Memorial Weekend

On Saturday we tried out an new Rib festival with some friends. It is one where they actually have a competition where teams make things and turn it in to judges. It also had the World Bacon Championship, with categories like bacon on a stick, dessert, and wrapped in bacon. Unfortunately, the competition part of things was not something the public could really view. So we ended up trying ribs from different vendors and got some bacon (it ended up being candied--Yuck) which one of us enjoyed.

Little Bird enjoyed running around the grass and we went for a carousel ride. She is becoming an expert. Afterwards we all enjoyed some ice cream.

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Sunday evening we drove down to Letchworth to see the hot air balloons launch. We took down a picnic dinner and then roamed around watching to see if they were going to get any balloons up.

A couple of people tried and got their's inflated but it was too windy to launch and most people didn't even try. But it was cool to see the couple that did inflate.

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Monday, we just enjoyed the sunny weather at home--took a walk, played at the park, mowed the lawn. It was a nice weekend together.

Lake Placid

We both had some vacation time to use up so we took a long weekend and drove to Lake Placid. Thursday was a little over 5 hours in the car, by far the longest ride Little Bird has been on so far. She did really well entertaining herself and then napping. But after about 4.5 hours, she was ready to be out of her car seat and I don't blame her.

Once we got to the hotel room, she had a great time just running back and forth from the door to the air unit and around the bed.

That night and another night we took LB swimming for the first time. She really seems to like the water but was kind of shocked by the cold at first. She likes to "swim" on her tummy, but doesn't want to be on her back to float.

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Friday, we went to the Wild Center, a natural history museum about the animals and environment of the Adirondacks. One of the exhibits was in a dark room with a huge glowing globe that could show many different images of the earth--electricity use, migration of tagged Pacific turtles, weather, etc.

And there were a lot of tanks full of native wildlife (fish, turtles, ducks). Little Bird loved to look in at tall the fish swimming around. While we were there she learned the sign for fish.

LB was a little nervous to stand close to the glass with the otters because they kept swimming over and pushing off the glass. She must have thought that they could get her or something.

It wasn't very crowded so she had a great time running around the place. From one tank to the next and everything in between. By the end she was tired out.

She liked the fish so much, we ended up getting her a fish to take home.

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Saturday we hit the Olympic sites. First we stopped at the Olympic Center where they have a small museum about the two Olympics that were in Lake Placid. It  had some interesting information and things on display.

Next we headed to the ski jumps where we took a chair lift up the hill and an elevator almost to the top of the highest one. It was a good thing LB was strapped on and couldn't wiggle because it was nerve wracking having her so high up. At the top was a great view.

Next we drove up the Veteran's Memorial Highway which took us almost to the top of Whiteface mountain. At the top you could either hike up the rocks to the summit or go through a tunnel and up an elevator. We opted for the latter with LB. The mountain is 4,867 feet high and and has a weather research station at the top.

Our last stop of the day was at the bobsled/luge/skeleton track. It wasn't busy so we got a personal tour by the woman who helps take care of the track and announces the events. She drove us to the top and told us all about the old and current track and how it is maintained. Then she let us walk the mile down the track itself to the bottom. It was pretty neat.

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Sunday we headed home. On the way we stopped in Saranac Lake and went for a few rides on the Adirondack Carousel. All the animals on it were carved by different artist and they are all animals native to the Adirondacks. Little Bird wasn't quite sure what to think of the movement at first but by the end all she wanted to do was touch the nose of the otter she was riding.

We had a fun weekend exploring a new place.