Ausable Chasm, Wild Walk, Lake Placid, Mt Philo

lighthouse

 

Ausable Chasm Sign

What a world-wind “Mini Vacation” we just had.

My wife and I had planned a trip with some friends a few weeks back, and well, it finally happened. Some 800 +- miles, 3 attractions in 36+ hours!

We did get off much later then we’d hope, but what is a trip without some issues right off the bat. The late start caused us to change our dinner plans, and in hindsight we should have stuck with the original plans. Not because the food at the restaurant was bad, hell it was down right great. The issue was it was so pretty damn late (for us), to be eating a big meal.

We eat at Juniors Italian Restaurant in Colchester, VT http://www.juniorsvt.com (about 5 minutes outside of Burlington). We started with a few appetizers, Stuffed Mushroom Caps and Fresh Mozzarella Caprese. We follow these up with Salads, Soup and our meals (Oh and some freakin Awesome Bread!)

Sorry no pictures, I still find it a bit odd, to be taking pictures of my meal, so other can see what it looks like, just me I guess.

I had Chicken Picatta (2 thumbs up), My wife had Shrimp Pink Pesto, which was good, just way to heavy for her this late at night. Norma had chicken and eggplant parmigiana, (which she damn near eat all of it, but it was smaller portions:)) and Leo had, what did Leo have? Must have been good, he eat the whole damn thing.

Yes, we saved room for dessert (ok so only Leo and Norma had dessert,) but we had a small bite (which was all Leo would let us have). After the meal we headed to our hotel for the night. Quality Inn in Shelburne, which is a Great Hotel folks, stop here if it’s on the way. BIG Beds, wonderful pillows and a reasonably large TV:)

We got up around 8ish, (no we got up around 5ish, but left our room for breakfast around 7) went down and had breakfast, then headed off to the ferry, which we almost missed because I forgot, we were doing this trip a week later, and they had changed the ferry schedule for the fall.

The ride was great, smooth, pleasant skies and wonderful scenery. A few photo’s of the ferry ride.

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Can you see the 2 faces i the rocks?

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I wasn’t fast enough but a few jets flew overhead while we were crossing, Low and fast!

So 45 minutes or so later, we landed in Chasm, NY, pulled off the ferry and headed on our way to Ausable Chasm. I great place, if you get a chance, go folks.

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Chasm 7

chasm falls

The day here was done and it was time to head towards wild world. We spent about 3 hours here, and while we could have slowed down and spent 4, 5 hours here, we did see almost everything there was to see.

I put in the address for our next stop, I got the usual 3 route options, and while I was getting ready to put one in, I was informed that at least 3 of us were hungry … NOW! Someone selected a pub, while turned out to be some 16 miles out of the way, so I changed it to a place we just past, as I was looking for a new stop. It was a local BBQ joint, well that is what the sign said. Really, what it was, was a local diner that had a few BBQ items on the menu.

The place was hoping and we (ok I), wasn’t sure we would get severed anytime soon, but the 3 hungry ones said “Slow down, we’re on vacation, what in hell is your hurry!”

So a BLT, Tune Sub, BLT , a burger and some poutine were our choices, and I believe everyone was very happy with their choices., heck our plates were left clean:) After finishing, we headed for our next stop. With new directions we set off to get to Wild World. This new route took us through Lake Placid, NY, which turned out to be a good thing, and a bad thing. Good because I had picked a few restaurants here for diner that night, and bad becasuse we all fell in love with the option of coming back the next day and spending some time to explore. This was bad only because it wasn’t on the plans the next day, and well, when you add something, you have to take something away, so Shelburne Museum will be another trip, another day.

Oh, did I mention on the way, we found a Great Chocolate Shop, I didn’t, oh, we did, and it is called … Oh yeah,  Candy Man, which also goes by the name Adirondack Chocolates: http://candymanonline.com

This stop was mostly for Leo, who had a real bad hanker-in for some dark chocolate. Now this wasn’t to say, he was the only one ready for some sweets:) Our first stop was at their Wilmington, NY factory, it was also a stop we made the next day, so Leo could get even more Dark Chocolates.

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The only photo I took of the Chocolate Factory, and as for the chocolates, no pictures there, they didn’t stick around long enough for a photo.

Lake Placid is a great place. Shops galore, oops, let’s back up. I forgot about Wild World, that night’s hotel, and our meal in Lake Place that night.

Ok, so we get to Wild World a bit later then we (I) was hoping for. With the time available we hit the walk on the tree tops first. This is a great.

So where was I, oh yeah, the Wild World Tree Top Walk.

View of part of it

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View from the eagles nest

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Another view from inside the eagles nest

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The cool part of the walk

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I didn’t take a picture of it, but right in front of her is a BIG (20+ Feet in diameter) spider web that you get to walk (fall) on

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Bridge to the tree houses

 

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Bridge to another part

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Duck inside the museum

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Shot of the eagles nest. Some 15′ in size and some 3 tons in weight, and it’s a mock-up of the largest eagles nest found to date.

