Adirondack Family Time™

One way to celebrate this change of season is to attend Wilmington’s own Festival of Colors. With live entertainment, craft booths and various contests, it is a great place to stop by after taking that early morning hike or make it your own destination. Children will enjoy face painting, games and guest appearances from nearby Santa’s Workshop. The North Pole is located just around the corner so be prepared from some favorite characters to stop by. Horse and pony rides will round out some of the activities. The Festival of Colors always takes place the second Saturday in September. So join in the fun from 10 am-5 pm.

The Adirondack Canoe Classic - The 90-Miler, is a 90-mile  is a three-day, 90-mile flat water canoe race on rivers and lakes from Old Forge, Long Lake to Saranac Lake. The 90-Miler is limited to 250 boats.   It was first organized in 1983 as a means to celebrate the historic human-powered means of transportation that was once so critical to exploring the Adirondack Park. Paddlers will work their way through the Fulton Chain, Eckford Chain, Long Lake, Raquette River and all the Saranac Lakes.  There are plenty of places to be able to observe the races along the 90-mile canoe/kayak paddle route.  Spectators: Day One: Old Forge Waterfront, Inlet waterfront, Raquette Lake bridge, Blue Mountain Lake waterfront, Day Two: Bissell's Field in Long Lake Route 30 bridge in Long Lake, Tupper Lake's Crusher on Route 30, Day Three: Fish Creek Campground, Lake Flower Saranac Lake. 

DUO BARRENECHEA - flute & piano By Diane Chase In its fifth season, Piano by Nature in Elizabethtown is one musical organization that strives to bring live music to the Adirondacks during the other months of the year. Artistic Director Rose Chancier started  Piano By Nature  with the concept of giving back to her community.

The 2nd annual Duck Derby will start at noon on September 2 at the Town of Webb Information Center, Old Forge Watch this Adirondack family event as 3,000 rubber duckies sail down the Moose River. The first 10 ducks across the finish line have the chance to win $100,000 through OddsOn Promotions .  Many other great prizes from local sponsors including $1,000, a new kayak, Meyda stained glass window, McCauley Mountain ski passes, gift baskets, rafting tours, cash prizes.  

Join in the Golden Ticket Craze in Saranac Lake and enjoy a FREE outdoor movie showing of Willy Wonka starring Gene Wilder.   The final Downtown Saranac Lake movie night of the summer will be held on Friday, August 31 ,  8:30 pm at Berkeley Green ..  This will be the 3 rd  outdoor movie held in Downtown Saranac Lake this summer. The first two films for the successful event were theWizard of Oz and E.T the Extraterrestrial. 

St. William’s on Long Point in Raquette Lake offers FREE Thursday events during the months of July and August there.  Lisa Meissner of the acoustic group, Rustic Riders . Lisa and her husband Klauss will be performing at St. Williams on Long Point in Raquette Lake on August 23, 7:00 p.m.  There will be two other special events as part of the St. William’s on Long Point Thursday series, though the August 30 and October 6 events will be held at the Raquette Lake School on Route 28.

Did you know? • Bald-faced hornets ( Dolichovespula maculata)   will sting if you get in their way, but will not attack if left alone.  They are also beneficial insects. Hornets will aggressively attack  and sting any intruder disturbing the nest. • Bald-faced hornets are considered social wasp s as they live in groups. Paper wasps and yellow jackets are also social wasps. • The queen becomes active in spring. She will select a place for the nest. • The workers, queen and larvae are referred to as a colony . • Hornets' nests can be found in trees, the eaves of homes, attics, or exterior porches. It does not build its nest inside the nooks of buildings as do yellow jackets . • The bald-faced hornets' nest looks like a gray paper/clay ball . It can sometimes reach the size of a basketball. The inside is lined with individual cells, like a honey comb, where the queen will lay her eggs.  The nests are made by chewing up wood mixed with their saliva.

