Saratoga Springs, NY- Sunday, October 13, 2024

     When Emma and Scott woke up, they went to the hotel's gym to exercise.  Scott walked a total of 2 miles on the treadmill and Emma used a couple pieces of equipment.  After breakfast, we went to the pool, which looked big and inviting, but the water was very cold.  Even after being in it for a while, the water still felt cold.  We didn't spend a long time there as a result of that.  The morning had started and we went to explore Saratoga Springs- Scott, Julie and Abby in our car, and Emma in hers.

     The temperature was cold outside too.  It was in the 40s and the light rain was coming and going all day.  Our first stop was the National Battlefield where the turning point battle of the Revolution took place.  We had been here once before, way back in 2004, which was before the blog!  We took the auto-tour of the park with 3-year old, almost 4-year old Anna then.  Scott didn't want to do the whole tour of the park today because we were planning on doing other things with Emma, plus he hopes to come back here as the 250th anniversary gets closer, in 2027.  He did want to go to the bookshop at the visitors center though, so we drove about 20 minutes to get there and then had to climb a big hill up from the parking lot.  We looked around the bookstore, and Abby bought a stuffed bluebird- the state bird of New York.  Scott had seen enough though, and the stores in town were starting to open, so we skipped the rest of the visitor center and headed back to Saratoga Springs.

     Julie wanted to first stop to be Starbucks, so we parked near there and rendezvoused with Emma.  We were right on Broadway, the main street in Sarasota Springs, and the location of a lot of high-end shopping.  We didn't make it very far down the street today, but the three girls spent a long while and a little bit of money in a store called the Saratoga Tea and Honey Co.  There was a wide variety of teas available, of course, and in the back, there was free honey tasting.  After that, we went to a store called, Impressions of Saratoga, which specialized in Saratoga merch, including lots about the horses and horse racing (but nothing about the battle, Scott noticed).  

     By then, it was approaching noon, and Julie wanted to try a place she could see across the street.  It was in the apparently high-end Adelphi Hotel and is called Morrisey's.  We felt a little underdressed in our sweatpants and t-shirts.  In fact, we ended up getting seated on the patio, out on Broadway.   It was chilly outside, but they had us sitting under some large heaters that hung from the side of the building, so that helped some.  We ordered, but the food took a longer time than we expected.  We ended up paying a lot (about $100, including tip) and ended up wolfing it all down in about 10 minutes.  We asked for our check as soon as the food came.  Emma had sushi and Abby special ordered some pancakes, which they ended up making from waffle batter.  It must have turned out pretty good because all three of the girls ate those.

     We ended up leaving lunch quickly because when Julie had realized that we were going to have a cold rainy day this morning, she started looking for a plan B that wouldn't have us walking in the cold in Saratoga Springs.  She found a fall foliage train tour that left from a station in Corinth, a little more than 20 minutes from where we were.  The name of the railroad is the Saratoga, Corinth & Hudson Railway.  (Apparently Corinth here is pronounced Cor-INTH, not COR-inth like in other places.)  Apparently, the train has run as a tourist destination for about three years, and the owner was among the people that talked to the passengers on the ride.  The train departed at 1:30 and the 12-mile ride lasted about 90 minutes.  The conductors and the other staff that were on the train were very friendly and eager to talk to the passengers.  We rode in a 1950s era lounge car.  It was heated, and gave us a chance to warm up as we rode.  Emma and Dad both napped a little on the ride.  The biggest complaint about the ride was that when the refurbished this car, they made the floor plan so that the chairs face inward, toward the center aisle.  If you're taking a train to see the foliage and sites, you really want to face out the windows more easily.  The chairs themselves were comfortable, but you had to sit twisted in them to see out the windows.  The windows were also fogging over quite a bit, but I'm not sure how much you could fix that.  You could get up and walk around, but we didn't very much.  Scott and Emma both went out into the open air car that was the next car from ours, but neither stayed there long due to the cold wind and light rain.

     When the train ride was over, it was time for us to part ways with Emma.  Abby didn't want to let her go, but did.  Emma has to work tomorrow, on Monday, but we don't.   She ended up doing a little more shopping in Saratoga Springs.  We were not sure what to do from there.  We were originally thinking of finding a hotel room somewhere down the road, and then stopping a few places on Monday.  The rain and Julie's problems (both her tooth and a twisted ankle she had gotten at Santa's Workshop) made us think that maybe we would be better off going home.  We certainly could have driven home and gotten back at a reasonable hour tonight.  Once we were on the road, we realized how much the cold had taken out of us today.  Abby took an hour and a half nap in the car, but Mom and Dad were both dragging.  It's hard to drive when it is both raining and dark, so we decided to spring for one more hotel room and stopped at Oneida Lake, near Syracuse.   It was a good stop to make, and if we really want to, we can still get home at a relatively early time tomorrow.

The Adirondacks- Saturday, October 12, 2024

     Julie got up early this morning and tried to open the hotel room soap with her teeth. When she did that, she managed to pull the crown off of her front tooth. That could have potentially changed our entire day. We looked for dentists that take emergency patients, but they were all closed for the three-day weekend. We ended up learning that "emergency dental glue" is a thing that is actually available at pharmacies, so when Julie and Abby went to breakfast, Scott went out and ended up at Walmart. He found a kit to repair fillings and crowns and picked up some other things including some new DVD movies for Abby's player in the backseat. Julie tried putting it back on twice but it didn't seem to be holding. She resigned herself to look like the Hillbilly of the Adirondacks for now, and we decided to go on with our day as planned.

