Another Great American Road Trip
Since we were in Albany today it was worth taking a look at the city before hitting the road and heading for Lake George, in the Adirondack National Park. We took a stop at the Corning Tower to go to the observation deck (42 floors if my memory serves me right), which is free. You need to show photo ID on your way in, and you get a little printed security badge. I suspect that on a clear day, the views would be stunning. However, it was rather overcast and snowing, so we really couldn’t see a great deal. However, there was no waiting time and the place was empty so it was still worth it. After that we went to the Capitol building, which is very grand and well worth a look (great architecture). Again, this is free and comes with airport style security check. This was really all we had time for, so we jumped in the car. From what I read, Lark Street would have been well worth a look, it’s noted as a good place for younger people, but we had bigger fish to fry!
Our road would take us North, on Interstate 87. The route wasn’t particularly far, with only about an hour or so’s driving to the outskirts of Lake George. We passed an outlet, so made a brief stop. I refrained from buying anything, I’m still stocked up from my outlet shopping in Minnesota last year. We got to Lake George Village (off exit 22 on the I-87), and parked up next to a snowbank that was about 5 feet tall with a path ploughed next to it. I love the no-nonsense approach to snow in the States. While the UK was brought to it’s knees from 8 inches, these guys shovel several feet of snow every day with very big trucks with very big snowploughs on the front. We English should certainly take a leaf out of their book on that front.
We went into the Bank Cafe for some lunch. They do a fantastic Soup & Sandwich combo. We got talking to a few people in the Cafe, who laughed at the snow woes in the UK. They were telling us how last year, they had snow fall of 11 feet in just 2 days but their guys with the big ploughs made fairly light work of it. It turned out that we would just miss the winter carnival, where they car and plane rides using the lake as a road/runway – the ice is over 2 feet thick!
Looking through some local guides on what to do, we decided on snowtubing. Unfortunately, the place was closed, so we went to nearby Fort Edward to go bowling. Nice chap on the counter, seemed interested in our trip and was surprised to see visitors in his town. I managed to win a game, against my ex-champ friend. Sadly I was beaten twice in a row after that. I blame the lanes, too much oil!
After that it was time for food, so we went to the Holiday Inn and negociated the middle priced room for the lower priced room rate. They had a “Taco Tuesday” night on, and they were free. We relieved them of a great deal of tacos, and had a few beers each. It came to just $39 for all of us! I sampled the local beer, Coopers Cave. It’s quite nice, but really smells of cheese…so after one I switched back to my usual Sam Adams.
Took a quick dip in the hot tub, our hair froze, then went to bed. Tomorrow, we head to New York City!
