Summer is spectacular in the Adirondacks and there are quite a few interesting events occurring in the Lake Placid/High Peaks region. I know many of you are considering trips to visit us. I thought it might be helpful to post some event information to help you decide when to come.
1. I Love New York Horse Show - July 1-6, 2008 - World class riders and horses participate in championship Hunter and Jumper competition. Watch as they win over $470,000 in prize money and awards! http://www.lakeplacidhorseshow.com/
2. Independence Day Ski Jump - July 4, 2008 - Yes - they ski jump in the middle of the summer! We attended this two years ago and it was great fun. http://www.orda.org/newsite/events/2006/chevy_jump.php
3. Lake Placid Sinfonietta - A professional chamber orchestra featuring some of the best classical musicians from around the country performing in and around Lake Placid Wednesdays and Sundays July 4 to August 10, 2008. www.LakePlacidSinfonietta.org
4. Wet and Wild Wednesdays - July 15 - August 20, 2008 - Watch and be amazed as ski athletes from around the world put on an amazing aerial show flipping and twisting into the 750,000 gallon pool. http://www.orda.org/newsite/tosee/wet_n_wild.php
5. Iron Man Lake Placid - July 20, 2008 - 2.4 mi. swim • 112 mi. bike • 26.2 mi. run - We've been watching athletes training for this by swimming the entire length of Mirror Lake without stopping. Amazing! http://www.ironmanusa.com/
6. Settlers Days - July 26 - 27, 2008 - The 200th Anniversary of the Town of Keene
7. Saturday Night Ice Shows - June 21 - August 23, 2008 - Figure skaters from around the country and the world perform their competitive program, routine or group number under the spot lights in the 1932 Jack Shea Arena. Over the years, these summer performances have featured many top figure skaters, including Dorothy Hamill, Sarah Hughes, and Victor Petrenko. The Saturday Night Ice Shows are a peek at the future of figure skating. http://www.orda.org/newsite/tosee/sum_ice_series.php
8. Lake Placid Ice Dancing Championship - July 30 - August 2, 2008 - http://www.lakeplacidskating.com/newsite/competitions/ice_dance/index.php
9. 6th Annual Otis Mountain Music Festival - August 15 - August 16, 2008 - http://www.otismountain.com/home.htm
10. Festival of the Colors - September 13, 2008 - Celebrate the coming of the Fall Season with color arts and crafts, baked goods and produce (all for sale), plus live music, a barbecue and pumpkin decorating for the kids.
11. Whiteface Memorial Highway - Open thru October 13, 2008 - An eight-mile climb from the crossroads in Wilmington, the Whiteface Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway ascends to the summit of the fifth highest mountain in the Adirondacks. http://www.orda.org/newsite/todo/summer/highway.php
12. Flaming Leaves Festival - October 6 - 7, 2008 - Watch the best ski jumpers in North America compete, live blues bands, tempting barbeque and great brews, a 60 foot inflatable obstacle course, petting zoo with pony rides, arts and crafts – all with unparalleled views of the Adirondacks and the peak fall foliage. http://www.orda.org/newsite/tosee/festivals.php
These are some of the "main attractions" not to mention the always beautiful scenery, hiking trails, concerts on the lawn, art exhibits and much more. Hopefully this information will inspire you to plan a trip to the beautiful Adirondack Mountains. We would love to show your our beautiful part of the world.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Bits and Pieces
Some of you may be wondering if we've dropped off some mountain cliff . . . No - we've been too busy to climb any mountain cliffs lately! We are certainly in the thick of the "hard work" season of our dream, but it's exciting to be seeing things take shape.
This posting will be a collage of "Bits and Pieces" from our past few weeks.
Celebrating the End of School
The girls and I celebrated their last day of school (homeschool) with a little party. We spent the afternoon playing games like Bop It and charades.
Here the girls are racing each other to carry popcorn kernels on a spoon. Harder than one would think!
Continuing with the popcorn theme . . . we made homemade popcorn balls. Don't worry - we used different popcorn!
