Surprise!

A couple months ago, Daryl told me that he was planning a surprise Weekend getaway for my birthday and our anniversary. I love surprises so I was very excited! Daryl is not one for surprises so it was hard for him to not tell me where we were going. For weeks, I would ask him questions and try to guess….not really wanting to know the answer! As it got closer, Daryl told me what to pack “a nice outfit, a casual outfit and a grungy outfit.” That doesn’t really cut it for girls! So I packed a variety of clothing still having no idea where we were going. On Thursday ngiht before we left, Daryl said “I’m going to need to fill you in on some more details of the trip so you can prepare. I’ve been waiting until now because I didn’t want to give anything away.” He then proceeded to tell me we would need to pack our tent, backpacks, sleeping bags, bug spray, etc, etc. He also said we wouldn’t really be alone and that I should eat a big breakfast before we left because he didn’t know when or what we’d be eating next. I started getting nervous! I figured we were going on some long, group wilderness hike for the whole weekend. That would have been fun too, but not really what I was hoping for for our anniversary celebration. When we left in the morning, I still had no idea where we were heading. I had in my mind, the Catskills, since we always talk about going there when we pass it on the way to Matt and Alyssa’s. That wasn’t it. As we kept driving and passing signs, more ideas came to mind…Thousand Islands, our cabin (which we drove right by that exit). and then I started seeing signs for the Adirondacks. Maybe Saranac Lake? After 5 hours in the car, we arrived in a cute, little town. I was admiring the local area and feeling a little bummed that we were going to miss out on this, and instead be sleeping outside in the woods. Then Daryl pulled into Mirror Lake Inn. I initially thought this was the meeting point where we would meet up with the other hikers in our group, but then he told me we were staying here! I was soo surprised! It was a beautiful inn right on the lake. We had our own balcony overlooking the mountains, and it had many nice amenities. It will probably be the nicest place we ever stay! After we checked in and walked around the grounds a bit, we walked into the little downtown. It was lined with cute, local shops and restaurants along the water. We saw the Olympic Center which was built for the 1932 and 1980 Olympics, and the ice rink where the USA hockey team won the gold in 1980. We also saw the ski jump. In the evening we ate dinner by the lake and that night the hotel sent up a bottle of champagne for our anniversary! The following day we took a drive and we ended up driving to the top of White Face Mountain in Willmington. At the end of the mountain drive there was a 1/2 mile hike to the top. The views were amazing!

The view from our hotel room

Overlooking Lake Placid from the top of White Face Mountain

Mirror Lake

Our hotels' little beach

Ahhh!