Great Weekend in Lake Placid

Kirsten, my lovely and athletic wife, wanted to do a two-mile cable swim in Mirror Lake in Lake Placid. She did it last year and won her age group, and now she wanted to repeat the event. Instead of her going alone, we went together, leaving our three lovely, beautiful, quiet, intelligent, extremely well-behaved monsters children with her father in Delmar whilst the two of us headed for the Adirondacks. It was like we were a couple again.

We stayed in a hotel just two minute's walk from her race. This was the view from off our hotel balcony:

This is Mirror Lake, not Lake Placid.

I paddled around Mirror Lake while Kirsten did a practice swim. It was a beautiful lake with lots of people on paddling canoes, kayaks, and a few SUPs. Most people were fumbling with basic paddling technique, like which direction to hold the paddle, but it was nice to see some many.

The next morning before Kirsten's race, the view was spectacular:

Pretty amazing fog, right? Kirsten said that's Whiteface Mountain in the distance. In the other direction was Mount Marcy, the tallest mountain in New York, as if you didn't know.

Then we headed off to Kirsten's race. Check in was at 8 AM. The cable itself was 1/4 mile long, so she would have to swim four laps around it. There were two heats, the first for the faster swimmers and the second for those who were swimming more recreationally. Kirsten (of course) was in the first. However, this year the race was a national championship, so the competition would be a lot more fierce.

Got her number.

Getting nervous and feeling cold.

Feeling less cold.

Lining up to go in.

Getting her number reapplied because she wore a huge blue parka that wore off her number.

Heading in.

This is what the swimmers look like. No, I can't find Kirsten in this shot either. Let's just say, open water swimming isn't the best spectator sport.

Emerging at the end. Kirsten is the first woman in this shot.

Man, she looks tired.

Yes, she does need help up.

How do you think you'd look if you just swam two miles?

Every swimmer should recover from their race with a warm fleece, warm tea, and an octopus hat.

Fourth place in her age group!

That afternoon we goofed off on Mirror lake on our paddleboards.

I am attempting to stand on the tail of my NSP 11'.

I am falling off the tail of my NSP 11'.. This is the best picture ever taken of me standup paddling.

Kirsten doing a warrior-woman yoga pose.

Kirsten paddles an older Amundsen 11'3" and super-heavy adjustable Mistral paddle. Perhaps, one day, she'll get a paddle just for her, one that is more like a SUP paddle and less like an 18th century oar.

Look at me!

This is a loon. There were quite a few of them. I thought they were shy, reclusive birds, but these guys just swam around us.

Aww, ain't we cute?

A guy paddling with his dog. The dog is wearing a PFD.

We had a great vacation. It was nice to be just a couple for a weekend instead of a mommy and daddy. It was also great to just goof off. I think I fell more times in one session than the last year on the river, and I never laughed so much.