Lake Placid and Times Square at night - Keels go to Canada day 20

This was an amazing morning. Nice cool air, some trees with colors and my coffee.

We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant, Chloe and I finished off that pot of coffee. It was yummy. Apparently the milk was too, Abigail asked the waiter what his name was, he said "Matt." she said, "Well, Matt, what do you put in that milk? Its GOOD!" We about died laughing.

This was the fire pit of the porch area of the hotel. We tried several times but the sun was shining. Out of all of our pictures we should be able to take each face and put together one picture where everyone is looking and smiling.

We went in the visitors center to see what we wanted to do today while we were there. Me and the kids wanted to stay another day and skip going to NYC that night.

The Olympic Center.

We settled on going up the ski jump. Not to jump, just to look. 

We had to get on the ski lift to get to the top and go up the jump tower, the kids loved this part. I was a bit worried someone would freak out and fall once they got up high. No white powdery snow to catch you in September.

Everyone ended up doing great. See Paul and Chloe in the back?

When we got to the top, this was in front of the ski jump tower, so all the kids had to have a turn in first place. Abigail wasn't happy that she wasn't first, first.

Basically I learned I will NEVER want to do a ski jump. The design speed at takeoff is 60 mph.... WOW!

This is the view from up there.

No thanks.

The closest I ever got to this was the Summit Plummet at Disney's Blizzard Beach. I only did that once, and was tricked that time since it was my first water slide ever.

This was neat. We watched as they did their summer practice. They land in the water!

The view of the ski jumps from the road.

This was a very cool drive, right along the river.

You can't see t hem, but there were people actually climbing these rock faces.

One of my least favorite places of the trip... Have I said I don't like crowds? Especially when keeping up with 4 kids?

So.... our hotel was in Times Square. We drove in at 7pm on a Friday night. Not our most well thought out moment.

I have to say though, the view from our room on the 45th floor (there are only 46 floors), was AMAZING. We were high enough this time we didn't get so much of the street noise. The room was also much larger and nicer.

We even had a robe in the closet... PR didn't bother to take the hanger out of the robe before putting it on.

 

We had CFA for dinner. It was small!! Only about enough room for 15 people to eat at the bar along the window. We were fortunate enough to be able to fit all 6 of us there and eat.

We did stop in Times Square that night just to see how bright it was at night. So. Many. People.

Finally got one of all of us!

We went back to our room, watched a little TV and went to sleep, getting ready for our next day of adventure!

Lake Placid NY - Keels go to Canada day 19

 We actually got to see fall colors! It wasn't peak but for this Florida family it might as well have been. Anything beyond roundup sprayed on a bush is amazing for us!

 

 

 We drove through New Hampshire and Vermont to get to Lake Placid New York. Lots of pretty sights, especially through White Mountain National Forest.

 

 

 Chloe liked the rocking chair in the Vermont Visitors Center.

 

 The gentleman at the visitors center suggested a place to eat for lunch, when we pulled in I took this picture of another sign we never see in Florida. We got to the door to find out that today they were closed at noon because of a funeral. No lunch for us here.

 We ended up at a truck stop a few miles down the road and had great food. It was a welcomed break since the AC had started acting up in our van and wasn't working all the time. This was also the time we started running the portable diffuser, mom needed a little Peace and Calming, ok everyone needed it.

  

We finally arrived in New York.

 

 Our destination was Lake Placid, where the winter Olympics were held in 1932 & 1980. We stayed at the Crown Plaza and man what a view!

 You see the ski jump in the background to the right of the middle and to the left of the middle in the mountain you can see the bob sled track!

 

 Our accommodations were great, bathroom had a garden bath and shower!

 Bedroom was with a view and had a fireplace!

 Chloe loved the yard from our room porch.

 Now this pool. This pool was amazing! Indoor, built in hot tub, and huge sitting area. The pool was also warm enough for mom and dad to actually get in!

 See this patio/sitting area in the pool room????

And we had it all to ourselves for most of the time we were at the pool. By far my favorite pool of the trip. Such a beautiful location and great hotel!