Winter Carnival

Caution to my South-of-the-42nd parallel friends: You might want to put on a sweater before reading this post.  

This past weekend we visited the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival.  Saranac Lake is a small village in the Adirondack Park, about two hours drive from our current location.  My first acquaintance with this town was in 1988 as a canoe camper canoeing the lakes.  This is also the High Peaks Region, where our family climbed the lowest High Peak, Cascade, in 2006.  We were very proud of the Mayor that day, who climbed the whole thing without complaint at the age of 3.

We got up at some ridiculous hour and met Todd's parents at their local McDonalds.  We switched some kids into their car and proceeded.  On the way we passed through Lake Placid, where the Olympics were held in 1932 and 1980, and saw the ski jumps. A light snow fell throughout the drive up there and all through the day.  I instigated this excursion when I was scanning in pictures for The Girl's birthday blog.  I saw pictures of it from 2001, when our girls were 2 and 3 years old, and thought, "Has it been that long?"  I mentioned this to Todd, and off we went, with his parents along for the ride.

Our first stop in the Village was on the shores of Lake Flower (don't ask me where the actual Saranac Lakes are in relation to the village or why it's named that way, I don't know!)

This is a nice, roomy ice castle.  It's lighted at night, but we didn't stay past dark.  Sorry.  In the inner part of the castle you can climb the ice stairs to an ice balcony, and we had pictures taken with the royal court.  Behind it, there is  "maze," with a tunnel into the inside. 

Ice thrones, ice fireplace, ice roast beast on the table (?).  Yes, seriously.  It was lovely, really.  The members of the court were handling out rubber duckies in knights' gear and jousting costumes. 

I had a new experience this day- using a port-a-potty while snow drifted in through the ventilation screens.  Chilly!

Outside vendors were selling fried bread dough.  Behind that, we found another small ice structure which a passerby said was supposed to have a sword in the stone.  It didn't, but we got a photo op anyway. 

We also met a Civil War regiment where a soldier was happy to allow The Mayor to hold his rifle for a picture.  He even attached the bayonet.  They had just shot over the Lake. The castle was also swarmed by costumed characters- Snow White and the Dwarfs (3 or 4 anyway), Mother Goose, Medieval Mickey and Minnie, and that purple thing from McDonalds.  That's North Country random, right there. 

Next came lunch at the Blue Moon Cafe.  I am not being paid to advertise this place.  One reason it was chosen was the availability of breakfast all day- a good choice for my gluten-free kiddoes.  It was so busy when we got there that they weren't making lunch at all.  And it was a bit slow, understandable since the place was stuffed with people.  The hot chocolate got very good reviews, partly because it came in cute mugs.

Everyone was very friendly at the restaurant, and there seemed to be a town-wide silly hat contest going on.  The 8 of us were crammed into a table for 6 near the window, so we got a great view of parade participants walking by, and others as well, just in costume for the fun of it.  Even little babies were wearing princess or dragon snowsuits and hats.

The parade was due to start at 1pm. and due to long lines at the restaurant bathroom, we just barely made it outside in time.  We wedged ourselves into a spot where the kids could see, standing in a 2 inch deep mud puddle.  What can I say- we knew from experience it would be a good parade.   It has to be, to get people to stand around in below-freezing temperatures to watch it!  We had hoped to get a spot on the sunny side of the street, but there was no sunny side, as it snowed lightly all day!  We were all wearing snowsuits, lined pants or layers, so most of our bodies were warm enough.  It is, however, difficult to keep ones toes warm when standing on icy pavement, so that's where we felt it.  I wished I had warmer socks on under my LLBean Barn shoes.  Thankfully no one's boots leaked, so standing in the puddle wasn't a problem.

The Little Princess became a costumed character hug magnet.  When one of the Dwarfs came running for her, I thought she would hide!  Sounds like a nightmare to me!  Nope, she was reaching for him.  Many people gave up on the parade after about 20 minutes because it was so cold.  That made more room for us to get a good look!  I had told my kids to expect a lawn chair brigade and lumberjacks from Paul Smith's College rolling logs down the street.  However, thanks to the parade theme, they saw knights, princesses, dragons, and castles.  And twenty-five human sock monkeys, dancing to the Monkees and various other jungles-themed songs.  Many, many groups drew inspiration from Monty Python, ("Bring out your dead!") and Todd was elated about the large wooden rabbit on one of the floats.  

I have never laughed so hard at a parade, unless it was at one of my children.  A band of Vikings passed us, waring fur capes and horned helmets and brandishing long spears.  Soon after that, a small band of redcoats (Revolutionary re-enactors) passed as well.  Eventually, the troop of Civil War re-enactors (my apologies to those whose sensibilities I offend by not knowing exactly what to call these people) we had seen at the ice castle approached and paused at the bend.  Next, we saw the Vikings approach from the other side and mount an attack!  A melee broke out!  The Civil War guys loaded their guns and shot at the Vikings, who turned and ran down the street, only to be confronted by the Redcoats, who were stoically waiting for them!  Before we knew it everyone was shooting everywhere!  The Vikings were throwing their spears down the street and the lines of soldiers were firing into the bystanders on the second floor of buildings! 

I was just about to say I was ready to go home when the anachronistic melee broke out.  We made it through the entire two hours,  20 minutes of parade, but I will admit to wishing it were shorter.  We did see the lawn chair ladies eventually, as well as a junior brigade of them.  No lumberjacks, though.  I guess they went with the Medieval theme instead.  This is apparently alumni weekend at the area college, so after the parade quite a few characters were seen in area bars.  We slogged back to our cars, threw the kids into the soft snowbanks at the library, and wished we had the energy to go the library book sale. 

After another two hour drive we finished off our day by attending the roast beef dinner at Todd's parents' church.  We don't eat roast beef and half the kids couldn't eat the cheesy broccoli dish either, but what we did eat was yummy and the last of the food, too.  Having had a full day, we were home and in bed in our warm jammies right away.  I can't say that I want to go every year, but I would definitely recommend this experience if you live nearby and have never been.  Just consider bringing some toe warmers.