When Daddy (otherwise known as the Principal) got home, we held an Awards ceremony. Both of the girls did very well this year. . . and amazingly, I won "Teacher of the Year" award!
I was very touched by the cards the girls made for me. CorrieAnne's said, "We will miss you!" As if we won't be seeing each other now that it's summer!
The girls were presented with their end of year "Report Card" gifts - brand new fishing rods. No more Tweety Bird and Barbie! These are big kid rods and with literally hundreds of rivers and lakes within driving distance, they'll get good use.
Turning our Attention to the Outside
Now that the weather is nice, the mad dash is on to plant, plant plant! The growing season here in Keene Valley is just about 100 days - we could have frost in August - so if you don't hit the window for planting, you may as well not bother.
Wayne has worked hard to clear beds. The ground is full of roots and rocks. We have so many rocks that we will be able to build a beautiful natural rock wall around all of our beds.
We planted some herbs - chives, parsley, basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme and chamomile. We don't have much room for vegetables yet, so we just put in some tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, kale, onions and cucumbers.
There was a perennial exchange in Keene last weekend. Great idea except that we had no perennials to exchange! We looked around the yard. What could we take? FERNS! We have hundreds of ferns.
So - Wayne dug up six nice big ones that were sprouting in the middle of the yard and would be mowed down anyway. We also dug up two bushes that we didn't want. Didn't know what they were, but they looked promising.
Turns out the bushes were . .. INVASIVE! When the nice lady behind the table said the "word," everyone turned and looked at me like I'd just plotted to overthrow the entire eco-system! I motioned for Wayne to get them out of sight and quick!
On a brigher note, the ferns were a huge hit. They earned me enough points to get a lilac bush, some irises, daylilies, shasta daisies and a big bag of horse manure. We've also planted by seed sunflowers, foxglove, morning glories and more shasta daisies. I was also given a huge bag of gladiola bulbs -yeah! Our porch is now sporting four large hanging pots of impatiens.
And here's a picture of our new baby hydrangeas. I just have to have hydrangeas by my porch! (I'm not even going to think about how long it will take for these to get as big and beautiful as the ones I left in PA!)
I was NOT happy to encounter this little guy slithering near my herb garden! We think (after careful internet research) that he is harmless - appears to be a ribbon snake.
Nonetheless, he can just slither on out of here!
Day Trip to Lake Placid
Thunder in the Mountain!! On June 2-7, we experienced our first Americade weekend. According to the Americade website, the Adirondacks are "riding heaven" and over 50,000 bikers came from all over the US to enjoy. From early morning until late at night, they rumbled and roared up and down the mountains. It was incredible! This is a shot I took in Lake Placid. The sides of the street were lined in both directions and as we drove, we kept having to wait for long lines of bikes to pass by - sometimes 100 bikes at a time! You had to see it to believe it.
While in Lake Placid, we knew we were low on gas. But if we did
our grocery shopping first, we could earn more gas points to get $$ off on our gas. You guessed it .. . we ran out of gas between the grocery store and the gas station! Fortunately, we ran out just before we turned onto the main street of town where there is nowhere to pull over! Wayne's boss just happened to be a few blocks away and rescued us.
We concluded our visit to Lake Placid by having a picnic (pizza from Main Street Pizza - yum) by Mirror Lake. Many of the homes Wayne works in look out over the lake so when he takes his lunch breaks, he often enjoys million dollar views.
Open for Business
It's official - we're in business!!!! We finished all the paperwork for NY and Essex county and are now legally allowed to conduct business as the Snow Goose Bed and Breakfast. It is so exciting to get "real" phone calls from customers. In fact, I was so excited when the first woman called, that I quoted her the wrong price. She got quite a deal!
That about does it for now. We'll be busy painting for the next few weeks. If anything exciting happens, I'll let you know.
This posting will be a collage of "Bits and Pieces" from our past few weeks.
Celebrating the End of School
The girls and I celebrated their last day of school (homeschool) with a little party. We spent the afternoon playing games like Bop It and charades.
