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Made the break.

Went to Amsterdam for 8 days and made it back. Overall went pretty smoothly, although I'm quarantined until next Saturday. Worth it tho.

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What would Mad Max be like with EVs?

Went back to Lake Placid this weekend. They're renovating the 1980 and 1932 Olympic rinks. Totally overhauling everything in prep for the 2023 international collegiate games, which I guess is like college Olympics, since the Olympics are now for pros.

My wife really loves it up there and wants to buy property. We can't afford it in the next 2 years and I fear the costs will double after they host such an event. I figure if we could scrape the money together now to buy something we could probably charge and arm & leg for that month or so and make a shitload of the investment back.

But it's a really beautiful area and if any of you guys ever go I can let you know some cool stuff to check out.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Lake Placid is amazing! Cool to hear they are renovating. I haven't been there in many years. I also miss Ausable Chasm. You go to that place?

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I hadn't heard of Ausable Chasm before. Looked it up just now and it's similar, but bigger and considered better than, High Falls Gorge which we went to. I'll check it out next time we go up.

My wife is permanently cold. I can't believe she wants to move to a place like Lake Placid.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

So it appears that Quebec City at the end of November might be out. Flights have gotten outrageously expensive for our dates at $1200 for two people.

Looks like we might be riding the train to Montreal Nov 24-28. Erik, you around then?

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

Yeah, I should be. Working the games but let me know what you're planning. Maybe on Instagram DM, I'm more alert on there.

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Sounds good. Gonna need the restaurant recs

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

Looks like Centrale is right downtown? What stuff do we need to see?

I just looked at your NDG restaurant article. Dumplings and Fried Chicken - exactly what Anam wants!

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

I don't know if you need to schlep out to NDG for good dumplings or fried chicken. Both in abundance in our lovely Chinatown downtown.

Centrale is next to Chinatown as well. I haven't been since the Pando, but I loved it when it opened. Definitely have all your vax pass info ready, they'll be checking everywhere. Time Out Market at Eaton Centre reopened and it's also really cool.

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How's the vax pass stuff working there? Here I've just had the pdf on my phone and drivers license.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

Hotel and train to Montreal booked for Nov 24th - 28th.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

Had a blast in Montreal for a few days with Anam without the kids. Slept in, ate, visited some historic spots and wandered around Old Montreal and the old port. Just a wicked place.

Loved taking the train, albeit our train to get there left 2 hours late(The engineers didn't have their paperwork in order? The fuck?) and the one coming home was diverted for 45 minutes or so because of some work on the line. Anam wasn't as thrilled with it as I was(but I would also be the one driving).

I felt much safer as a pedestrian in Montreal than Toronto. The no right turn on red lights is a big part of that I think. Those sloped icy sidewalks must get pretty precarious in the winter though!

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

Wife wants to do the Erie Canal bike trail this coming summer or next one. She hates the idea of camping but says she wants to camp along the trail so we don't have a schedule. I reminded her that means carrying tents, sleeping bags, etc, and not being able to shower... It's like 350 miles from Buffalo to Albany, which sounds really daunting but most people do 50-100 miles a day fairly easily since it's mostly downhill if you go east. I figure we'd take the train from Albany to Buffalo with the bikes.

https://www.ptny.org/cycle-the-erie-canal/trail-map

Could be fun or we could be on the way to divorce by the time we get home. We drove cross country a few times in college and by the end of the last time she was ready to kill me.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Sloped icy sidewalks is right!!! The last time I went to Montreal was to watch the Nutcracker at Place Des Arts with my g/f (at the time) and her son. She didn't care for the city (partly why she's an ex lol), but I just love being there - even after I wiped out on the sidewalk right on my tailbone.

The MTL vibe is the closest I get to a NYC vibe in Canada. We went by train also - love the train.... although 2 hours??? wtf guys. Hope you were drinking during the wait - best part of not having to drive

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What would Mad Max be like with EVs?

Booked ski trip in Feb but keeping it in province in case any added restrictions happen between then and now. Not expecting them just concerned, but all things even I would rather ski in Quebec so it was a covid based decision to ski in Ontario instead.

I might be in northern NY, across from Kingston, Ontario in late April. Any of you near there?

I should be in Buffalo, NY the first weekend of March too.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

I just saw this. We were looking forward to loading up on sausages, duck fat fries and beer at Wvrst in Union before we left but they didn't open until 11:30 and we boarded at 11. But if we weren't stuck on the train during the delay we could have been there

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

Buffalo is about half or less the distance for me as Kingston is. Hounsy is really close.

We will have to see what the situation is like for crossing the border closer to then.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

Yeah, that's what I figured. I was there last April but the border was supposedly closed.

I'll be there for a tournament, so I'll see what the schedule is like as we get close.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

It's official- I'll be in Buffalo March 3-6 for the NY state tournament. Looks like we've got games on Friday morning and afternoon, and a game Saturday morning. If we make the semi-finals, they're Sunday morning. So we'll probably head to Niagara Falls on Saturday afternoon.

There's a Sabres home game while we're there. Might go, just to go.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.