Plattsburgh and the North Pole, NY, Friday, November 25, 2011

The city of Montreal sits on an island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River. The island itself is relatively flat, except for one enormous, solitary hill called Mount Royal, which gives the city its name. We got up early this morning, and drove to the park on the mountain, to see what we could see of its views of downtown. It was cloudy and a little foggy, but we were able to see the tower we were in yesterday. We made our way back through downtown before the traffic really hit, and headed south.

Our trip to Plattsburgh was short and leisurely. The only notable thing about it was when we crossed the US border. The computer flagged us for a random inspection. It was not a big deal and didn’t take more than 10 minutes, but we had to wait inside a building while they checked our car. We’d never had that happen before, anyway.

We made it to Plattsburgh, checked into our hotel, and went to the Battle of Plattsburgh Interpretation Center. It focuses on the War of 1812 battles that took place here in September of 1814. Interestingly, there was both land and a sea components to this battle, as the British marched a large army south and a sizable naval contingent on Lake Champlain. A video here tells the story of the American victory, and makes it sound like the war was basically won in this theater. We saw a small exhibit on women in the war (which included the tales of Laura Secord from Queenston and Betsy Doyle from Old Fort Niagara). The girls tried on some bonnets and giggled while we looked around. The museum itself was free, and was located in one of the buildings that used to be the Air Force base until it was closed back in the 1990s. After the museum, we drove through the old base, and admired how many of the buildings are being lived in and used now. We made our way into Plattsburgh so Scott could take pictures of the monument to Thomas Macdonough and his victory on the lake.

The girls didn’t want to look for Champ, the monster that’s supposed to be in Lake Champlain, so we decided to drive on to the North Pole. It was about an hour away, and by the time we got close it was around 1:00. Julie had thought she had read that the park opened at 3:00, so we thought we could get lunch. By chance, we stopped at a regional visitor’s center and they told us we were mistaken, and the park closes at 3:00. We zipped there and went in.

The North Pole has a very retro vibe, since it was founded back in the 1950s. Walt Disney was supposed to have come here back when he was brainstorming ideas for the secret project that would become Disneyland. It was interesting to be in a place that we had never been to before, but we knew that Julie’s mom had been there with Grandpa and Grandma Eaton way back when, and that Scott’s Grandpa and Grandma Jung had been there too. In fact, in one display of park memorabilia, Scott found a book that he had thought he had forgotten- “Jack Jingle’s Wish.” There’s no doubt that it was one from the closet at 400 East Main. A park employee let Scott look through it when he asked about it.

The girls rode a small roller coaster shaped like Santa’s sleigh and the whole family rode the train that loops around the woods above the park. The weather was nice. The sun was out and the snow around us was melting rapidly, causing a lot of dripping off of the sloped roofs of Santa’s North Pole village. Julie bought the girls a packet of crackers to feed the reindeer with, but none of them seemed very hungry. Anna said she tried one, thought. It was fun to see the familiar names over the deer stalls and on their reins. We peeked through all of the shops (though they are small compared to what we were expecting. Sure, they weren’t going to be as big as Bronner’s in Frankenmuth, but they were small even compared to the Christmas Store in Lackawanna). We looked through the toy maker’s shop, and there was that old school charm about much of what he had for sale. In the chapel the girls were puzzled as to why an elephant was included in the manger scene. Maybe the wise men brought him.

We had checked when Santa was available as soon as we got there. We were told he wouldn’t be back until 1:30. We started to wait in line once later, but it wasn’t really moving, so we continued to explore. Then we finally saw that there were few people waiting at his house and we got back in line. We were ushered into his kitchen with a few other families. Then the four of us were taken into Santa’s bedroom. And finally, the big moment came when we were brought into Santa’s parlor, where he sat waiting by the fire. He greeted the girls. Emma told him she wanted Lilo and Stitch toys (probably because she’s been watching a lot of them on Netflix recently. She even bought a 2nd copy of the DVD on the trip here because ours has broken). Anna told him she wanted a black Northface jacket. (She’s always our fashionista. Scott feels sad about her reaching an age when she asks for clothes instead of toys, but he can take some comfort in the fact that yesterday, she asked Père Noël for a 3-D DS videogame.) Naturally, we broke down and bought the official picture they took, just as we do of Mickey Mouse at Disneyworld.

We finally had time to eat a very late lunch as “Mother Hubbard’s” café was closing. Then we went off to see what we could of the area before dark. We found the road up Whiteface Mountain, but it’s closed for the season. We did see the ski lifts way up at its summit. We drove on to Lake Placid and saw some of the Olympic buildings. It was a busy little town, but cute, and after we drove around the lake, Julie said she’d like to come back some day to stay. For now, though, we made our way back to Plattsburgh for Papa John’s pizza in the hotel room and some swimming and rest before bed time.