Karen was obviously tired from her travels and the stress of the previous week. Everyone else was also knackered for one reason or another so we decided to do something that was not too strenuous. The chosen activity was to go to the Oktoberfest festival at Whiteface Mountain. For those who don’t know Whiteface it is the Adirondak Mountains' principal ski area in upstate New York (and where the Olympic downhill skiing event was run). During the off season they continue to provide gondola rides up to the summit, so we decided to do this first off, especially as Karen had not been able to do the trip up Loon Mountain. The view from the top was spectacular, it was such a clear day the visibility was tens of miles and the views across the tree
lined valleys in their autumn colour glory was stunning. On the way up in the Gondola we had been behind the Bergermeister and some of the Oktoberfest musicians who once they got to the summit got inspired to break into full swing with their oompah music (which was considerably better than the bag pipe player on top of Mount Washington). When we got back down to terra firma we spent some time wandering around the Oktoberfest, which was very home spun but the kids 
enjoyed trying to pet alpacas and the rock wall, and as always there was hog roast on hand to satisfy the hunger. Towards the end we met up with one of the entertainers on stilts, dressed as a pirate sitting on large ostrich (which was not real – some of you reading might have heard of British children’s entertainer called Berny Clifton … this person was similarly attired). It turned out this man was British and had been an educator in Leicestershire in the UK, which got Karen excited because she had worked in the education system in that county (albeit in prisons). A small world, but fortunately they didn’t have any acquaintances in common…. otherwise we’d never have heard the endWe finished the day by going around the islands of Lake Placid on a boat trip. The sun was going down so it was a little chilly but nonetheless a beautiful way to finish off the day.
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