Vacation

We spent most of last week upstate New York at Lake George. It is a beautiful town in the Adirondack mountains. My husband went there as a kid, and we have been going ourselves for the last 4 years. The kids love it and so do we. We were so lucky with the weather. The week before we went, it was cold and rainy. We had rain overnight one night and one day of cold (60's). Every other day was sunny and 80-90. The girls swam in the pool so much, they were exhausted at the end of the day. I swam myself every morning in the lake. It is so beautiful and peaceful in the early morning, often with mist rolling over the mirror-like lake. I can't resist swimming, even though it is so cold that the (unheated) pool feels like a bathtub after the lake.

One day we drove to Lake Placid, about 1 1/2 hours north. This is a lovely town with a European flair. Lots of restaurants and shops, and alpine architecture. They had a pile of snow in the middle of town. I know they add some every day, but it is still amazing to see in the middle of August. The night before we visited they had a record low of 36! We visited the Olympic center, home of the ice rink where the American ice hockey team defeated the USSR team in a huge upset in 1980, and went on to beat Finland for the gold medal. Yes, I am showing my age, but I remember it well! We also went to the Olympic ski jump. You can go to the top and look out over the jump. I can't believe anyone can do that. We saw some people training even without snow. They have some kind of plastic grass they land on and ski down the mountain. My 8 year old was excited to ride up in the ski lift by herself (I was a wreck).

We saw a beautiful fireworks show one night, and did the standard mini golf and amusement park. It was a great time.

But where is the food, you ask? Well, this is not the town to be vegan in. Let's just say I don't want to look at pasta for quite a while now! Sadly, I discovered that Pop Tarts, the ultimate road food, have gelatin in them - I thought they were safe because they have no dairy or eggs (at least the flavors we had). Why, yes, I would rather have a Pop Tart than a Larabar. Oh, well, that's what I get for craving junk. Anyway, we had happy hour on the deck overlooking the pool and lake every night. At least rum is vegan (if it's not, please don't tell me)......SO, I will bore you with vacation photos instead of food photos.

Like my new moose cookie cutter? It had a recipe attached that was vegan if you change out the butter for EB.

These ice chunks were not up north but on my back porch here on Long Island in August. We had a hail storm that I was out driving around in - the noise on the car was like nothing I ever heard! The ice broke my garden gazing ball and the wing on my fairy fountain.