Here the girls are racing each other to carry popcorn kernels on a spoon. Harder than one would think!
Continuing with the popcorn theme . . . we made homemade popcorn balls. Don't worry - we used different popcorn!
When Daddy (otherwise known as the Principal) got home, we held an Awards ceremony. Both of the girls did very well this year. . . and amazingly, I won "Teacher of the Year" award!
I was very touched by the cards the girls made for me. CorrieAnne's said, "We will miss you!" As if we won't be seeing each other now that it's summer!
The girls were presented with their end of year "Report Card" gifts - brand new fishing rods. No more Tweety Bird and Barbie! These are big kid rods and with literally hundreds of rivers and lakes within driving distance, they'll get good use.
Turning our Attention to the Outside
Now that the weather is nice, the mad dash is on to plant, plant plant! The growing season here in Keene Valley is just about 100 days - we could have frost in August - so if you don't hit the window for planting, you may as well not bother.
Wayne has worked hard to clear beds. The ground is full of roots and rocks. We have so many rocks that we will be able to build a beautiful natural rock wall around all of our beds.
We planted some herbs - chives, parsley, basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme and chamomile. We don't have much room for vegetables yet, so we just put in some tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, kale, onions and cucumbers.
There was a perennial exchange in Keene last weekend. Great idea except that we had no perennials to exchange! We looked around the yard. What could we take? FERNS! We have hundreds of ferns.
So - Wayne dug up six nice big ones that were sprouting in the middle of the yard and would be mowed down anyway. We also dug up two bushes that we didn't want. Didn't know what they were, but they looked promising.
Turns out the bushes were . .. INVASIVE! When the nice lady behind the table said the "word," everyone turned and looked at me like I'd just plotted to overthrow the entire eco-system! I motioned for Wayne to get them out of sight and quick!
On a brigher note, the ferns were a huge hit. They earned me enough points to get a lilac bush, some irises, daylilies, shasta daisies and a big bag of horse manure. We've also planted by seed sunflowers, foxglove, morning glories and more shasta daisies. I was also given a huge bag of gladiola bulbs -yeah! Our porch is now sporting four large hanging pots of impatiens.
And here's a picture of our new baby hydrangeas. I just have to have hydrangeas by my porch! (I'm not even going to think about how long it will take for these to get as big and beautiful as the ones I left in PA!)
I was NOT happy to encounter this little guy slithering near my herb garden! We think (after careful internet research) that he is harmless - appears to be a ribbon snake.Nonetheless, he can just slither on out of here!
Day Trip to Lake Placid
Thunder in the Mountain!! On June 2-7, we experienced our first Americade weekend. According to the Americade website, the Adirondacks are "riding heaven" and over 50,000 bikers came from all over the US to enjoy. From early morning until late at night, they rumbled and roared up and down the mountains. It was incredible! This is a shot I took in Lake Placid. The sides of the street were lined in both directions and as we drove, we kept having to wait for long lines of bikes to pass by - sometimes 100 bikes at a time! You had to see it to believe it.
While in Lake Placid, we knew we were low on gas. But if we did
our grocery shopping first, we could earn more gas points to get $$ off on our gas. You guessed it .. . we ran out of gas between the grocery store and the gas station! Fortunately, we ran out just before we turned onto the main street of town where there is nowhere to pull over! Wayne's boss just happened to be a few blocks away and rescued us.
We concluded our visit to Lake Placid by having a picnic (pizza from Main Street Pizza - yum) by Mirror Lake. Many of the homes Wayne works in look out over the lake so when he takes his lunch breaks, he often enjoys million dollar views.
Open for Business
It's official - we're in business!!!! We finished all the paperwork for NY and Essex county and are now legally allowed to conduct business as the Snow Goose Bed and Breakfast. It is so exciting to get "real" phone calls from customers. In fact, I was so excited when the first woman called, that I quoted her the wrong price. She got quite a deal!
That about does it for now. We'll be busy painting for the next few weeks. If anything exciting happens, I'll let you know.
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