Jasmine's Place Issue No. 18 - May/June 2017 | Page 12

Camping and golf are also activities throughout the approximately 100 communities throughout the mountains. Special places to visit include the Ausable Chasm, Adirondack Museum, Wild Center, including the breathtaking wild walk trail constructed among the tree tops. Lake Placid is a great place to go for a gondola ride up Whiteface Mountain and to walk where the athletes participated in the 1980 Olympics, including the rink of the famous “Miracle on Ice” match between the US and Russia. There’s even a toboggan ride with a recycled ski lift that will take you onto the beautiful Mirror Lake. If sports isn’t your thing, Lake Placid offers great shopping, too. Lake George is called the “Southern Gateway” to the Adirondack Mountains and is a tourist hot-spot in the summer. There’s plenty of shopping in Lake George I worked hard to make my Surrendering Time series Adirondack authentic, and was so pleased when I met with readers at the Speculator library to hear they found my work accurate. What you aren’t going to find in the mountains are chain-based businesses like fast food or hotels. Businesses receive the bulk of their business May-September. After Labor Day, local residents are the only ones 12 JASMINE'S PLACE The mountains are also a “must” destination for “leaf peepers,” people who love to travel in the fall to look at the leaf color change.