For his winter vacation, our son announced he wanted to go skiing.  Not water-skiing, downhill skiing.  My DH and I looked at each other and wondered where this mutant being came from.  Our family usually spends the winter break someplace where you can bask in the warm sunshine on a white beach and paddle through turquoise blue waters with brightly colored fish for company.  Downhill skiing involves SNOW which involves COLD which we have plenty of in New Jersey in February.

However, being the agreeable parents we are, we booked a hotel in Lake Placid, New York, in the heart of the beautiful, SNOWY Adirondacks.  Amazingly enough, we had a great time.  I don’t do downhill skiing.  Been there, done that, have a bad knee to prove it.  However, I managed to find lots of other fun things to do in the COLD.

Here I am skating on the 400-meter oval where Eric Heiden won his 5 gold speed-skating medals in 1980.  It’s a loooong way around this track!

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Here I am with my DH snow-shoeing through the alpine forest of the Adirondacks.  That’s a workout!

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I also went cross-country skiing but didn’t manage to bring my camera for that.  I even talked DH into trying it; he’s REALLY not into cold weather.  But he said he’d try it again.  What a trooper!

My last activity was something I’ve always, always wanted to do: ride in a dog sled across a frozen lake.  Mush!

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I wasn’t allowed to “drive” but riding was a blast.  DH and I were tucked snugly under a blanket as we flew across the ice.

This is how I survived all my unaccustomed activities:

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Our hotel’s fabulous hot tub.  It bubbled away all my muscle aches and pains before I even knew I had them.  There’s something very decadent about sitting submerged up to your chin in warm, frothy water while snow swirls by the window outside.

Ahhhhhh!

Fun fact: This gorgeous region is actually named after an insult.  Evidently the Iroquois disliked the Algonquin tribes who lived here and called them by the derogatory name Adirondack which means literally “bark-eaters.”  Who knew?