Jefferson County

Even though our cabin isn’t glamorous, we did both sleep well. One thing that was a bit unusual is that the instructions on the wall said we needed to separate the garbage, sweep and vacuum the floors, wash and put away the dishes and strip the beds before leaving! It almost felt like we were at camp.

The Queen’s passing was all over the news this morning, even here in the US, and there were also some flags at half mast here too. We were a bit concerned when we awoke to fog, particularly since we had the cruise at 10am. We remained optimistic and packed up our car, bought a takeaway coffee in Clayton, and drove down to Alexandria Bay for our cruise.

The fog was still there although it was slowly dissipating. The tour operator advised that the tour may get delayed which concerned us due to our tight schedule and their no-refund policy. Luckily we were not delayed for more than 15 minutes, so the cruise was only delayed further waiting for the people who ran to get a coffee thinking the departure would be later!

The cruise went through the appropriately named Millionaire Row, where there were some stunning houses located on islands along the way. The guide even asked us to look over the edge and look out for the US-Canada border (which most of us fell for). We enjoyed a green tea and popcorn in the dining area before stopping at beautiful Boldt Island where the majority of the passengers disembarked to explore the castle. Truth be told, if we’d had enough time we would have done the same, but we still had a lot of driving to do so we had to pass.

Even though the cruise departed late, we arrived back in Alexandria Bay on time. We continued our long drive towards Vermont where we passed a few Amish communities on the way. As we didn’t want to run behind, we settled on McDonalds drive thru at Gouverneur for lunch, which is something we definitely don’t do often.

When we arrived at Lake Placid we both liked it. I mistakenly associated it with the movie, not the venue of the Winter Olympics! The area had a lot of tourists, but we loved walking through the shops and photographing the lake. I bought a T-shirt - my first purchase this holiday - before we continued on. Easier said than done though, as a lot of the roads were closed and we were constantly detoured.

We drove past the ski jumps on the way out of Lake Placid, before arriving in beautiful, flat Vermont. Some of the villages we drove through were amazing. We had originally scheduled to go to the capital Burlington, but the amount of driving was getting to us, so we headed straight to Stowe instead. When we arrived it was already dark so we decided to go into town first before going to the hotel, in the hope something would be open so we could get something to eat.

Well unbeknownst to us, the town was completely pumping. The town was holding their annual “British Invasion”, which involved a band playing British songs, the displaying of British cars, and thousands of people in the street. We thought it was related to the passing of the Queen, but it was just a coincidence. We bought some pies for dinner thinking they’d be a cheap option (misjudged that one!) before enjoying the atmosphere. We headed to our so-so hotel afterwards but, despite driving all day, Ted was still awake enough to stay up and watch the tennis! Tomorrow we visit another state as we head to Maine!Read more