Sunday, July 25, 2010

Lake George Pancake House, Lake George NY

I almost forgot that we even ate at the Lake George Pancake House, if that tells you anything about the experience. We went in at around 9am to get breakfast. It took the waitress around 10 minutes to even come over and get our drink order. Then, about 10-15 minutes later, she returned to get our food order, without bringing our drinks. My Father-in-law asked about our drinks and she pointed to her notepad and told us she remembered the order.
My Mother-in-law got the wrong drink, but drank it anyways. Luckily I just got water so it wasn't hard to get right. I think it was just after 10am when we got our food. Around that time, the waitress spilled a tray with two cups of coffee on the floor. She apologized multiple times to our table and the neighboring table, and then asked the hostess to clean it up for her.
I only got one scrambled egg and a sausage link, as I don't eat a lot of breakfast. It was $5 just for that, which was a little surprising to me. The prices at the pancake house were more than I expected. My son got a children's chocolate milk and there was probably 5oz of milk in the cup when they brought it over.

On a scale of 1-5, I give the Lake George Pancake House a 2. I would not go back for breakfast if we went back to Lake George. My food wasn't bad, but I could have gotten a lot more for my money and time at other places. After that morning, we ate breakfast at McDonald's for the remainder of the trip.

Barnsider Smokehouse, Lake George NY

For family vacation, my sister-in-law and her husband watched our son so that my husband, his parents, and myself could go out for dinner. We chose the Barnsider Smokehouse for our dinner spot.

There was indoor and outdoor seating, and since it was a nice night, we chose outside. They had a guy set up to play live jazz music, although I don't think that's the norm at the smokehouse, I think it was a special night. The hostess was quick to seat us, and pretty much let us decide where we wanted to sit.

The food was good and reasonably priced. I got 1/3 rack of ribs and 1/2 a chicken with 2 sides for $16. I didn't eat a whole lot of it because we got sweet potato fries for an appetizer and I sort of filled up before my food got there.

On a scale of 1-5, I would give the Barnsider Smokehouse a 4.5. The prices weren't bad, especially for a tourist town, and the food was good. The servers were very polite and attentive. If we were to go back to Lake George, I would choose to have dinner there again.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Natural Stone Bridge and Caves



Four of us decided to go to the Natural Stone Bridge and Caves near Lake George, New York during the vacation. The trails are about 3/4 mile total. There's a lot of going up and down stairs. The caves were fun to see and look into. There were some great views to look at while we were walking, and spots to sit and rest if you needed to.

On a scale of 1-5, I would give this attraction a 4. If you go, bring sneakers and possibly a bottle of water. We opted to not bring my 3 year old, and that was a good decision. I was told that children could do it, but I don't know how. All four of us that went (all adults) tripped at least once at different points.

I believe it was about $13 a piece to get in to this attraction, children cheaper.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Usher Beach, Lake George NY

Usher Beach and Usher Park are more of a local spot than a tourist attraction. The park is very nicely shaded and has typical park stuff: slides, swings, other normal stuff. The beach is small and great for little kids. There is a lifeguard, but you can use floaties for your children (or at least we were able to and I did not see a sign against it.) My son had on a floaty and another child had a life vest on with no issue from the lifeguard. Most beaches near me do not allow anything that will aid in swimming.

Usher Beach also had their own supply of sand toys for children to use while there. Shovels, little boats, and castle-making equipment was there. The water had 2 areas roped off, side-by-side. One for very little children that was probably 8 feet wide and went out to about 2 feet deep. The larger area was about 12-15 feet across and went out to about 4 feet deep.

The only issue with the beach is the boats that go by on the lake. There's nothing to be done about them, but the waves created can be a little overwhelming for a smaller child.

