We spent the night with our friends the Quaintance's - Lee, Suzanne and their children Charlie, Catherine and Henry. After a leisurely morning sitting around and breakfasting we went out for bit of fresh air. As we were in Lake Placid us Hoblets were keen to look around the facilities left behind after the 1980 (& 1932) winter Olympics. Firstly we went around the Olympic centre with its numerous skating rinks, mind you the only 
thing that seemed to interest the children was a simulator ride where you could experience the thrills of being a down hill skier or a member of the bob sled run. After this we trekked out of town to the bob sled circuits, which looked terrifying, especially the thought of the louge and skeleton events (which are like coming down lying on a tea tray). Our final stop was the ski jump towers – it is difficult to fathom why anybody would want to do this event and how do you learn to do it (they apparently jump in to pools of water!!). It still looks hairy to say the least and when you see the height of the towers it looks all the more daunting. We decided not to take the trip up to the top primarily because of the cost so instead we got out for a walk in a near by area which is used for cross country skiing.
The children went of with Suzanne whilst Mark went to explore a near by monument. This
turned out to be the burial of site of John Brown (as in the song line “John Brown’s body lies a-molderin in his grave”). He was one of the original American slavery abolitionists who chose a route of direct action, part of which was a raid on an arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia. He planned to use the captured weapons to give to the slaves to start an uprising. During this raid two of his sons were killed and he was captured, tried for treason and executed. His body was then carried to his farm in upstate New York where we were now standing. We have planned out much of this journey to take in places we want to visit but it is wonderful to come across surprises like this monument.
Whist Mark was exploring Jack and the Henry (who is 6) decided to wander off and do a bit of their own trekking. After several minutes of not being able to track them down the parents on hand started to become a bit more frantic and started hollering out their names. This went on for a good ten minutes or so. We went back towards the car and noticed the door was open and reaching it found Jack and Henry chatting quite contentedly totally oblivious to the panic that had caused. Phew!!!!
That afternoon Karen flew into Albany from her mother’s funeral so Mark drove down the 120 miles or so to fetch her back to rejoin the great adventure.
thing that seemed to interest the children was a simulator ride where you could experience the thrills of being a down hill skier or a member of the bob sled run. After this we trekked out of town to the bob sled circuits, which looked terrifying, especially the thought of the louge and skeleton events (which are like coming down lying on a tea tray). Our final stop was the ski jump towers – it is difficult to fathom why anybody would want to do this event and how do you learn to do it (they apparently jump in to pools of water!!). It still looks hairy to say the least and when you see the height of the towers it looks all the more daunting. We decided not to take the trip up to the top primarily because of the cost so instead we got out for a walk in a near by area which is used for cross country skiing.The children went of with Suzanne whilst Mark went to explore a near by monument. This
turned out to be the burial of site of John Brown (as in the song line “John Brown’s body lies a-molderin in his grave”). He was one of the original American slavery abolitionists who chose a route of direct action, part of which was a raid on an arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia. He planned to use the captured weapons to give to the slaves to start an uprising. During this raid two of his sons were killed and he was captured, tried for treason and executed. His body was then carried to his farm in upstate New York where we were now standing. We have planned out much of this journey to take in places we want to visit but it is wonderful to come across surprises like this monument.Whist Mark was exploring Jack and the Henry (who is 6) decided to wander off and do a bit of their own trekking. After several minutes of not being able to track them down the parents on hand started to become a bit more frantic and started hollering out their names. This went on for a good ten minutes or so. We went back towards the car and noticed the door was open and reaching it found Jack and Henry chatting quite contentedly totally oblivious to the panic that had caused. Phew!!!!
That afternoon Karen flew into Albany from her mother’s funeral so Mark drove down the 120 miles or so to fetch her back to rejoin the great adventure.
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