Today’s plan was to venture forth from Saratoga Springs to get more of the Adirondack experience. I put in an extra half a mile on my morning run to make up for yesterday’s snack fest and in preparation for the inevitable food-o-rama to come.
After another fabulous breakfast (Mediterranean omelet for me, “Eggs Bob” for Frank and a plain omelet for Gillian compete with home baked corn muffins and the appropriate GF options for me) we headed north to Lake George with a plan to hike to Shelving Rock Falls before heading for a picnic and a swim at Million Dollar Beach. After reaching the lake area and following obscure – but correct! – directions for an additional 30 minutes down a really long unpaved road through the forest, we were met by a the driver of a truck from the Fort Ann Department of Public Works who informed us that the rest of the road was closed unless we lived there because there was some major road equipment blocking the road. He made it sound like a machine got stuck and they couldn’t get it out because he mumbled something about how they should have been out of there already and he hoped the guys weren’t taking a nap…..
So we headed back and attempted to start another hike but without having a good end point other than “a clearing”, we decided not to fight the annoying bugs and headed straight to the beach. (I’m not sure Gillian and Frank were nearly as disappointed as I was. I like hiking to waterfalls, especially when I manage not to fall down them!) We had a nice picnic at Million Dollar Beach and then Frank and Gillian proceeded to play in the water like the 8-year-olds they really are. We were surrounded by French-speakers- I guess Quebec likes Lake George – and it made it seem a little more exotic.
Then when we were done at the beach, we walked around Lake George Village and realized that there’s nothing exotic about a beach town whether it be on a lake or at the sea. They all have the same collection of T shirt, ice cream and keich shops. (A good Scottish word: the literal translation is poo but crap is probably a better term.) You know the shops: they sell hermit crabs, license plate tags with none of your kid’s names on them, pop rocks and out dated sunscreen. They exist everywhere from York Beach in Maine to the Wisconsin Dells. I’m pretty sure they have them in California too but they are likely to be next door to a sushi store rather than a tattoo parlor.
We got the inevitable chotchkies but with a twist: nearly everything there is either bear or moose themed. Even the restaurants! I was in heaven. 
We got the Christmas ornament for this year (moose on a Harley!) and a mug for my coffee. I could have filled the trunk but it wouldn’t be healthy to cater to my addiction any more than that!
The weather was really painfully hot and humid and we ran out of less scary air conditioned shops to pop into so we headed back to Saratoga for the main event of the evening: Shakespeare in the Park.
We picked up some sushi and packed up the left over pizza from last night in our new picnic back pack and headed to Congress park to sit in the grass and watch Twelfth Night with a South Beach theme. It was really enjoyable. We spread out our picnic on the grass, enjoyed the sushi while it was still cold and let the leftover pizza sit out until it warmed up a bit. While we were waiting, we were enjoying the antics of several families of ducks (duckings and all!) that have the run of the park and they wandered freely through the crowd, picking crumbs up out of the grass. One duckling decided he was going to try to eat my toe nails and was pecking at the pink polish. Then his mother noticed the pizza.
Before I could sit fully upright, momma duck had grabbed a slice of Gillian’s buffalo chicken pizza and had started to speed across the grass followed by her ducklings! The chase was soon joined by other duck families and it turned into an episode of Keystone Cops! Ducks were fighting over the pizza slice and ducklings were diving for the bits that were flying off the pizza in the struggle. The antics entertained the entire audience for the last 10 minutes before the show started and I would love to see how those ducks fare when they actually digest the Tabasco sauce that covered the slice!
We then watched a very good production of Shakespeare with Latin musical interludes throughout the production. The stage was done in white and bright blue with pink flamingos for decorations. The courtiers were decked out in tank tops, seer sucker shorts, and top siders. All in all, a fantastic (and free!) production where the heat felt like it was part of the set! We then did one last wander around the town – mostly so Gillian could get a red velvet cupcake since she had to watch me eat a GF version last night – and now we face a evening of drinking Adirondack Mountain winery’s Semillion and preparing to head out to the Finger Lakes tomorrow.
Abandoing the hike seriously affected the pedometer count: 10160 or 4.37 miles. Today’s interesting food find: FRENCH ROLL sushi – Alaskan king crab, shrimp, avocado, cucumber, cream cheese and wrapped with a thin omelet. Yup, sushi wrapped in egg. It was *really* good and since I brought a packed of my wheat-free soy sauce, I was able to partake.
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