On a scale of 1-5, I give Usher Park and Beach a 4.5. The water and sand were both very clean, and the kids had a great time.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Magic Forest, Lake George NY


Magic Forest is a children's ride park for kids under 10. There's 25 rides total I believe, and I think 4 are geared towards adults (ferris wheel, tilt a whirl, and 2 others). There are 2 shows. One is a magic show, and one is a diving horse. I personally didn't catch the shows, although I heard from my sister-in-law that the diving horse was interesting.

My son had a GREAT time. He's 3 1/2 years old and loved the ferris wheel (my husband said that every time they got to the top my son yelled "oh my god, this is so high") and a lot of the other rides. The only thing he tried to get off of a ride was the mini carousel. He tried to climb off of the horse while it was moving and I had to get him to sit still.

For pricing, the kids 2-10 are $15.99, as are seniors (I think 55 and older). Regular adults are $17.99 each. The hours are from 9:30 until 5pm, and if you go after 3pm, you can get in the next day for free. We did that option, and showed up around 4.

There's a picnic area, so you can bring in food and eat your own food without issue. You can also buy snacks from a concession stand, along with probably hot dogs and stuff of that nature.

Overall, on a scale of 1-5, I would give the park a 3.5. I wish they would update some of the rides, but the old school rides were also fun. They had a mini roller coaster that was literally kick started. The worker had to push with his foot to get the ride going. A lot of the rides are from probably the 50's.

The only thing I would caution people about is that, at least when I was there, most of the workers did not speak good english. It wasn't really an issue for us, but there could be an issue with a language barrier.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Colonel Williams Resort, Lake George NY

For a Christmas gift to my mother and father-in-law, my husband and his sister brought the family to Lake George, NY for a 4-day vacation. We spent 3 nights in the Colonel Williams resort.

Know in advance, if you plan to stay there, NO juice boxes or coolers will be allowed in rooms. If they are in there during the daily inspection by the owner, they will be removed. We came back one afternoon to find my father-in-law's cooler on the front porch area. The owner came over when he saw us pull in and told us that we signed a paper acknowledging that we were not allowed to have coolers. The only thing I remember signing was the swimming rules for NY state. My father-in-law explained that they had medications that needed to stay cool and the owner told him to either put the medication in the tiny fridge in the room, or keep refilling the cooler with ice and keep it outside. If he had found any juice boxes, he would have thrown them out.

There is an indoor and outdoor pool, sauna, jacuzzi, hot tub, playground, and a game room. The indoor pool was small and not very clean. It was also cold water, which was odd to me. Any indoor pools I have been in before were a lot warmer than the pool here. The outdoor pool wasn't bad. The playground is across a grassy area from the rooms and is not open until 9am. We were asked to leave at 8:50am when we were playing very quietly.

The first full day we were there, I put out the "do not disturb" sign before we left because we didn't need anything done to the room and didn't want the maids wasting time making our beds. I came back to the sign back in our room and it was apparent that they ignored the sign and came in anyways. Luckily I wasn't sleeping naked at the time or anything of that sort.

Overall, on a scale of 1-5, I would rate this "resort" a 2 at best. If you are a very thin person (the shower was small, no bathtub, only a shower, unless you got a suite, the toilet was very close to the shower stall and sink) and are only using the room for sleeping, it may be worth it. I would not recommend the resort to people with children, mostly due to the no juice box rule. If you stay here, I would pay the extra for the suite so that you can have a bathtub and a couch. The room I stayed in was one with two double beds that were very close together, except for the bathroom door in between.

Lake George!

My family and I just went on a 4-day Lake George vacation. So the next few blogs will be things to do there. I will be reviewing Magic Forest; Natural Stone, Bridge and Caves; Colonel Williams Resort; Lake George Pancake House; the Barnsider restaurant; and Usher Beach.

Enjoy!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Sorry I've been absent

I feel that I should apologize to the few followers I have. I have been busy, looking to move into a new house and everything that goes with it. Hopefully I will have more products to review soon.

In the meantime, feel free to check out swagbucks.com. You can do surveys and such and earn "swag bucks" towards free prizes.