Tanglewood

Its a rainy day today so this will be a catch up edition. Today we are in Boothbay Harbor, Maine which will be our subject about two blogs from now.

Seventy five years ago a group of prominent citizens in the Berkshire Mountains area of Massachusetts held an outdoor concert under a huge tent that attracted 15,000 concertgoers. It was so well received that the Tappin family donated 250 acres of prime real estate to the Boston Symphony Orchestra which was the birth of Tanglewood. Tanglewood now extends to over 550 acres and the main venue is in a so-called shed. They call it the shed because the architect originally commissioned designed a cost prohibitive structure. When the Board advised the architect of their budget, his response was that they would only be able to get a shed. Two photos of the shed follow.

 

 

The topography of the land is such that literally thousands of folks can also experience the show from the lawn. Thats a big event in the Berkshires as families bring lawn furniture and full meals. Its quite a set up. The acoustics are excellent both in the shed and on the lawn. What a great place.

 

 

We went to three concerts in three days featuring Beethoven, Ravel, Strausberg and other lesser known composers. Two of the Beethoven pieces were piano concertos with world renowned pianists. Tanglewood also has 'prelude' concerts featuring up and coming musicians performed before the main event. It was all excellent.Two photos of the main stage follow.

 

 

If you ever have a chance don't miss Tanglewood, a great summer only venue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell surely was the best illustrator of Americana in the mid-twentieth century. It really was like this in the 40s and 50s. His Post magazine covers were coveted by everyone. The Norman Rockwell museum is in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. His studio is also on the grounds of the museum. Viewing the originals of his best works was an amazing event. Enjoy the photos of some of his works.

 

 

 

  

 

 

Farewell to Lake Placid

I did this post once before but the wi-fi signal was so weak that when I 'hit' publish, I lost the whole thing. The signal that I now have isn't so hot so here's hoping.
We left Lake Placid August 1st and enjoyed it so much that we have made a six week reservation for 2014. So here are a few pictures.

 

There are four venues in Lake Placid for preparing young girls and boys for the Olympics. One is a school where atheletes from all over the country live and study full time while spending just about all non-school time perfecting their skill. The second is the ski jumping venue which was highlighted in an earlier post. The third venue features bob sledding and cross country skiing. The fourth is figure skating. Kids come from everywhere for summer training and every Saturday evening they put on a figure skating show. The kids range in age from 4 to 20+. Most are excellent skaters. Actual Olympians, national finalists and pros perform during intermission and also for the finale. My I-phone does not take good pictures of fast moving skaters but these two were national figure skaing dancing contenders. They were amazing. Incidently, this skating rink was the actual rink used for the 1932 Winter Olympics. The rink used for the 1980 Olympics is in an attached building. That is the rink where the Americans tokk the gold from the heavily favored Soviets; the "Do you believe in miracles" rink.

 

The world famouis Saratoga Race Track is a 1 1/2 hour drive from Lake Placid. This horse and jockey just entered the winners circle. We didn't bet on that one either.

For the past 13 years, Lake Placid has hosted an Ironman competition. The Ironman is probably the gutsiest competition in today's world. The race starts at 6:20AM with a 2.4 mile swim in Mirror Lake. As the swimmers emerge from the lake, they run to a nearby field, remove their swim gear, don biking wear, find their bikes and then bike 112 miles through Adirondack hilly roads. At the end of the bike ride another dress change prepares them for a full 26.2 mile marathon run. The winner finished just before 3:30PM. About a third of these Ironmen are women. The finish line shuts down at midnight. If you don't finish by midnight, you are not an Ironman. 2700 men and women finished!  The top finishers are eligible to race in the world competition which will take place later in the year in Kona, Hawaii. Last year, four of the top 10 world finishers came from lake Placid. The picture is taken on a part of the bike course right next to our RV site. We spent most of the day cheering the bikers on.

 

This is Mirror Lake in downtown Lake Placid. It's beautiful. When we run out of things to do, we grab a couple of seats on the shoreline, bask in the sun and play with Sadie and our I-phones. The bandstand where the Sinfonettia plays Wednesday nights is just behind this location. In fact, the backs of our seats are touching the bandstand. See ya all next year!

 

 

 

More Lake Placid #2

The Sinfonietta that was mentioned in our last blog plays on, both at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts on Sundays and lakeside on Wednesday evenings. I was able to get a couple of photos. The first was during last Sunday's warm up before the performance and the second lakeside.

We also enjoy a variety of outdoor activities; golfing in the mountains, hiking and boating. You know us. Wherever there is water, you will find us in a boat.

 

This is one of Lake Placid's modest homes. This one is on Buck Island and is accessible only by boat.

 

This is a cute little boat house with guest quarters above. What you can't see here is the immense main house hidden in the woods.

 

There are dozens of hiking trails in the Adirondacks; six are labeled 'easy'. They may as well call them, 'For Shattuck's only'. This one is reached by driving six miles into the woods on a dirt road. Sadie walks fives miles for every one we walk. It's quiet, serene and beautiful here.

 

 

We don't play a lot of golf. When we do play it's mostly on mountain courses. This is a section of the Tupper Lake Country Club course. Back in the mid-70s, we had a weekend log cabin just off the first tee. This was also a super place for cross country skiing. Don Nolen just told me that while playing with the Thorndycrafts last week, he fell one shot short of golfing his age. I guess my day will come when I'm 115.