 

tree top

Ok, so an hour or so here and we’re out of here. This was only because they closed, and kicked us out:(

We didn’t get to spend much time in the museum, but I think you would be silly to not spend a few hours checking it out, and know I would have, had we got there earlier.

So off to our hotel for the night. A small place called Lake View Motel. Now I’m not saying it was bad or anything, but make sure you have checked around to see if there are any rooms before checking in here. Why you ask, well, it’s small, a bit stale in the rooms, a TV, well let’s just say my 30″ Apple monitor is bigger:(

There was no place on-sight to eat, but this was known before we checked in. It is next to a McDonalds, and yes, it does have a Lake View. The Lake is right across the street with nothing but the main road between you and the view. Not sure why, but HUNDREDS of geese flocked here over the weekend. Hell they had kids running around the ball field during the game, to keep the geese out of the playing field:)

So, let’s get back to dinner. As I mentioned earlier, we drove thru Lake Placid by accident, and this proofed to be a good thing. Good from the stand point we saw that there were ton’s of places to eat here.

We did a bit of research from the hotel and narrowed it down to one of the 84+ restaurants in Lake Placid.

As we headed out, the sky opened up and it started to rain, I guess if it has to rain, having it do so at night wasn’t a bad thing. We got to Lake Placid and dove around looking at the many options for eating. We went into one large, fancy hotel to get their advice (and pick up a local dinning guild). The 2 women behind the counter were pleasant and reasonably helpful. They mentioned the 2 places on-site, but were nice enough to mention a few places that had nothing to do with them.

They mentioned 2 places in particular that sounded like the best options. So we checked out one place which seemed incredible, and had I brought the deed to our house, I think we would have had a wonderful meal here. The views of the lake, the grounds, everything about this place was incredible. The grounds, the hotel, the views, the people there, everything about this place said Money, which is ok, because I’m ultra rich, (yeah in my dreams), but it wasn’t what we wanted. Ok, so it was what we wanted, just on a smaller budget. I will say, should we ever go back here, I will give it a try, not only for the meal but also as a place to stay, just not this time.

Damn I typed some 6 paragraphs more and forgot to hit “Save”, oh well, maybe I can remember what I said.

I believe I was talking about finding a place to eat.

So we ended up back downtown trying to find a place to eat, when all of a sudden my wife said “I don’t care were we eat, just stop the freaking car and let’s go into one of these places, my ass is killing me, I’m tried and hungry!”

Ok, so with that I proceeded to drive around to find a parking spot near some restaurants. This proved not to be easy, with it raining everyone was taking anything on Main Street. So once again I was told, “Pull-over, NOW!” I did, and I said I would be back after I found a parking spot. So they went into the Dancing Bar Pub while I went to find a parking spot. Up and down Main Street I went, just looking and hoping someone would pull-out and I could sneak right in. Well my persistence  paid off, as right in front of the restaurant I dropped them, a spot opened up.

I went into the Dancing Bear to let them know I was ok, and that I found a spot right in front.  They said great, now if we can just get seated here, that would be great.

I said I would be right back, and proceeded to head out the door and ran across the street to see if there were tables available at any of the other places. I struck Gold, there was a table at the Black Bear Restaurant right across the street. I took the table and said I would be right back. I went over to tell them I got us a table at the Black Bear, to which they laughed, and once the waitress came over with their drinks I figured out why they were laughing. I told them I would be across the street waiting for them when they were done.

While I was sitting down waiting, a couple were leaving at the same time another couple was coming in. The ones coming and asked if they would recommend the place or were they leaving because it was a long wait or what. The women replied “Not is it only good here, we just had the best %^&ucking chicken dish we’ve ever had, anywhere, and I should point out, we are not from around here so I could care less, but if you want a great meal and a pleasant staff, stay, you’ll be glad you did!”

Now this peaked my interest, and while I was waiting on the clowns across the street, I looked the menu over, and saw several dishes that looked like they were worth checking out, including the &^*(ucking Black Bear Chicken dish the women suggested to those folks.

Headed home for the night, but tomorrow we’ll get into the meals and our waiter, who was a real hoot “Cando” from Russia.

Leo wanted a “Special Drink” in a BIG glass, no little drink please. Cando said “Cando” You want Big, you get Big, canyou pay for it:)

Ok, so once was all done, we proceeded to order ( I ordered appetizers for everyone).

appetozers: An order of Stuffed Mushroom Caps and an order of baked scallops. The scallops were a big hit. With diced tomatoes, 3 cheeses and a Very tasty white sauce, most thought this might be what they would order for a meal. Yes, the mushrooms were eaten, and with smiles on our faces, but the scallops, then those were the bomb!

So, on with the show

For our meals (no one got the &^*(ucking Black Bear Chicken dish), and one of us should have.

My wife ordered a crap cake dish severed with a tomato based sauce, Which she said was simply the best crap cake dish she has EVER had! Just incredible!

Norma had a scallop dish of some sort, which she to said was awesome, but not as good as my wife’s crap cake dish.

 

 

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