Day 2 - Plattsburgh, NY

The view from where I am blogging just cannot be beat. The lake breeze is perfect and I have the cottage all to myself. Dave took the kids to see the Minion movie, as promised, giving me time to organize the house, clean up...and do laundry. (How can there be laundry after just one day!?)

After breakfast, we had our coffee down by the lake while the kids got acquainted with a family of ducks. (And yes, they have named all five of the ducks.)

Shortly after sitting down on an Adirondack chair, the property owner came down and started a bonfire and then left without saying much. We weren't sure if he was making it for us and expected us to watch it, or if this was part of his daily routine. It seemed a bit odd to us. 

(Someone just came down and added more wood, so maybe they keep it going all day to keep bugs at bay?)

Our plan for the day was to explore Plattsburgh and do a bike trail. The clouds looked ominous but the weather report said it would pass. 

The report was inaccurate. 

We drove to Point Au Roche State Park to do some biking, but there was no one at the gate and no instructions regarding anything. We unloaded the bikes as raindrops started to fall. We heard a bit of rumbling in the distance but Dave assured us that it would pass us by. We began biking, but my homemade mosquito repellant was no match for the swarming pests. We only lasted about 15 minutes before we realized the storm was approaching, not passing.

We made a beeline for the van, and Dave managed to get all of the bikes secured just minutes before the heavy rain began. We headed back into Plattsburgh to do our food shopping, and found that the streets were rushing rivers of rainwater! Thank goodness we left when we did.

Our whole property: our cottage is on the right

This afternoon, we headed back into Plattsburgh to check out some of the pawn shops (Dave forgot his guitar at home...), but they were all closed. It seems that this just wasn't our day. Instead we walked around for a bit, and came back 'home.'

The kids were delighted to get back to the lake. It feels like we have the whole entire thing to ourselves.

Eva, using the Minion popcorn bucket to catch minnows

After a dinner of Dave's homemade Chop Suey, we played Cranium Cadoo for the first time. Fun game! 

Tomorrow, we plan to head deeper into the Adirondacks to go to the Wild Center in Tupper Lake. We are looking forward to the new Wild Walk in the treetops. 

Another day, we plan to take the ferry to Grand Isle and explore those islands as well as Burlington, VT. Montreal may be off the table for now, because it sounds a little too ambitious and probably something we should do in a separate trip.

Will continue to update as time permits...