Bobsledders :)
Outside we saw the speedskating oval used both in 1932 and 1980, and I couldn't pass up an opportunity to get on the ice myself. View from the ice:
Trying to remember how to ice skate:
Jenny looks fast:
Too cool (and only slightly cold):
Look out John, Jenny's gaining on you:
Sculpture in honor of Sonja Henie:
A fun stop at an antiques store:
Jenny had noticed these "snow rollers" on our drive up, and we happened to see a news report about them on TV Saturday night. We managed to spot them once again on the way home and determined they were worthy of a photo stop. I had never seen them before - apparently created from a special combination of wind and a particular type of snow:
And once again, John assists with a humorous shot to end on. We ran into Richard Simmons Saturday evening...
Thank you all for a fabulous weekend!!
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