Monday, January 02, 2006

Free Entertainment Finds

Yesterday we watched a few hundred people take a Polar Plunge into Lake George. I'm told the air temperature was about 23 degrees and the water temperature was about 40 degrees. Depsite this, people came from as far away as Rio Dejanero to jump into the water. My kids were just thrilled by this. They couldn't believe what they were seeing, and frankly, neither could I! Does free entertainment get any better than this? It was well worth the drive.

We also discovered in our travels that a nearby park has free ice skating, snow tubing, cross country sking and snoeshowing. We usually spend $16/family member, $8.00/boy because they're 6 or younger, to go to a local ski resort to tube for 2 hours once a year. The notion of it being free was intriguing. We'd need to buy a snow tube for each child would it be worth the money?

A little online research revealed snow tubes for $13.99-$89.99. We're seriously considering tubes that are on sale for $13.99 with free shipping. In one use the tubes will almost pay for themselves. (The kids have agreed to use some of their Christmas money to purchase their own tubes.)

Here's the interesting thing, this free park is not advertised anywhere that I've seen. We stumbled upon it by turning at a sign that said "Recreation Area" with an arrow. Our neighbor who lives there year round didn't know about the park and she's lived there all her life. So keep your eyes open, you never know what you'll find.

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