veggiessima

Last weekend we went on a quick getaway for the first time since covid-19 happened.

In the Winter, we go often to Lake Placid area to snowboard and in the Fall of 2018 we went there for a few days to hike. We had never been there in the Summer, until this past weekend.

We lucked out and found a cabin to stay, it was perfect, no lobbies or shared spaces full of people.

One of the things we love about traveling by car is being able to bring some of our homemade food with us. Not only do we save money, but we also save time waiting to get into busy restaurants, and we can make sure we will have some nutritious food while away from home. It's nice to go out for a meal here and there. Right now, with all the difficulties of having to social distance in restaurants, the extra long lines due to less available tables, and the uncomfortableness of having to wear a mask while moving around, we didn't think twice about bringing our own food! So... we brought enough food for our long weekend away.

We brought some of this hearty corn chowder I had made right before we left. You can get the recipe and read about it here.

For breakfast we prepared organic oatmeal bowls with rolled oats, cashew yogurt, banana, blueberries and chickpea granola, we brought all the ingredients to prepare this in our cabin. For more breakfast bowls ideas with oats, click here.

A few other food items we brought: hummus, pre washed boxes of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, bread, crackers, dates, honeydew melon, fresh figs, energy bars and cookies. We were glad we brought our food, as we went around seeing lots of long lines of people waiting to get into restaurants. That was definitely something we were not even a bit interested in during such a short time away!

In the center of Lake Placid we were reminded everywhere that these are different times.

But once we got out into Nature we were gifted with air easy to breathe and breathtaking views. We decided to go visit Whiteface, our Winter ski mountain, as it was Summer and we wondered how it would look different from Winter.

At the entrance of Whiteface Mountain, there is a bridge and Nature greets us with this beauty as we walk in. We love to stop on that bridge and watch the water flowing. It's so peaceful and relaxing, and sometimes after a thaw or a storm, so powerful!

In the Summer, you can take the gondola that takes you to the top of one of the peaks where you have a beyond great view of all the majesty!

At the top, getting off the gondola, we went down part of one of the trails and came back up. Most trails had vegetation growing and it wasn't trivial to pick a path, so we were careful and went as far as we felt safe. It was so interesting to see the mountain without any snow, it was so verdant, so full of life! The sounds of Nature were completely different than what we experience in the Winter, when it feels like all the bugs and insects are asleep and we don't hear them.

We adore the Winter views, we never get tired of staring at the trees covered in snow, but seeing the mountain dressed in green was spectacular.

This was a quick trip, it was awkward to interact with some people in this new way of socializing but we came back very energized.

**I left Lake Placid with a million thoughts in my head, thinking a lot about the change of the seasons and how incredibly special each one of them is. Sure Winter can be cold and scary sometimes, but maybe those cold-impossible-to-go-out days exist so we can put everything on pause and take some time to rest, reflect, recharge, and be ready to enjoy the things we love!**

I put together some images from this trip and some images of the same places in the Winter. I really enjoyed this composition, I hope you enjoy it too:

https://www.cinnamon.video/watch?v=391326895863498010

Cintia