U S A- Hooray!

We had so much fun celebrating Canada Day together, that Len took the day off of work so we could celebrate Independence Day together too.


We spent the day in New York in various towns. Our first stop was Massena, for some lunch at Taco Bell- yum! (Our last stop was in Malone, for some KFC- but fast food twice in the same day is not so great.) Next we made our way to Plattsburgh (400 years old) for a good ol' fashioned 4th of July parade. We arrived just in time and got a great spot on the corner.

There were lots of fun participants. The boy scouts led the parade carrying the beautiful Star-Spangled Banner. There were crazy cars (one with 3 wheels), several fire engines from different generations, men in skirts (kilts) playing the bagpipes, cute baton twirlers in red, white, & blue sailor outfits, Union soldiers firing their rifles, a replica of the USS Saratoga, and the local roller derby & football teams. One thing that surprised us was that there were no horses in the parade.

The little boys were both asleep in the stroller when the parade started.

Before it was over though, they both got a turn on Daddy's shoulders.

Afterwards we walked around their charming "downtown" right near Lake Champlain to check out the music festival and get some snacks. Do you see the entrance in the red building for your horse-drawn carriage?

This was such a pretty road trip through Adirondack country. (Wish I could have bought some chairs.) There were several charming houses with their Americana decor.

The above house had these gorgeous tiger lilies in their flower garden.

I have never been snow skiing, but I would love to come back and ski here. It was home to the Olympics in 1980 and 1932.

Everywhere you looked were gorgeous waterfalls, mountains, or forests.

And lovely wildflowers.

Our next stop was to the ultra-trendy and darling resort town of Lake Placid.

The kids wanted to swim in Mirror Lake so badly, but we still had a 3 hour drive home ahead of us, so we decided this is where we'll spend July 3-5 next year, for sure!

Even though they didn't get to swim, they were good sports and let me take their pictures.

We found this quaint church called St. John's In The Wilderness, and it literally was in the middle of nowhere. Would love to attend their Sunday services sometime.

All the kids were sound asleep by the time we got home 12 hours later. The big kids woke up though, so we could finally light our sparklers. Happy Birthday America! We had a great day!

One last note- we drove by signs for Mexico, Peru, Bombay, and the North Pole! We know where we're spending Christmas in July next year- ha ha!