Day 15 – Back to New York

From – Stowe (Vermont)
To – Lake Placid (New York)
Via – Ticonderoga (New York)
Miles Driven –151
Attractions Revisited – 2 (Ben & Jerry’s, Von Trapp Family Lodge)
Minutes Spent Discussing the Relative Merits of Snow Chains vs Snow Tires – 120 to 180
Knowledge about Snow Tires – Zip
Knowledge about Snow Chains - Nada

Today’s Photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/32017704@N03/sets/72157609492104098/

Kate and I differ on the best way to fully utilize a hotel and there was no better demonstration of this than on the morning of Day 15 when I was up at 7am to walk Molly round the grounds, go for a swim, lounge in the hot tub, sweat it out in the steam room and read the complimentary paper by the pool before breakfast. Kate, in contrast, put in some quality time under the duvet. Still, each to their own. The snow chains vs snow tires debate started over breakfast and continued for the next few hours with the typical Grant ‘n’ Kate conclusion of…let’s just wait and see how it goes. I was about to plough into the ins and outs of the debate then but I realized that it was dull enough first time round so there’s hardly any need to regale it here.

Before leaving Stowe, we had a few camera chores to get out of the way so quick repeat visits back to the Von Trapp Family Lodge (to take piccies of the place in the day and also to visit the little family cemetery where Maria, The Baron and Julie Andrews career are buried) and also back to Ben & Jerry’s (to get a photo of both of us in the pint lid as apparently the world might stop turning if we didn’t). I don’t think anyone would believe that, whilst back at the factory, we didn’t have another ice cream but it was minus 10 degrees centigrade outside so I promise you we didn’t.

The drive to Lake Placid was a real four seasons in one day affair as the conditions ranged from blizzard like snow (which creates a great effect not dissimilar to the warp speed scenes in Star Trek but replacing the stars for snowflakes – I wonder if that is the most geeky sentence ever written?) to glorious sunshine (but don’t be fooled – it never got above minus 5). There is a bridge that links Vermont to New York which feeds into a really well manicured state park that looks almost man made – it’s really nice but not really a good representation of New York. After that the weather turned a bit miserable again and we saw plenty of frozen lakes and icicles (in fact there is a huge one outside our room here in Lake Placid) which were spectacular but sent shivers down my spine about how damn cold it was going to be once we were no longer protected by Bridget’s heaters.

Nothing much to report after getting to Lake Placid. It looks like a pretty town but with an hour of sunlight left and having skipped lunch, priorities were walking Molly and finding food. A quick online search for food continually talked of a place called Caffe Rustica on the outskirts of town so that’s where we headed for a fantastic Italian meal (a couple of salads, lamb shank for me, pizza for Kate) but what made it truly great was that the restaurant was actually full and we realized that this was the first time we have dined surrounded by other humans in two weeks! On the downside, it meant we had to return to using cutlery and not belching loudly after each bite.

Assuming we don’t freeze overnight we’re going to take on some nature trails tomorrow and test the thickness of the ice on Mirror Lake..