I’ve arrived in Lake Placid for the Lake Placid Half Marathon! This is officially a father-daughter bonding trip that me and my dad are taking together, including the 5 hour drive it took us to get up here. Luckily, NO traffic! On the drive up the scenery was incredible. There were so many trees and open space that this NYer seriously appreciates.
The town of Lake Placid itself is cute and quaint with a bunch of mom-and-pop type stores. Its also right on Mirror Lake, which is gorgeous and makes for some incredible views. When we got here we noticed there were a ton of cyclists riding around the town and found out that there is a bike festival going on this weekend, as well as bike races the following two weekends and an Ironman Triathalon in July. Plus the marathon and half marathon on Sunday. Its a very outdoorsy town.. I love it!
So we were starving by the time we arrived so we checked into the hotel (which is awesome by the way), freshened up, and headed out for lunch… with a view! The restaurant was called the Cottage.
Our lunch with a view restaurant!
Mirror Lake and the Adirondacks from our table.
And I had to get one with dad! He’s such a great dad, I’m so lucky 
Father-daughter bonding.
After lunch we walked around the town (basically up and down Main Street) and checked out some of the local stores. There was a ton of hockey memorabilia, especially from the 1980 Miracle on Ice team.
In the stores there were some seriously random, but cool items. I love shopping around places like this, its so unique. Here’s some of my favorite finds…
Hand blown glass! So beautiful.
Moose hat!!! There are moose toys everywhere in the stores here. Its their signature animal.
I also had read about this awesome ice cream shop nearby called Emma’s Lake Placid Creamery and of course had to get a treat I’m on vacation and that means its allowed. Plus I couldn’t finish the whole milkshake anyway, it was huge!
Black and White milkshake with a moose cookie (saved for another day)
After our walk around the town we decided to drive on over to see Whiteface mountain. Even though I’m a skier, I have yet to ski here unfortunately. After seeing it, I’ve decided I HAVE to ski on it. Its the biggest mountain I’ve ever seen and taller than Killington. Honestly the pictures don’t do it justice in terms of how massive it is. I need to conquer it.
Winter 2012-2013: I’m coming for you Whiteface!
There is a “highway” you can take to the top of Whiteface and see the views. My dad and I tried to do this but it was already closed for the day. BOO! We were both disappointed but are going to try to check it out tomorrow. I want to see what it looks like at the top to prepare for my domination of this mountain in the winter (Domination.. ha.. I’ll probably end up falling all over the mountain).
Afterwards we headed to dinner at a great place off Main Street called Pan Dolce. Seriously, this place is the bomb. And I haven’t used that phrase since about the 5th grade so you know I’m serious about this. If you ever got to Lake Placid, head here.
I started with the French onion soup. Yum! For my entree I got a gourmet peppercorn burger with avocado, tomato, blue cheese dressing, smoked apple bacon, and homemade bread. I also asked for it cooked medium and they actually cooked it medium!! Places usually overcook my burgers–pet peeve!
Huge burger, couldn’t finish this either. But it was delish!
For dessert my dad and I split a chocolate fountain cake thing. Not sure of the name but it was really good. Neither of us could finish it though, it was so dense. I’m a sucker for choco!
After dinner we headed back to the hotel and watched some TV before I decided I wanted to go for a swim in the pool. Its such a nice pool area and its indoors (yay!), I was so happy to be floating in the water and swimming around like a little kid. I love being buoyant!
The pool!
Post-pool… repping Brooklyn in Lake Placid!
That’s basically day one of Lake Placid! Race packet pick up is tomorrow and we are going on a tour of the Olympic center, then hopefully to the top of Whiteface. More pictures to come
Who is running races this weekend? Tell me about em!
Have you ever been to upstate NY?
