Saranac Lake Ice Castle - Part 2

I was working my way through the second story passages in the Saranac Lake ice castle (see also Part 1, posted yesterday):

All along the walls, in keeping with the prehistoric theme, were cave wall drawings. This was a Mammoth:

And some sort of deer with antlers. The cave drawings were 3D, made of sculpted snow. I must confess, though, that it looked to me like they had been colored with urine. Then again, I've been know to have a sick mind:

I reached the steps which led back down to the interior of the ice castle, and realized that these were the steps I'd passed previously:

There were two thrones, used by the Queen and King in the official opening ceremonies:

I had been disappointed that there was no Adirondack lean-to made of ice this year, but then I heard someone say it was just down this passageway:

Indeed it was. It just that the lean-to was inside the castle this year instead of separate, on the banks of Lake Flower:

I walked around the maze in the back of the castle. It's that lower wall you can see in this rear view. I thought it was more skillfully planned this year, and more interesting to walk through. But I'd seen all there was to see, so I walked toward the parking area:

There were no hot dogs or hamburgers for sale this year, but they did have kettle corn:

And a booth with what seemed to be Adirondack antiques:

I got back in my car and drove to a small park on a different part of Lake Flower, where students from the Adirondacks' Paul Smiths College were going to present logging/lumbering demonstrations:

I could see that they were set up for various competitions, but they hadn't yet begun:

But some students were there, all ready to go:

Just to get warmed up, the students began practicing their ax throwing skills:

The guy in the above photo missed, but I managed to get a shot of this guy's successful throw. This was the end of my visit to the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival. I got back in my car and began the 50 mile journey back home. A heavy, slippery snow began falling as I drove, and the roads became hazardous. I'm glad I didn't leave any later than I did:

Saranac Lake Ice Castle - Part 1

Our weather predictions for the day were not stellar, but I decided that my trip to Saranac Lake to see the Winter Carnival ice castle should go ahead anyway. I drove south through beautiful Adirondack forests for 50 miles:

The parking lot near the ice castle was full, so I found a spot on a side street by these cute Adirondack decorations in front of someone's home:

From there I walked to the ice castle:

I already knew the theme involved ice sculptures of dinosaurs, so I was not surprised to find them:

A Brontosaurus:

A Dimotrodon - or at least that's what I think it was:

And the ever popular Triceratops:

I walked toward the front entrance, where the Winter Carnival theme was spelled out in 3D snow sculpted letters, "Prehistoric Park:"

I could see people milling around inside, so I joined them:

And was immediately confronted by the biggest ice sculptures of all, two dinosaurs at right angles to each other. Some children were having lots of fun climbing on them:

I, however, had a lot of trouble making out what kind of dinosaurs they were, and where one ended and the other began. I could, though, make out the giant, sharp teeth of this one. Just like the children, I found those big teeth to be enough to make me happy:

I walked past this curious stairway, but it was busy so I exited a side doorway and walked around to the front of the castle again:

There were more steps in the front of the castle and they weren't busy, so I walked up them:

I reached the upper level, where I could see out over the parapet wall down to the roadway below, where busy workers were trying to keep traffic flowing and prevent illegal parking:

The upper level passageway, built of giant ice blocks as was all the castle, led around in a sort of maze. Now, this was a feature the former ice castles never had, so I was intrigued. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow:

Saranac Lake Laboratory Museum - Part 2

I was touring the Laboratory Museum in Saranac, New York with my sister (see also Part 1, posted yesterday). The sanatorium also trained nurses. This is the graduating class of 1915 with Dr. Trudeau, who died later that same year:

A typical patient bed, of the type they'd use on their fresh air porches:

A doctor's medical bag and stethoscope:

A doctor's kit of medical tinctures:

And a wide variety of pills:

The modern cure for tuberculosis was not developed until the 1950s, but the disease has made a comeback in the U.S. and the Trudeau Institute is still studying the disease at their modern facility nearby:

The Laboratory Museum had a separate display room downstairs. The last time I was here, it displayed "Medical Marvels" of the era (most of which looked more like torture machines to me). This time, the display was "The Roaring Twenties:"

Flapper jewelry:

A red flapper dress:

Etiquette of the day required men to remove their hats indoors, so hat checks began opening in restaurants and clubs. It also offered young women a place to work outside the home:

Roaring Twenties hats. These surprised me as I thought that they could be worn today and no one would think amiss as you walked down the street:

There were lots of shoes from the twenties, but I chose to picture this pair, women's high heels. This was the end of our Laboratory Museum tour:

Saranac Lake Laboratory Museum - Part 1

My sister was visiting and we only had two days together, so we wanted to make them productive. The forecast for day two of her visit was for heavy rain, so we drove down to Saranac Lake to see the Laboratory Museum, site of the famous "fresh air cure" for tuberculosis and much research into the disease:

The building houses the original lab, its furniture and lab equipment. What was not original was reproduced as accurately as possible:

Scientific instruments of the day:

My sister peered into Dr. Trudeau's personal office:

Gary Trudeau, creator of the comic "Doonesbury," is Dr. Trudeau's grandson. Many famous people, including Robert Louis Stevenson, came here for the cure:

The Institute operated from the late 1800s through the early 1900s, sometimes treating 400 patients at once and embracing 50-100 local homes with porches where the patients could spend their days getting fresh air:

I didn't catch on at first, but my sister pointed out the window to the next house. It was exactly what the photo on the sign showed, and the porch where Dr. Trudeau took his own fresh air cure:

This photo, the sign said, was taken in 1897, three years after the lab opened. Clearly it was later colorized and looked exactly as the room looks today. See the next picture for more information:

This refers to the above photo and how the place was designed. The walls were all white glazed bricks:

We got to look into a microscope at tuberculosis bacteria. At the end of our tour, we saw plush tuberculosis germs were for sale as toys or souvenirs:

The Trudeau Sanatorium, the first successful one in the U.S., came to include 50 buildings around the town of Saranac Lake, NY:

Tuberculosis was once common in this country and it took much research to find a real cure. I'll post Part 2 of our museum tour tomorrow: