3 Lakes Trip - Saranac Lake - Part 3

We woke up to our second morning at Saranac Lake to sunshine again! Our friends made a delicious breakfast of pancakes and sausages. We sat around the table for some time and talked before making sandwiches for lunch again. Today we would kayak across Middle Saranac Lake and hike (climb) Ampersand Mountain!

From Alltrails.com: "Ampersand Mountain Trail is a 4.9 mile moderately trafficked out and back trail located near Saranac Lake, New York that features beautiful wild flowers and is only recommended for very experienced adventurers. The trail offers a number of activity options and is best used from June until March. Dogs are also able to use this trail."

DISTANCE                   ELEVATION GAIN

4.9 miles                      1811 feet

"Only recommended for very experienced adventurers" never mind that we had a 4, 6 and 7 year old with us, but they had great practice playing adventurers at the campsite all day!

No photos from the paddle across the lake because of strong headwinds but I do have this short go pro video!

note the squashed mosquito on the page, which was a good indication how the first part of the trip went

The hike started out very easy, nothing more than a walk through the woods, and a little buggy but turned into a serious hike soon after and all the way up the mountain. It was a tough hike for myself and the only reason I made it, was watching 4 year old Isaac climbing up the mountain!

Let me tell you about a huge misconception about my kids... someone recently asked me "can you give me a list of your kids favorite hiking trails in Cincinnati" the truth is, there are non! My kids don't have favorite hiking trails because they don't like hiking! They do love an adventure though and that usually gets them through the hike! The first mile on the hike, I had one kid actually in tears crying "I hate hiking". He soon came to me and apologized because he realized how cool of an hike this was AND he beat us up and down the mountain. If I would give my kids the option of staying comfortable in our living room, campsite etc or go on a hike... they would always choose to be comfortable at home BUT I give them an extra push and they are always (seriously ALWAYS) glad they came a long!   well an extra push and a big bag of Swedish Fish in my pocket got them through!

On top of the mountain we were greeted with amazing views of the Adirondacks and some astronaut ice cream from our friend Matt! We explored the summit for a little bit, took a lot of photographs, and made sure kids didn't tumble down the mountain.

The pictures below you can see how far we paddled/ hiked that day! The first picture is from the summit of Ampersand Mountain (3,353 ft) and you can see our campsite (arrow) below! The second picture is of Jake at our campsite pointing up to Ampersand Mountain.

The way back down was tough!!! Apparently not for the big boys and Finn, all 3 of them just ran down the mountain and met us at the trail head! Isaac had a tough time and eventually fell asleep being carried by his Dad... Fireman's Carry Style! The paddle across the lake was not to bad but we did fight some headwind again!

We spent the evening around the campfire. The big boys, Ian and Jake, made dinner for us. Kielbasa & Jambalaya, I posted the quick recipe HERE! This was probably our favorite dinner of the trip. And we finished our Family Olympic Day events! You ask what Family Olympic Day is?

Scroll up, the second picture of our post you can see our home made trophy! We played about 10 games throughout the trip. The Roberts Family against the McGill Gamily. The winner gets to keep the trophy BUT needs to display it on their mantle at home for the year! Some of the games were (and we had funny names for them), who sets up their tent the fastest, who gathers the most firewood, who tells the spookiest camp fire story, who has the most mosquito bites, who catches the first fish etc. The other rule was that next year we are battling for the trophy again and the winning family has to come up with the games. The Robert's won but the McGill's are going to fight hard next summer and win it back!!!

The big boys (and Dad's) also played who can pull out the biggest rock out of the lake. Jake won and since no one caught a fish we counted the rock as the "catch of the day". Jake won us that game! Finn had such a bad allergic reaction to mosquito bites and required Benedryl that we decided we don't even need to count bug bites that he would win that game as well!

The next morning was sadly our last... we cooked breakfast and started packing up the campsite. It was a little bittersweet. We all would have loved to stay longer but we (the Mom's more than anyone) were really looking forward to a hot shower and a real bed! We will be back though Saranac Lake! 

