Road Trip - Day 3! (NY)

May 28, 2012 (Monday)

The morning started out with a drive down to the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site. The house costs $5 per person to get in (valid for 7 days) or $12 for a family (valid 7 days). There is no charge to walk the grounds. The National Parks Pass gets you into the place for free. The park service offers a house tour hourly from 9am to 4pm.  The visitor season runs mid-May to the end of October.



Martin Van Buren NHS -  "Lindenwald"

 The home tour was good and lasted about 45 minutes. You will surely learn some information about Van Buren on the tour. I thought that the most interesting thing was the cane (but I cannot tell you more about that since if you take the tour they will ask you about it). If you decide not to take the tour there are some signs available to read along the pathway leading to the home. The home is called “Lindenwald”, after the trees in the area. There are also hiking trails located across the road from the site. Time did not allow us to check them out.




Saratoga NHP Battlefield

  Continuing our journey, we headed back to the north to Saratoga National Historic Park. Again, there is a fee at this park - $5 per car, unless you have the “America the Beautiful” pass. There is a 20 minute film at the visitor center that does a good job of describing what occurs back in 1777. There is also a light up display which shows the locations of the troops throughout the scuffle.  There is a nine mile driving tour the battlefield area. There is one home that remains on the battlefield. Other stopping points are located along the route which have talking display boards. Locations off the main battlefield area are also present to visit. We stopped by the memorial, which is located at a cemetery. If the memorial is open you can take the stairs up to the top which provides an okay view of the surrounding area. The Battles of Saratoga are sometimes known as the “Turning Point of the American Revolution”, and historians often consider the battles fought here to be in the top 15 battles in world history. In short, the British, led by Burgoyne were attempting to end the rebellion in the American colonies. The American troops eventually surrounded the British, causing them to surrender.



Parasailing on Lake George, NY

 We continued heading north and crossed into the Adirondack Mountains. Lake George, NY was on the way our next destination so we stopped to check out the area. Lake George is very touristy. We opted to take an hour boat tour, via the Minne-Ha-Ha. There is a parking lot operated by the boat tour group at is $7/day. The area around the boat area and downtown tourist area cost $2/hour. We parked in the $7/day lot, it was easier to get a spot and the price was not too outrageous. The boat tour provided us with some history of the lake and the “million dollar” beach homes. An AAA discount was offered for the boat tour, but the cost was still $11.50/person. Personally, I would not recommend the tour, but then again I am not crazy about being on boats. There is a lot of hiking in the Lake George area, and if my leg had been feeling better we probably would have ventured out. We did a little bit of wondering around town, hopping into the tourist shops. A bit out of the more touristy area we played putt-putt golf at Pirate’s Cove. Mike managed to get three hole in ones, which we believe is his personal record.

We ate at a little place called “Giuseppe’s”. They have free parking at the restaurant. We had potato skins and a ham pizza, which both were decent. There were four potato skins ($7) and we had a medium pizza ($14). The pizza was NY style – six large slices. Mike also got a beer ($4.50).



Chapel Pond - near Lake Placid, NY

 Our final destination of the day was Lake Placid, so we continued north from Lake George. The drive along I-87 and Route 73 was very scenic. There are many roadside pull-outs along 73. There are suppose to be some waterfalls right of the road, but we did not happen to spot anything too substantial.  There was a really pretty lake, Chapel Pond, right off the roadway that we stopped at for some photos. There is also a hiking trail at that location.  Closer to Lake Placid a river runs along the roadway – very pretty!

We stayed at the Best Western Adirondack Inn for the night. The hotel is directly across from the Olympic Complex and very close to the downtown area. The hotel looks very nice on the outside but the room itself was a bit dated, but much better than the hotel from the night before. A warm breakfast was included at this hotel.