 

 

More Lake Placid

There is so much to do here. Tonight we will be attending a one man play, Defending the Caveman, at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts; tomorrow night a figure skating show and Sunday night its back to the Center for the Arts for the Lake Placid Sinfonietta otherwise known as the Orchestra of the Adirondacks. This is an amazing group of musicians. Lake Placid attracts some of the country's finest musicians who spend their summers here. It is all classical music. They perform twice a week and we just don't miss any of their performances. The Sinfonietta is one of our top attractions to the Adirondacks that keeps us coming back here. Unfortunately I cannot send you photos so I'll continue with other attractions.

Lake Placid not only has summer Nordic ski jumping they also have summer extreme ski jumping. This guy is the National Champion of Russia. He is about 72' in the air and has just started a jump with three loops and a couple of twists. These extreme jumpers land in a huge 750,000 gallon pool. Now water makes for an extremely hard landing but this pool is heavily bubbled making for a soft landing. These guys put on shows every Wednesday and Saturday. During the rest of the week several skiers are on a rigid schedule hoping to make the US Olympic team.

With the rain driven high waters, cars are now driving in Lake Champalin to get on the Lake Champlain ferry. The lake is about as high as it can get without flooding homes and shutting down waterfront businesses. Only a couple of inches of the breakwater at Burlington, VT is above water. I would hate to try navigating into that harbor at night. I doubt if radar would pick it up.

Today is the first day of 0% chance of rain in a long time. So, it's up to the top of Whiteface Mountain this morning. That is Lake Placid from the top of Whiteface. Some of you contemporaries will recall Kate Smith's singing, When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain. She was singing about the view of the moonrise over Whiteface from her Lake Placid home.

Our spacious, woodsy, private campsite. You can't get much better than this.

Front view. We will be here until August 1. We have very poor cell phone service here so if you want to get in touch with us either, leave a message on our phone, or a comment on this blog or e-mail us. More on Lake Placid in future editions.

Lake Placid

We are loving Lake Placid. Dave and Carol Dines joined us for four days and we gave a pretty complete itinerary. Whew. Had a ball with them.
We are still getting some rain every day although the weather is improving of late. We have experienced either a whole lot or some rain all but three days since leaving Punta Gorda. Today will make the fourth rain free day.Two days ago we took the ferry across Lake Champlain to Vermont. The water level was so high that the lake was overspilling the driveway to the ferry. Enjoy the photos.

Raging waters of the Ausable River above. This area has about a dozen huge boulders normally covered by sunbathers.

Carol and Dave Dines with Penny enjoying the scenery atop the highest shi puming platform.

A partial vista of the very scenic Elk Lake taken from the porch of the very remote, back in the woods, Elk Lake Lodge.

Three of Lake Placid's ski jumps are shown here. The one on the left is used year round. Skiers land on the green fiberglass mat. The one on the right, partially hidden by the pole, is for beginners and is also used year round. The picture of the Dines with Penny was taken from the top of the platform of the highest jump in the center of the photo. 

 

The ski jumper's view. They take off when they leave the jump to become airborn at 60 mph. The jump from beginning to end takes about 20 seconds. The green fiberglass mats of the year round jumps are seen in this picture

 

 

And the Gold Medalists are ..............

 

Madison to Lake Placid

We have really been behind the eight ball on keeping up with our blog partly because we have been out of wifi range a great deal and also because I am still learning how to do blogs.

We spent 10 delightful days in Madison, Wisconsin with Jennifer and her family. Our last blog told of our day at The House on the Rock, a must see place for anyone traveling to or through Wisconsin.
Matt and Jon spent the better part of three days ducking in and out of the rain to assemble a steel shed in the back yard. The directions were somewhere between terrible and misleading but we got it done and felt a significant sense of accomplishment.

 

Penny's father was a weekend farmer and Jon's ancestors going back a couple of generations were all

farmers. So that must be the genetic explanation for the fact for two of our kids are raising chickens. George and Cindy have four in their back yard in North Carolina and Jennifer and Matt have four in Madison. The chicken coop in Madison was  too small and flimsy so Matt and I were assigned a second project to construct a sturdy chicken coop that could withstand the pressure and weight of a 2' snow storm. We did it1 The chicken coop rests alongside the new shed and a chicken run lies along the back of the shed. Oh, did I mention that George was constructing a lean-to barn for two goats?

 

 

 

We arrived in Lake Placid, NY on June 29th. It is one of our favorite places under the sun but there has been very little sun. Madison had a slew of flash flood rains while we were there and its the same here. We left Punta Gorda on June 3rd. It is now July 5th. We have had either a lot or some rain every day but for three. The mountain lakes, rivers and streams are overflowing and raging toward Lake Champlain.

 

Carol and Dave Dines arrived here earlier this week. The weather has been improving and we have had enough good weather to give the Dines a whole lot of adventure and great exposure to the Adirondacks (including today's soaking rain during our hike in the woods when we seemed to be lost for a while).

Lake Placid has two weeks of horse shows in June and July of each year that attracts some of the finest horses and equestrians in the country. These are all jumpers and they are amazing.