I figured I could share some pictures from the first half of our trip – these are a hodge-podge of phone pictures and little camera pictures and real camera pictures.
I’m not sure I’ve written much about it, but Rick has been training for an Ironman Triathlon – 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run. That’s a lot of miles.
Anyway, it’s been months and months of training and early morning workouts and all day workouts and long workouts on Saturdays and/or Sundays. So to be near the end of it – I was a little excited.
We headed out for Lake Placid on Wednesday July 18, stopping for a night in Niagara Falls. We did the Maid of the Mist boat ride (Carson wasn’t a fan…he isn’t a fan of rain in general, so that caused a problem) and then we did the “Walk behind the Falls” tour where you can walk out these little tunnels and see the water cascading down 15’ in front. Mallory said it felt like we were in a tornado with the loud water pouring and crashing around us.
After one night in Niagara Falls, we headed off for the longest leg of our trip – Lake Placid, NY. This was a six-plus hour drive, but we stopped and had lunch at Rick’s uncle’s house on the way. It was a nice way to break up that trip, but then it was off to Lake Placid. We arrived around 5.30 on Thursday evening (July 19).
Lake Placid – in a word – is gorgeous. It reminded me of up north Michigan with it’s cute little downtown and shops. If not for the closest Target being 50+ miles each way (all on back roads), I would totally move there (Rick has already said we is willing to sell all of our houses and move there in an instant – that I could just do photography full-time [and he would just bike full-time?]).
Anyway, Rick’s mom was with us while we were in Lake Placid. It was helpful to have her there to assist me in wrangling kids while Rick was off doing his various triathlon related stuff. We went to dinner while Rick got in a quick training ride or run and it was funny because you could tell who were the athlete and who were the athletic supporters based on what people were drinking at dinner.
Our hotel was just across the street from Mirror Lake (where Rick’s swim would take place) and was beautiful. It was about five blocks to the shops downtown and the kids were fantastic with all the miles we made them walk over the five days we were there. It is very pedestrian friendly with lots of crosswalks.
Anyway – Friday morning we went to paint pottery – Mallory has been talking for months about painting her current piggy bank and since I’m not crafty enough to know if you can paint an already painted ceramic piggy bank (at least not the way Mallory thought she wanted to – I’m sure you could spray paint it but that’s not what Mallory had in mind), she was excited to paint a peace sign piggy bank, while Carson painted a soccer ball piggy bank. They even got to put their handprints on the wall when they were done :-)
Friday afternoon was Ironman related stuff – Rick had to register for his race and then we met up with him to eat lunch and so the kids could run their Ironkids race. Mallory was ridiculous and wouldn’t run the race without Rick (a whole 1/4 mile) so Rick got to do it with both kids. Friday night was a fancy dinner thing for the athletes and was sold out for other people, so we were on our own again for dinner (with Rick’s mom).
Oh, I need to mention the awesome breakfast spot in Lake Placid – The Breakfast Club. They have the most greatest chocolate chip pancakes ever.
Oh, I also need to mention that our hotel has a great spa – and because I felt I deserved a little me time. I scheduled a maple sugar scrub spa visit for Saturday morning. It was spectacular and I wish I’d (played and) won the lotto so I could have done more spa things. But alas, I was back on mom duty after just an hour.
After my spa appointment and breakfast Saturday morning, we visited the Olympic ski jump place, and there were actually people doing training runs (on field turf…). You could take a chairlift to the top of the hill, and then you take an elevator up to the top of the 120m ski jump and look out over Lake Placid and all the mountains. It really is so gorgeous. There were also some kids practicing the aerial ski jumping but we missed out on watching them up close. Mallory was excited to see the Olympic rings around Lake Placid and was pointing them all out to us while we were there. But now that the Olympic rings are on TV 24/7 because of the Olympics starting, it is getting annoying when she yells “I SEE THE OLYMPIC RINGS” whenever she sees them on TV.
While we were at the ski jump place, we tried to take a family picture on top of the podium. This is what my children gave me. Thanks.
Throughout our time in Lake Placid, people would ask Rick “are you here for the Ironman?” I was getting a complex that people didn’t assume maybe *I* was the one doing that insane race :-) Rick said it just because he had the Ironman race athlete bracelet on {and I didn’t} that people knew I wasn’t competing in it. Nice try, honey.
After the ski jump thing, we had to hustle back because Rick had to turn his bike in for the race the next day. There were 2,800 athletes competing which means there are 2,800 bikes in that transition area. When I showed Rick this picture, I said “that’s a lot of bikes”. Rick said “that’s a lot of money”.
Saturday night we had an early dinner and headed back to the hotel just in time for the s’mores event on the beach at our hotel. This is the lake where Rick was going to swim the next morning.
Carson made a s’more but ate only half of it.
The next day was Rick’s race. And that deserves a post of it’s own. :-)