While packing for our Winter Vacation Yuki hides under the covers.
The bike racks were removed from the top of the CR-V and the ski box replaced them. I then loaded up the gear and a few items of clothing, funny how there is more gear-related items packed than regular clothing, and we are on our way again to our annual winter pilgrimage to Lake Placid. We have been making this winter trip now for over 10 years and it never gets old. The week leading up to this trip had wiped out much of the mass of snow they had had previously and reports from Mt. Van Hoevenberg indicated closing of trails. Not good. We tossed around the idea of rescheduling, but with my mind already set to “vacation-mode” I said we must push on and take what it gives us. Last winter was not the greatest as warm temps wiped out all the snow after only 2 days of skiing. The forecast looked promising with chance of snow each day and VERY cold temperatures. We pushed on.
As we made our way up I-87 North, we anticipated our lunch stop at Karma Road in New Paltz, NY. A great little vegetarian restaurant at the end of the main street in town. To our chagrin, we spotted the large closed sign hanging in the window as we approached. The inside looked a bit cleared out which caused me to fear they closed down for good. I parked and ran up to read the sign in the window which put my fears to rest stating they were closed until January 25th for their winter vacation. At least we could stop on the way home now. We walked through town to find an alternative and spotted the Earthgoods market well stocked with healthy groceries and some take away foods. We enjoyed some vegan sushi, homemade bean soup, and coconut water at the little table at the front of the store. Not sure if they meant it for that but it worked out. Disaster averted.
The remainder of trip up was pretty uneventful. We listened to the first half of the book Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease by Dr. Robert H. Lustig on the way up which really made the time go by. The book was very interesting and although he gives you the resulting “bad guy” early on in the book, the process of how he comes to that conclusion is quite interesting. It does get a bit technical at times, but he does a decent job of bringing it back to layman’s terms. I will try to do a more informative review of this book later after I finish the other half. The funny thing was the first half download from Audible.com finished exactly as we pulled into our host vacation home driveway. So far the book is consistent with my current food intake which is reassuring.
ADK Cafe’s Earth Plate-Kale, Cauliflower, Red Curry Quinoa, and Sauerkraut.
As we approached the Town of Keene just prior to reaching Lake Placid, we stopped at the ADK Cafe for dinner. This is one of our new favorites up there with their local, organic foods and my favorite, The Earth Plate! Tonight they had a special appetizer too which consisted of pita with hummus, red pepper dip, white bean dip and some other little goodies. A good pre-cursor to the Earth Plate. I also enjoyed a couple Davidson Brothers IPA’s from Maine which were just what the doctor ordered(not Dr. Lustig anyway) after a long drive. The Earth Plate was a pile of plant-based goodness consisting of cauliflower, kale, red curry quinoa, homemade sauerkraut and some brussel sprouts(my new favorite now). Great end to a long drive.
We then headed up the mountain to Lake Placid. The lights at the Ski jumps were glowing in the night sky as we approached River Road. They were having some ski jumping events going for a couple days and there was a good amount of spectators making their way. We bypassed that and made our way to our favorite little den just outside of Lake Placid. Ahhhh….vacation time!