The Taylor Haskins Quartet will  at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts on Sunday, August 19th, 2012 at 7:30 pm. Joining Taylor for this event will be pianist Mark Shilansky, bassist Joshua Davis, and drummer Jeff Hirshfield. Taylor Haskins is being hailed as one of the most original new voices on the trumpet today. Downbeat Magazine has declared him one of the ’25 Trumpeters of the Future’, stating that Taylor displays “a probing, adroit lyricism and a gift for complex, imaginative composition.”   In 2005, Haskins won a Grammy award working with Dave Holland on the album, "Overtime," and stills plays lead trumpet with the group. 

Hoss’s Country Corner looms large at the junction of Routes 28N and 30 in Long Lake where the annual Author Night will take place this August 14 for its 28th year. Always held the second Tuesday in August the event has grown from a few to sometimes 80 authors in attendance. According to owner Lorrie Hosley, people now plan their vacations around attending this event. “This year there are 60 different authors gathered to meet people and sign books,” says Hosley. “Everyone is always under one tent.    People don’t have to buy books. They can bring their copy and get it personalized by the author. Christopher Shaw will be there along with other Adirondack singers and storytellers.” The event started when Hosley attended a Maitland DeSormo book signing at the Long Lake Town Hall. DeSormo suggested that Hoss’s Country Corner do something similar with more than one author. Hoss’s Author Night was born.

The Adirondack Reader in Inlet, NY  will be hosting its annual Authors' Fair on Sunday, August 12 from 1-4 pm. The Adirondack Reader's Authors' Fair will take place under the tent on Main Street. With many authors. Here are a few of the Adirondack authors you can meet!  The event is free and open to the public. Stop by and say hi, get lunch or go to the beach! Enjoy a beautiful day in Inlet. 

White Castle USA Slider Search in Lake Placid (updated 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016) NEW for 2017) By Diane Chase FREE White Castle USA Slider Search Comes to the Adirondacks:  Lake Placid (NY)  July 27 10 am -noon, 2-4 pm)  September 21 ( 5-7pm) The Olympic games have special meaning to Lake Placid, as hosts for the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympic Games. With Olympic training camps, Olympic facilities, and Olympic events happening at the sites of those Winter Games, Lake Placid has proven that it will always be an Olympic town. Bringing the family to see one of the many Lake Placid Olympic sites is a wonderful opportunity. The chance to for children to actually try an Olympic sport is rare. The White Castle  USA Luge Team  "the fastest sport on ice."  has been going around the country offering free “Learn to Luge” clinics all summer. Each USA Luge Slider Search takes place  in two hours segments where children (9-13) can receive a lesson on a wheele

The Lake Placid Ironman may be over but bike riding around the Adirondacks is still very much in season. There are many places where visitors and locals alike can access the woods and enjoy some off-road trails. For smaller children or those just beginning to experience a wooded trail may want to attempt DEC campgrounds for a trail ride.   When my children were first learning to ride a two-wheeler, I wanted to take them some place where they could explore nature and enjoy a bicycle ride. I didn’t want them to go on a busy road and I felt just traveling around the streets wouldn’t keep my older child interested in the endeavor. We recently joined friends for a ride at the Buck Pond Campground. The entrance to Buck Pond is built on the same site as the old Chateaugay Branch of the Delaware and Hudson (D&H) Railroad. It was the perfect outing for our group consisting of a wide range of ages.

By Diane Chase Raquette Lake comes together each year to celebrate the founder of the Adirondack Great Camp style, William W. Durant. Durant Days not only celebrates the history of the Adirondack architectural form, but brings people to the area that was the birthplace of the Great Camp design. Event Organizer Donna Pohl says, “Beverly Bridger of Great Camp Sagamore and I started this event 14 years ago as a way to gain attention for the National Historic Landmarks of Raquette Lake. One of the crowning jewels during Durant Days is the opportunity for a guided tour of Camp Pine Knot.” Camp Pine Knot , owned by SUNY Cortland was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2004, making it the first such landmark owned and operated by a SUNY institution. Now named Huntington Memorial Camp, the university has operated as an outdoor education center since 1948. “Camp Pine Knot is not usually open to the public,” says Pohl. “It will be interesting for people to go on the F