Next stop was Lake Placid (hotel) and introducing the Robert's to our favorite pizza and swimming hole before we went on separate ways again! It was hard to say good bye but all good things have to come to an end... and next stop for us was VERMONT!!!

You can click here to read about PART 1, PART 2, and PART 4 of our trip!

UPDATE! and about 7 months later I finally put together a small video from our go pro footage. Enjoy!

Christmas Trip to Florida - Atlanta, Homosassa, Crystal River - Part I

We surprised the boys this year with a trip to Florida. It worked out perfectly. They had no idea. Scot teased them before Christmas with hinting that we will be going skiing in Wisconsin over Christmas break and they were not amused by that idea. Christmas morning came and the very last present under the tree was a box filled with their own swim trunks, goggles, a little kayaker, a US map and a note. Here is what happened:

TOMORROW? Yes! They were so excited! We packed the car up the evening of the 25th and left at about 6 am on the 26th! We stopped in Atlanta at the Martin Luther King memorial, visited the Ebenezer church where he preached and went on to The Varsity. The Varsity is a place we have hard about before and wanted to try it out. The ambience in there was really cool, but the food was less than mediocre.

On our way down to Florida we also stopped in a large Pecan store in Georgia, where we did not buy anything with Pecan's but Licorice. What can I say... I love me some Licorice. Scot also saved a turtle running across the highway.

Our first stop in Florida was in Homosassa. Our AirBnB was awesome! Really big, lots of room for us, very pretty up in the trees and pet alligators in the backyard!

The next morning we went kayaking with manatees on Crystal River. We booked with the Crystal River Kayak Company and I can only recommend them! Everything was perfect. We ended up actually swimming with two manatees at Three Sisters Spring. The water was ice cold in there but so worth it. Finn needed a little extra warming on top of the kayak afterwards. We booked two tandem kayaks for 4 hours and including swimming and kayaking out in the bay, it was perfect timing. Jake got this awesome video of a manatee next to his kayak with his go pro.

You probably notice Finn's blue gloved hand in the pictures below. Unforunaly he burned his hand before Christmas and it was bad enough that we needed to protect it a little more, so he could swim with his Manatees (his second favorite animal btw)

During our stay in Homosassa we went to the beach. As soon as we arrived on the beach a thick cloud of fog rolled in and stayed! This didn't keep Jake out of the water... not much ever keeps him out of the water including water snakes! Anyways, while Jake swam we watched this guy catching crabs! It was pretty facinating. He threw a string with a large piece of chicken tied around it out in the water, stood really still and waited for a crab to grab the chicken, then he would slowly pull the string in until he could grab the crab. More often than not the crab would let go before he could grab it and he had to start over again.

Part II will be up soon!

Day 10 McGill's Go Up North - Saranac Lake, Adirondacks

Day 10 we woke up to perfect weather! Sunshine but still very comfortable temps (I think the high was about 85 that day). I love peaking out of the tent in the morning when everything is quiet and still.

Our tent is a 4 person tent and surprisingly pretty roomy (for our standards). The boys each sleep on a side. Scot and I, in the middle and Finn always on my side. Our bags are at the bottom of Finns feet. Finn is pretty bad about sleeping IN his sleeping bag. I have to repeatably check on him and make sure he is warm enough and stuff him back in his sleeping bag.

We didn't bring a cooler with us to the campsite. It was just too big to take in the kayak and really the only thing we needed to keep cool would have been milk. Scot and I learned to drink our coffee black and we actually liked it. Not enough to drink it always black, but we know now that we can survive with black coffee.

Again, we had to get creative with our daily numbers... here is Finn helping me out with the 10!

Today was a bit of a sad day, we were leaving our amazing campsite. We were all a little sad as we could have stayed here for another few days! Before we packed up we took a family picture.

