Lake Placid: Day 1 Arriving at the Olympic Training Facility

After adjusting to East Coast time as quickly as we could, we got moving to Lake Placid. It was a 1.5-2 drive from Burlington, VT to Lake Placid, NY, so we fueled up like East Coasters, with coffee and a donut from Dunkin Donuts.

Ellie in her Lions shirt (it is a practice day)

Wearing the Winter Flip Flops

Along the drive to Lake Placid, we passed through Elizabethtown, which seemed appropriate.

Then, to check another transportation method, we had to take a ferry across Lake Champlain. Continued through the Adirondack mountains, and finally arrived in Lake Placid. I would have never guessed that this place has hosted two Olympic games. It seems like a tiny town, picture Truckee or South Lake Tahoe, but without the casinos.

We're a couple of daredevils riding the ferry (Bonus
points if you know the Friends episode this references)

Ellie checked into the Olympic Training Facility and event though we met kids and parents from Philadelphia, Chicago, Minnesota, Ellie was roomed with a girl from....Sunnyvale. This was probably a great thing because the thing Ellie was most concerned with, wasn't the weather (it's about 20 degrees here), or the competition, or anything like that, it was that she didn't know anyone. So having someone from the same area was helpful.

We toured around the facility, met with the coaches, then the kids were off for their activities and dinner, I headed out towards my hotel. I ended up driving around the area a little, found the "downtown" area, which had one street, aptly called Main St. that had shops, and restaurants. I parked the car, walked around, and was shocked that there was NO ONE in any of the restaurants. I'm not saying they were nearly empty, besides the waitstaff that was standing around, no one was around. Clearly, this is a summer vacation town, and pretty empty in winter. But I went in, sat by an outdoor fire pit, had a drink and some wings, then realized that even it was only 2:00 back home, and Monday Night Football didn't start for another 3 hours.