First off, so sorry for taking so long to write since my last entry.....I can't believe it's been over a week....that's way too long since we had Canada Day, free agent frenzy and other big things happening around the sports world, but lots of exciting stuff going on for me right now that I've been working on....
During the trip, I decided that I was going to get even more into business and investing, so I've been sniffing around for different opportunities.....luckily, there have been a couple of people to help me out with getting started with ideas.....so hopefully all of these little projects come to fruition starting in August/September and I can fill you guys in on all that....
Anyways, I figured that being in Ottawa for more than two weeks was too much, so I went on the road again for a weekend in Lake Placid....it was my first time there and I had a great time, and I didn't even get a chance to take advantage of any of the great golf courses that they have to offer....
I never thought that I would fall in love with a place that only has 3 thousand people, but there's so many activities for an active guy like me, so I could never get bored....I'm such a city person and have basically lived downtown all my life, so I like the hussle of it all, but there's a charm that comes with the town that I could see myself staying there for a good chunk of time if need be.....
Got there on the Friday night and we ended up at the one real bar called the Zig Zag Bar.....it has a Budweiser Bobsled in front that you can sit in and take pictures (as long as you don't mind sitting in cigarette butts and other dirt) ..... there's actually three or four of them around town that you could sit in and take the touristy picture....
I must admit, I fell in love with the prices for American beer again and enjoyed several Rolling Rocks as we walked through the bar and looked at the different bobsled/luge memorabilia that the bar had picked up over the years....
Saturday was the day to do all the touristy stuff....our hotel room just happened to be right across the street from the Miracle on Ice Arena and the 1932 arena, so we went there first....I didn't think I would be awe-struck by being in that arena considering I'm not American, but the emotion of that game against the USSR in 1980 was so palpable that I guess in retrospect, I shouldn't be surprised that I was struck with the thought of "I'm actually here...."
After that, we ended up at the bobsled run and decided to pay the 50 dollars and pay to go down the 1/2 mile bobsled run....it's a rickety old bobsled on wheels with a driver and brakeman....I didn't think that we would end up going as fast as we did, but the last three turns, we were actually sideways as a real bobsled would....definitely worth the money for the experience of doing it...
We then headed down to the 120m ski jump structure....we took a chairlift up to the top of the hill, then an elevator to get to the top of the structure....then you can walk out onto the platform where the ski jumpers would actually sit and you get to see what their vantage point would be as they prepare to lauch themselves into the air.....all I can say is, "Those jumpers have got to have a screw loose in order to do that...."
After a dip in the hotel pool and hot tub, we headed down to the lake to check out the 4th of July fireworks....I didn't know what to expect since the town has only 3,000 people, but one of the locals told us that the show would last 30 minutes.....well, let's just say that their fireworks show put our Canada Day fireworks to shame....I have never seen a firework show like that in my life.....just incredible! I guess the Americans really know what they're doing when it comes to fireworks.... :-)
After the fireworks, it was back to the Zig Zag Pub to end the night with a live band....I finally got to experience drinking in a small town with the locals.....it was an odd experience filled with tye-dye shirts, guys in green overalls, people stumbling all over the place and a live band with a guy playing the washboard with spoons.....wow! Not gonna find that in the market anytime soon....
Again, my apologies for taking so long....just one last thing....if you're a big gamer like me, you're geeked about NHL 10 coming in September....I can't wait! I got up to be the 243rd ranked player in the world for NHL 09, so we'll see if I can duplicate that for this game when it comes out.....so here's a little preview for it.....ohhh my god! I can't wait! 