The kids did a great job helping us pack up and we actually had to leave them behind at the campsite to do one kayak trip without them. It was just easier to get everything back to the car. But no worries they were absolutely fine and ended up enjoying the freedom they had for 30 minutes.

One last picture before we left the campsite! We had to be off by 11am, which made it a little hectic morning.

Even though we had to leave the campsite at 11am, we still had the kayaks till 1pm. The boys decided that they would kayak alone together. I knew it wasn't going to work out but let them try anyways.

It kinda went like this... 20 paddle strokes, 2 minutes break, 10 paddle strokes, 5 minute break, 5 paddle strokes, 10 minute break... you are getting the point! We didn't get far! We switched kayaks and paddled for a little bit longer.

Once back at the car, we took the time to really clean the car out and organize our camping equipment since we won't be needing it anymore. We threw away a bunch of old food, organized clean and dirty clothes. The timing was perfect as soon as we finished the car, the kayaking rental company was already there to pick up the kayaks.

We drove to our next destination and our shortest drive on the trip... 20 minutes to Lake Placid. We found our hotel and checked in and left soon again to explore Lake Placid.

Our first stop was the 1980 Olympic Ice Hockey rink. The hockey rink where the Miracle on Ice took place. It was pretty cool walking around there and you could feel the energy in this place. Even the boys thought it was pretty amazing and like always had 1000 questions for us.

After vising the hockey rink we decided to take a scenic drive. We drove over a bridge and saw a few people swimming in the river below us. We stopped and checked it out, only to discover one of the greatest swimming holes we have come across. It was pretty amazing. Two waterfalls, a deep swimming hole and a cliff to jump off. The boys were in heaven! I think this might have been their highlight of the trip!

Of course Finn, didn't take much prompting and he jumped from the cliff, which was about 30 feet high. Later Jake and then Scot jumped off as well. Just for the record, I didn't jump... A that's not really my thing anyways but B I was pretty accident prone on this trip anyways and really didn't want to test it.

We hang out for a really long time and only left when is was starting to get dark. We stopped in Lake Placid to get a eat pizza to eat at the hotel. The pizza was amazing and we all went to bed happy and full! This was our last big day on the trip. We are heading back home...

Day 8 McGill's Go Up North - Adirondacks

We woke up in our little hotel outside of Quebec, took advantage of the continental breakfast and got out of there before 9 am. We had another 4 hour drive to our last big stop... The Adirondacks!

I am asked a lot how the kids do in the car. I have to say very good for kids! Of course they fight and whine, here and there but we try to ignore it for the most part. Also, Audiobooks and snacks are a big key! What usually happens is that the kids will be on their Kindle for 45-60 minutes (I usually get them a new game the night before a long road trip), we then turn those off and listen to an audiobook for at least 30 minutes. Finn claims that he doesn't like Narnia but he still listens and quietly colors. When we stop to get gas and the kids have been good since the last rest stop they can each get a treat at the gas station. Also, this time we played a bunch of games such as Road Bingo and Mad Libs. Our entire road trip was a little over 40 hours driving time both ways and yes it was hard some parts with the boys, but it really was worth it and we try to make the journey part of our trip, and not just the destination.

Before we arrived at the Adirondacks, we had to cross back in the US and also exchange our money.

I am kicking myself a little that I don't have any pictures from where we picked up our kayaks. We rented the tandem kayaks for 3 days from St. Regis Outfitters in Saranac Lakes. The staff was amazing and they answered all of our questions (and the boys had a lot of them). They transported us to the boat ramp and even provided us with a map. It really was a great experience and we highly recommend them. I know we will be back one day!

We booked a campsite on Saranac Lake which was on a peninsula and only accessible by boat/ kayak. We chose a campsite (actually when we booked it was almost full) near the boat ramp but not too close. It was about a 20 minute paddle to get to the campsite and of course we had to load all of our gear into the kayak. We actually ended up having to make two trips.

