Lake Placid with Mom and Dad

Mom and Dad came up to visit again this summer. We took it easier this time than last, not running all over the state. The only trip we took was to Lake Placid - possibly one of the only significant places in New York State we DIDN'T visit last year.

Lake Placid has mixed emotional memories for me. The first time I visited was with Nathan two days before he deployed to Afghanistan. It was late March, so the snow had mostly melted. It was also about about 34 degrees and raining. I, of course, was miserable anyway. We stayed only one night, then came home just in time for Nathan to leave. My second visit was last summer when I climbed Mt. Marcy with a group of friends. Even though I really missed Nathan being there with me, I had a wonderful time, including a night spent on Marcy Dam where I saw more stars that I've seen in my whole life - more shooting stars than I'd seen before or have seen since. That will be important in another blog post. For now, this trip with Mom and Dad was my third trip. I was glad to be tipping the scales to more pleasant times.

Mom and Dad really wanted to see the Olympic sites. If there's anybody who doesn't know, Lake Placid has hosted Olympic games twice, once in 1932 and again in 1980. The 1980 Olympics was the "Miracle on Ice" where the US beat the Soviet Union in hockey to win the gold medal. This was the first time in the history of the Olympics we won gold in hockey. But anyway, we went to the Olympic sites.

We took a ski lift to the top of Whiteface Mountain, one of the highest in the Adirondacks. If you can see the tiny white dot just above the center of the frame and to the left of the most right cable, that's the building where the chair lift started. As you can see, it was a very long way up.

This is a view of Lake Placid from the top of Whiteface.

Nathan wasn't too thrilled with having his picture taken.

This is the skating rink where Miracle on Ice happened. History was made. The US rocked the sports world :)

This is the ski jump ramp. You can see how small the door at the bottom is, so this thing is very, very tall.

This is looking down to where the jumpers land. The gray square at the end of the green patch is where the skiers have to stop at the end of their run. I think you'd have to be out of your mind to ever do this.

A view up from the bottom. Again, you'd have to be out of your mind.

This is the new bobsled course. The one from the 1980 Olympics couldn't handle the modern speeds safely, so they built this mile-long track. We walked down it (no riding though ;-) ). 

I think Nathan would win the race, though. Even on foot.

We took a boat tour on Lake Placid, itself. Each of the cabins there (called "camps") costs over 1 million dollars. The money you have to make to afford one of those places was outrageous. The families that own Texas Instruments, Calphalon, and Alpo each have camps.

I was glad to go again in the summer, this time with Nathan with me. Mom and Dad really enjoyed the trip, too. They love to see historic sites and Lake Placid has a nice history to offer. I was also glad to see the sites and check them off my "bucket list" :-)