     We drove for about two hours into the Adirondacks and went to the Wild Center. We went to it once before with Anna and Emma back around Thanksgiving, 2011. There are a couple of components to the place. We described it then as "an innovative look at the natural history of the Adirondack region and the creatures that inhabit it. It was definitely a fun place to visit..." We knew back in 2011 that there was more being planned, and we wanted to focus on that today. We started at the large exhibit hall that was there before. It did seem that at least some of the exhibits had changed since then, though the glacier exhibit was still first and the otters were still swimming. Abby had a wood turtle watching her closely, but he might have been watching the bright pink of her coat. We liked watching her see the continents on a giant globe with recent weather patterns being projected on it. We could see the recent hurricanes that hit the South and Florida, and we were impressed when Abby recognized that much of Northern Africa is desert. Abby also spent time building wooden tracks to guide a rolling ball with Mom, and building a wind turbine with Dad. When we went outside, we went to the Wild Walk which was built since we were here before. It consists of a number of walkways and suspension bridges that take you through some interesting perspectives of the forest. Abby spent a little time on the "spider's web" that was suspended high above the forest floor, and climbed up to the eagle's nest with Dad to see the mountains over the trees in the distance. There was a lot to do here, and we didn't even start on the path around the pond that we had taken when Emma and Anna were here before. After more than an hour and a half of exploring here, we needed to continue on to our next stop. We did feel like we had gotten our money's worth for the admission, since New York State teachers are admitted free, but we wondered if we would feel that way if we had to pay the steep price that everyone else did.

     It was a brisk clear autumn day. The sun was shining and the sky was blue. The temperatures were in the 40s, and several degrees cooler than it had been when we left Watertown this morning. On the iloveny.com website, we confirmed that the foliage in the Adirondacks was past peak this weekend. We could tell, but there were still plenty of yellows and oranges and occasional reds-- enough to make the drive fun, especially when the bright sun hit them. We didn't come for the leaf peeping, but we certainly did some anyway.

     Our next stop was Santa's Workshop at the North Pole, NY. We had also gone here in 2011 with Anna and Emma. Back then, we wrote, "The North Pole has a very retro vibe, since it was founded back in the 1950s. ...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." We had kept this stop secret from Abby because we didn't want her to be disappointed if it didn't work out for some reason. When she found out that we were going to see Santa at his house at the North Pole she got quite excited. Once we arrived at "Santa's Workshop," she could hardly contain herself. She didn't want to stop at the rides or the reindeer barn She wanted to hurry down the hill to see Santa himself. We were wondering what she would tell him that she wanted for Christmas. [We were actually hoping that she wouldn't say something like "A little sister,"] She quickly decided to tell him that she wanted a stuffed reindeer. Santa thought that was a good choice and said that they were easier to clean up after than real ones. The park here is on the side of the mountain, and we had to work to climb back up towards where we came in after seeing Santa. We were hoping that Abby would want to ride a few of the rides, but she is in a phase now where every little thing scares her, including many things that she was fine with before. She did not like the real reindeer in the reindeer barn, and started to panic when she was riding the fake reindeer on the carousel with Dad. They were the only two on the ride at the time, and Dad signaled to the operator to stop it a little sooner for them. We all rode the train together, and Abby and Mom rode the carousel again, with a little more success that time. Abby tried a "candy ride" but had to ride alone and didn't like that one. Dad did like going back down to see an exhibit about the parks history. He liked seeing the book called, Jack Jungle's Wish and distinctly remembered it was one of the books in the shelves at Grandma Jung's house. We hadn't spent long here, but we were ready to continue on to join up with Emma. Unlike the Wild Center where we got admission for free, the admission to Santa's Workshop cost us about $90 for the three of us, and seeing how Abby didn't really like the rides, we felt that it was hard to say it was worth it. Anyway, Scott is worried that she still might be in this phase when we are planning to go to Disney next February.

     It was about an hour and forty minutes for us to drive south to Saratoga Springs where we were meeting Emma. Grandpa and Grandma W. had come up to see her [and only got lost a few times, apparently]. Though they arrived later than expected, they took Emma out for lunch. Em actually beet us to Saratoga Springs. We checked into our hotel went looking for dinner. We had a few places picked out, but it was already past 5:30 on a Saturday and the downtown area was quite busy. Julie picked out a restaurant by the lake outside of town where they make pizza in a stone oven. It too was busy, and we had to sit a while on couches in the bar while we were waiting for a table. Abby was getting restless and was busy getting wound up with Emma. After a long time, we got a table. Julie ordered water to drink, but it had a strong sulfur smell and tasted like eggs. She had to replace it with bottled water. When our pizza finally came, Emma remarked that she didn't think that it was possible to make pizza that was so tasteless. Pizza is supposed to have a taste; water is not. It didn't help that Abby was overtired and was refusing to eat. We can't really say we were happy with our experience there.

     We stopped for some necessities at a drug store. Among the things we needed was a different emergency dental glue, since Julie wasn't able to get the first one to work very well. She should have told Santa, "All I want for Christmas is my..." Scott and Emma watched Eric Voss on the computer back at the hotel. They've both missed watching that kind of thing together.