Day Seven: Canton -> Adirondacks -> Canton

We decided not to camp in the Adirondacks. The logistics of checking out of the hotel, setting up camp, breaking camp, and repeating the hotel process seemed like too much time doing busy work. We decided to take a day trip to the Adirondacks instead.

We made a quick stop at the Potsdam Farmers' Market for provisions including frozen organic chicken for our upcoming camping in Watkins Glen. Then we were off on the 90 minute trip to Tupper Lake in the Adirondacks.

We spent the day at the Wild Center, a beautiful nature center of which Zayde and Grandma Lois are charter members. We learned a lot about the formation of the Adirondacks and the wildlife there. Grace and Danny completed some exercises to earn their "Junior Naturalist" badges. We ate our lunch in a lovely lunch room set into the water so that our table was at eye level with the water in the pond.

We ended our visit in a wonderful playground made entirely of logs: hollow tree trunks to crawl through, stumps to jump on, upturned tree roots to peer on and sticks to build forts. It was hard to tear the kids away but we had one more stop to make.

Next we headed to Saranac Lake. Lois had talked about a wonderful carousel there with hand carved animals representing all the wildlife in the Adirondacks. She insisted that it was not to be missed and she was right! The carousel was beautiful and well worth the detour. Grace rode a squirrel, Danny chose a skunk. We admired many other creatures including a frog, a wildcat and a black fly. Then we made an ice cream stop which featured all you can decorate sundaes. The kids' eyes were definitely bigger than their stomachs!

We took a walk through the small town to work off our ice cream. A rock shop caught our eye and we ended up poking around the store until closing time. The kids dug for "treasure" in a chest filled with sand which hid beautiful stones. Seeing our interest in rocks of all kinds, the store owner showed us petrified wood, dinosaur scales and ancient petrified frog eggs. Finally he invited us into a small back room filled with phosphorescent rocks. After we closed the door and turned out the lights he turned on a black light and we marveled at the display of colors all coming straight from nature.

By the time we made it back to our tiny hotel it was too late to visit Lois so we planned to meet her in the morning for breakfast before heading out of town.