by george, it's lake george!

last mother's day weekend, we drove to lake george in new york despite my objection spawned by the weather forecast. it was supposed to be rainy that weekend in upstate new york (as well as in our area). my sister, who is inflicted with weekend-getaway-disease (characterized by inexplicable, irrestitable urge to go somewhere else on weekends; adamant refusal to stay at home except when laundry duty calls), insisted that we go to lake george for an overnight stay. she had booked a cottage in a resort right by lake george on friday night, while still at work. she took advantage of the off-peak rates on the resort.

lake george was two hours away and just off I-87 north, the same highway that leads to montreal. the resort we stayed at was about five minutes away from the lake george village, or the downtown area of lake george where all the attractions are. lake george is more preferable during the summer, because that's when all the water activities take place like fishing, boating, parasailing, and swimming. because it was still the peak of spring, it was still chilly by the lake. my crazed sister wanted to go boating in the freezing water. i didn't want to risk capsizing and then dying of hypothermia in the middle of the lake.



we visited the village at lake george and went to this horror-themed wax museum called "the house of frankenstein" where you walk through different display rooms with all spooky characters imaginable, all in dim light and terrifying sound effects. i clutched for dear life onto my miniscule penlight, and was wary of any costumed live people who might pop up from behind me. good thing there was nothing of that sort, strictly still or sensor-activated wax displays. there was someone inside to make sure we made it through the dizzying walkway with circling strobe lights called "the black hole"--not for people with vertigo, seriously. :P

i can imagine how packed lake george can be during the height of summer. we had ourselves a spring preview of this lake attraction, though. it was cloudy that saturday, but it was rainy on mother's day itself.

despite the rain, we pursued our plan of going on a cruise on lake george. a trip to lake george just won't be complete without going on a cruise. the only ship (among three others) that was scheduled to leave that day was the "lac du st. sacrement." this french name means "lake of the blessed sacrament," which interestingly was the former name of lake george (as i would later learn on a visit to nearby fort william henry museum.) the tickets for cruise+lunch were sold out, so we bought the cruise-only tickets. their mother's day special was to have moms ride for free, so that was a great deal for us. this trip was planned by my sister with our mom in mind.


this stow-away bunny was a happy meal freebie

lake george, "queen of american lakes", is a narrow lake stretching about 32 miles. it has some islets here and there with actual houses on it. it is surrounded by the lush, rugged adirondack mountains. the cruise was two hours long, with ship-oriented music to entertain passengers (e.g. "rock the boat", "blue bayou"). it drizzled on our cruise, but the clouds held back the rain for a little while to allow people to view the scenery on the upper deck.



after the cruise, we went inside the fort william henry museum which was right across the docking area of the cruise ships. the museum is the actual wooden fortress built during the french and indian wars of the 1700's. visitors can explore the educational displays and trivia during the historic period which inspired "the last of the mohicans". the most interesting piece of trivia i had discovered was how wounded soldiers were treated during that time. surgeons used jamaican rum as an anaesthetic to treat soldiers ...hoping the rum would get them unconscious. but that didn't mean everyone was unconscious while being operated on....yikes!

there was an educational videoclip about the history of the fort and a narration about soldiers by a costumed curator. there was also live gun-firing and cannon-blasting outdoors.



after this educational stopover, we shopped at the nearby outlets and concluded our trip with a casual, semi-fancy dinner at the caldwell house restaurant south of the lake george village. the restaurant was nestled right beside the mountain and the interiors had a woodsy ambience with curious vintage decorative items. our mom got free roses and free dessert. my sister and i bought her a pair of earrings that she wanted. did i mention anything about the food? ah, we were so hungry that we got ourselves filled by the appetizers more than the main dishes. our mom ordered prime rib and specified it to be "well done" but was served to her as "medium rare."



at the end of the day, we were glad to be home.