The campsite was amazing! We stayed at #56. Each campsite has a large fire pit and an outhouse, which was surprisingly clean but still scary to me haha I have a thing about outhouses but that's another story. I made Scot sit in front of it whenever I needed to use it.

The kids went swimming and the water was pretty warm. They loved jumping off this smaller rock and we all enjoyed watching people across the lake jump from a much higher cliff.

Scot and I decided not to go swimming but just enjoyed ourselves relaxing and watching the boys.

The great thing about this campsite was that we had a huge area for ourselves. There was no one around. The kids were free to explore, swim and be loud as they wanted.

In the evening we all were tired and just really relaxed. We all took turns in the hammock.

Scot made us a great Spaghetti dinner.

This little guy followed us around the campsite on out first day there.... no wonder after Scot fed him :/

We made a huge fire, with sticks and leftover firewood from a previous camper. The mosquito's up there were really minimal and they only really came out at night but not even where it was too bad.

After using up most of our wood and playing enough with the fire, we all went to bed happy and relaxed.

Day 7 McGill's Go Up North - Tadoussac, St Lawrence, Mer et Monde

On Day 7 we woke up to perfect weather at our campsite over looking the St. Lawrence. Scot got up and drove into town for coffee and a fresh baguette. I sat outside for a long time alone and just taking it all in.

The kids slept for a long time and I couldn't believe my luck.

But then....

... this little kid came hoping over the rocks for his morning snuggles!

I was somehow able to convince him to sit really quiet with me, while Jakey was still sleeping and Daddy gone. It only worked for a little bit and Jake was up soon and the two played Narnia.

We have been listening to the first two books (at this point only the first) in the car on our road trip. Jake is always Peter and Finn is whoever Jake says he is... haha I know here they are re enacting Peter's First Battle in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

While the kids were playing Scot and I started packing up a little. Today is our last day at Mer et Monde.

In between we remembered that we forgot about our daily sign. I can't remember what was so funny but this one might be my favorite!

After we packed up a little we went over to the other side to explore the bay. We had a few hours before our kayak tour would start.

As soon as we go to the bay, the boys played Narnia again. Actually for most of the trip this is what they played. Hey, fighting with sticks sounds like a lot of fun!

After they were tired of battling each other we decided to make a dam with rocks at this little creek leading into the bay.

We didn't know what time it was and decided to leave. Remember how I only have flip flops and Toms with me.... there is a reason your Mom tells you to bring better shoes! I again fell and this time skinned the top of my toe. I also fell again on my tailbone. Oh man, this place did not like me. I will spare you the before picture, but I needed to wrap it up water proof for our kayaking tour.

Good old Duct Tape to the rescue. It actually worked pretty good!

After getting all bandaged up, we went over to our kayking tour only to find out it was cancelled again... bummer we are leaving and no more time to reschedule. Here is the amazing part though... even though we already went on the water for a while and that both times the tour was rescheduled because of weather, the company refunded me 100% of my money without me even asking! I was highly impressed!

We all said good bye to our favorite tour guide ever, but not before we got his info to meet up with him again one day!

Thank you Sammy for everything and for your patience to answer the bazillion questions. We hope your summer is going great and you will enjoy Japan!!! Tschuess!

We finished packing up the campsite, and organized the car and one last family picture! Finn is mad about something again... it's hard to be 6!

One last story at the campsite! I love how animated he tells his stories!

One last thing though... we came to Mer et Monde to show Finn and Jake the Beluga whales. At this point we still haven't seen any and we had a very sad little boy with us. Our last chance was to see one on the ferry back. We looked and looked and nothing... I could see the tears already setting in and just before we had to get back to the car, we spotted one!!! It was pretty amazing and it really made our day.

Long drive to our next stop - The Adirondacks! 8 hour drive but we decided to stop in the middle and get a hotel room. We found one just a little bit south of Quebec City. Got to the room, finally able to take showers and watch TV (the boys!) and off to bed we went!