Birthday Reflections

The Man was up at dawn for a run around Mirror Lake, and was treated to these views:

We spent another day here in LP, took in a short hike (not a popular choice with absolutely everyone, ahem) up Cobble Hill, spent more time variously on the lake (in kayaks), in the pool and just sitting around reading.  And I turned another year older, but that's OK.

A Placid place

The Man has some time off work and today we have come up to Lake Placid to enjoy it.

We're staying in our favourite hotel (the Golden Arrow) and we're doing all the things we like doing here, without having to think very hard about it.  So some of us have boated on and swum in Mirror Lake, and some of us have eaten at Wyatt's Mexican cafe; some have been to the bookstore and some to the popcorn store; most have swum in the hotel pool, and we've all been out to dinner at the Italian restaurant that serve fries.

It's fun and exciting to visit new places, but sometimes it's easier and more relaxing just to go somewhere familiar.

Zud!

The Man had never been in our local hardware store.  I went there with him this evening to buy some screws.  What a Shangri-la it is!  And with that lovely hardware store smell about it!  And it stocks some awesomely named cleaning products, including this one:

Just a few good reasons to shop local.

Making waves

The Boy has lately taken to being a one-boy wave machine, resulting in a lot of water washing out of the pool altogether.  So it was just as well that today we had one (in fact, two or three) of those torrential downpours typical of this time of year to top it up again.

It has been a this-and-that sort of day, but at least one of the "thats" involved taking a car-load of toys and sundry items into Albany to donate to Grassroot Givers.  I hope they will all find happy new homes.

A couple of old geysers

 We felt the need to get out of town, yet didn't want to to travel too far, so this afternoon we made our way up to Ballston Spa for the Saratoga County Fair. 

Fried food and noisy rides aside, it was a classic old-timey country-type event - with a few exotic twists.  A zebra in the petting zoo, for one thing.  Camel rides in addition to the more traditional ponies.

There was a tent full of rabbits and chickens (and - another twist - a couple of reindeer).  A shed full of goats.  Draft horses.  A big old barn stuffed with 4-H handiwork. An "agricadabra" show that involved a man with a balloon over his head.

And we watched pig racing, something I've always secretly wanted to see.  To be honest, it is not all that exciting, just pigs running round a pen, but the presenter did her best to make a show of it.  The pigs had punny pop-culture names, like Miley Swine-us and Lindsay Loham. 

On the way home we stopped in at Saratoga Spa State Park to collect some spring water (avoiding the nasty-but-allegedly-good-for-you [I personally don't believe that] mineral water) and to visit a geyser. 

There are springs of one kind and another all over the park, but the geyser (OK, OK: spouter) is fairly spectacular, as is another one we found which has made its own weird rock formation.

A (common)wealth of blueberries

This afternoon we took the Boy and his buddy fruit-picking at Indian Ladder Farms. 

The Man and I left the boys picking raspberries and crossed the road and a pleasant meadow in search of blueberries.  We have had mixed experiences of blueberry-picking at ILF.  Sometimes we've arrived just before or after the proper season and struggled to fill a punnet. But not today!  Blueberries were fat and ripe and plentiful, and very much delicious.

This evening some of the family got into the spirit of the Commonwealth Games and swam some races, including a keenly fought 10m freestyle final.

Seemed like a three way tie.

A room with a zoo

The Boy rearranged his bedroom today and was amazed to discover that if you remove the extra mattress covered in cuddly toys you create masses more space.

As well as doing that, and swimming with a friend and playing Dr. Who Monopoly, he has been playing on a favourite old computer game: Zoo Tycoon.  He seems to have developed some good management skills, as he has kept the same zoo operating for several days, and even won some award (in the game) for Best Zoo. But his sister got involved tonight and inveigled him into some "cheats" she'd found online.  Next thing you know, they've got a unicorn and a mermaid!  I'm not sure where it all goes from here.