A Hot Day at The Lake and a Night in a Cool City

Donna and I had been following the weather reports, so we knew today would a be a good day to be out on the lake. We enrolled the kids in the Teepee club which offers arts & crafts, swimming, and other camp-like activities, and after a nice breakfast with just the two of us, we went and rented two wave runners.

Lake George is a rather large lake, and with the boat traffic and wind, the water can get really choppy. I must say that with my limited experience on wave runners, I'm just glad I didn't wipe out. It was very exhilirating opening up the throttle, but I was not particularly comfortable turning . . . a minor detail . . . so I had to keep it at more manageable speeds most of the time. Donna did terrific, and we both stayed dry other than the spray from the pounding we took crossing the many waves. As you might imagine, we have no pictures to prove any of this to you as the digital camera had to be left behind.

The 30 minute rental period went by quickly, and we next went and rented a two person kayak and paddled around the small island where we are staying. We were both equipped with paddles. I noticed at the end of our roughly one hour rental that I was pretty hot, but I couldn't convince Donna to swim. I jokingly quipped that a person can get hot when he's single-handedly paddling a two person kayak around the lake. In all fairness, Donna did contribute for most of the ride. We've included a picture of my beautiful bride right before the kayaking excursion.

After a leisurly lunch and brief swim which was literally therapeutic in these cold waters, we dressed up and went for afternoon tea - a tradition at the Sagamore. I'm not much of a hot tea drinker, but it was a lot of fun as they throw in a few finger sandwiches and a dessert sampler.

We decided to take the kids on a late afternoon drive to Saratoga Springs to check out the town - it was the one we briefly drove through on the way here and mentioned on our blog. We grabbed a few brochures at the visitor information center and jumped on a trolley which gives a guided one-hour tour of the city for $1 per person (kids are free). Saratoga Springs is best known for a horse racing track and for its hot springs and mineral waters. We actually were more enamored with the architecture as many of the Victorian and Greek Revival homes have been preserved. Little Runcie and Elizabeth got to ring the bell on the trolley. We only did a short part of the tour which included drinking some of the mineral water from a fountain area. Perhaps not coincidentally, Elizabeth got sick during our dinner - but she turned out to be feeling fine immediately afterwards.



Speaking of dinner, we ate at a restaurant right out on the sidewalk. We've included some pictures of the downtown buildings with members of our family in the foreground. We also noticed "horse" statues all around the city - likely due to the horse culture here, and each horse is uniquely decorated. Our kids loved them.



After a stop at Ben & Jerry's for some dessert, we jumped in the car and drove around to take in some of the architecture. Unfortunately, it was beginning to get dark, but we were able to get some good pictures of some of the buildings we saw.

The famous Revolutionary War Battle of Saratoga was fought a few miles from here, but we did not have time to visit the battlefield. Although, many of the old buildings in Saratoga Springs are preserved, it's not as old of a town as I expected due to the Revolutionary War history in the area. The city itself was founded, I believe, in the early 1800's. Much of the architecture dates from the latter part of the ninetenth century with some around the mid-nineteenth century.





That's all for now. We're beginning to make plans for our drive home which have morphed into going from here to Boston on a slightly out-of-the-way country route through Vermont and New Hampshire. However, we still have tomorrow on Lake George to enjoy.