Who doesn't like cake? ("Rotten Tree Stump Cake")

Playing catch-up has been tough so blogging's been on the back burner a little...
This recipe was supposed to be shared with you, oh... about a month and a half ago! But, of course, life got in the way.

While vacationing in Belarus in January, my sister and I (well, more like my sister ONLY, I was mostly taking photos) made a delicious cake, whose name doesn't do it justice.

I do hope you attempt to make it as it is SO so easy! Here's a little preview:

Evening at the ballet

Those of you that have seen my list know that an outing to the ballet has made it on. However, it's been such a long time that I didn't even know where to start, whom to ask for company, etc. partly because we don't have a dedicated Opera & Ballet Theatre here, but mostly because it HAS been too long.

Then my sister told me that she got tickets for my mom and I to go to the ballet while I visited them in Minsk. I was stoked! I've always loved that theatre and going there with my mom, just the two of us, would be nice; that too we haven't done in a long while.

The ballet was called Бахчисарайский фонтан (English: The Fountain of Bakhchisarai) based on a poem by the same name written by A. Pushkin. The stage decorations, the costumes, the dancers - everything looked beautiful and well put together. It wasn't your typical classical "Swan Lake" sort of a ballet, it was full of colours and movement; I enjoyed the costumes being non-traditional, it was refreshing. This made me wanting to get back to seeing ballet more often (gotta check out what we have at NAC). Let me know if you're interested in joining me!

Here are just a few shots of what we enjoyed for 2.5 hours :)
(there is a LOT more to see)

National  Academic Bolshoi Theatre of Opera and Ballet of the Republic of Belarus

North Pole, the New York state's edition :)

So to continue with some more of our trip to Lake Placid, NY... On our way to the Whiteface Mountain we passed a sight pointing to "North Pole". I immediately told hubby that will be our next stop after going up & down the mountain. After a bit of reluctance, he agreed.

(click on images to enlarge)

Welcome to the North Pole!
(one of many around the world)

Only a short ride away, we drove up to the parking lot of Santa's Workshop. I gotta admit, it's a bit weird to  be there surrounded by "elves" wearing Christmas hats when it's +20C outside and you're wearing sandals! :) To be honest, I forget how much our admission was, but our under-2 toddler was free-of-charge (which is funny, considering that most of the things inside are focused on entertaining children).

Our trip to Lake Placid, NY - Whiteface Mountain

There are tons of activities at Lake Placid as this is, afterall, a tourist village. The town itself seems fairly small; it feels like it was built specifically to serve the needs of athletes/tourists and be the Olympic village (who knows, maybe it was, I didn't ask). Actually, let me back up a step...

According to Wikipedia, Lake Placid, NY was founded in the early 19th century to help with operations of iron ore mining. A man by the name of Melvil Dewey founded a social & recreation club there (on Mirror Lake) in 1895, which drew rich & famous to the area. The Lake Placid Club was the headquarters for the International Olympic Committee for the 1932 and the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Many of the Olympic facilities are still in operation and offer unforgettable experiences for visitors (of course, some activities are rather $$$). There are also a number of sporting events and other festivals that take place every year.

Some people find it a bit weird that the village is called Lake Placid considering it's mostly on Mirror Lake...

But I digressed... First thing's first!

Our trip to Lake Placid, NY - Our Hotel

As promised, I'm going to tell you a little bit about our trip to Lake Placid, NY that we took over the long weekend of Labour Day!

We started out on the high: things were packed in advance and we actually left on, if not before, the time tha we were planning. The drive was smooth until we merged onto the Hwy 417 and stopped... for an hour and a half!... because some dummy rear-ended an OPP cruiser pulled over on the shoulder. Anyways, apparently there were no fatalities and after a long-ish detour we were back on course to the Canada-US border.

We eventually got to our hotel, tired and hungry, at around 5 pm. Let me tell you, the hotel was beautiful!!!

We stayed at Crowne Plaza Resort & Golf Club on top of the hill. Yes, it's pricier than other places in town (there are TONS of places at Lake Placid) - 2 nights here would've paid for 3 nights somewhere else - but we thought it was worth it!

Let me share some photos of this place:

The Great Room