Lake Placid, NY is best known for the 1980 (and 1932) Winter Olympics. It was here that the title of this post was coined--at the conclusion of the now famous hockey finals competition. Heavily favored Russia fell to the USA at those '80 Olympics and back then, beating Russia would be similar to the US beating Al Queda today. Sortof. The win is still talked about at every Olympics and especially now since it is the 30yr anniversary of that historic match. Aside from the games, Lake Placid is a regular ski town complete with an eclectic collection of restaurants, bars and coffee shops as well as souvenir shops and galleries that only ski towns can keep in business. Its no secret that I do not miss living on the West Coast, but one of the things I do miss is Whistler. The village calls to me and after years and years of going there every "American Thanksgiving" its hard to be so far away from such a quaint, magical, welcoming place. However, and this is a big HOWEVER, I have to say that Lake Placid satisfied my longing to be in Whistler-- for this year at least. While it is not a contained village (in Whistler, you park your car underground and never get into it again--ski in, ski out, shop eat, sleep etc all in the village) Lake Placid is small and even with the snow falling we walked everywhere and enjoyed getting to know this town inside and out.
We stayed at the Interlaken Inn http://theinterlakeninn.com/ and Lisa (oh yeah, we went with John & Lisa, Jerry & Michelle) described it best when she said "I feel like I am in my own house but that I have servants". I think she said this as we laid by the fireplace in the large common area (that we seemed to pretty much "own") and all of us agreed realizing that wait--isn't this our own house??? With snow falling outside, our shoes off, feet on the couch and us adding wood to the roaring fire when needed while drinking hot buttered rums--we felt pretty at home.
Interlaken Inn is run by Mary and John and their family. They boast a very popular restaurant that is by reservation only and famous for their seafood dinners as well as their organic made to order breakfasts, a bar with the most friendly bartender we have ever met (Mark!) and a very family like feel. Dogs are even allowed in the cottage portion of the Inn--so next year it will become a "family affair" with the 4 dogs coming along!
All 6 of us went skiing one of the days, well, 5 of us did. I chose to snowboard. While I had a great deal of discouragement come my way from all of the guys ("its too hard", "you should ski", "you won't have any fun", yada yada yada), I held my own and aligned myself with the "cooler" of the two sports. I was set.
Cool Snowboard pants bought ON SALE over the summer? Check. Semi-cool Snowboard jacket I planned to replace as soon as we get home? Check. Helmet? Check. Cool Goggles borrowed from Jerry? Check. Attitude that I was going to do well? Check.
Lisa, a pro skier in her own right, was gracious enough to want to hang out with me (a TOTAL BEGINNER) and help me if she could. Michelle and I were both beginners, but we knew we could do this and Lisa was a great supporter! The guys headed to the top of the mountain to be manly and compete against each other while Lisa, Michelle (also a beginner) and I stayed at the very scary MIXING BOWL (actually only one step up from the nearly flat ground).
Li was able to help me some but it took me a couple runs to figure out the balance and the edging.
Long story short: 1) I liked it. 2) I fell a TON 3) I am sore. 4) I liked it.
Li has the pics of the skiing adventures so those will be posted in the next few days.
Other than hitting the slopes we enjoyed some wonderful meals, some great conversation (yay for girl time and guy time), shopping, laughing, some igloo time, toboggan rides, having a private dinner in the Inn's fabulous wine cellar (arranged by John and Li for all of us) and over all-----a fun and relaxing weekend; we didn't want to leave.
The pics I will post today show our other adventures/sights at Lake Placid.
Dog sledding on the Lake
The girls visiting the Husky shaped igloo built on the Lake
The group (Diana is taking the pic) 
Waiting in line for the toboggan ride! Yikes!
Michelle and Diana lounging by the fire
The Lake Placid Olympic torch
And by night with Lisa!!
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Sidenote, Lake Placid was my Mom's second favorite movie...after Anaconda.
I remember and LOVE that you and your mom watched all of these types of shows. I too like them--what's the one with LL Cool J as a chef... in an submarine base and sharks attack? Awesome!!!
Deep Blue Sea.
Highlight scen: The shark trapping LL in the oven...
Okay, really Deep Blue Sea was almost too much for me on the corny factor and you KNOW how much I love LL. Actually, the title of your post made me want to go watch the move Miracle again. One of my friends from the hockey days is in it. :)