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TRAVELING WITH AGNESS
{ SHIFT+CONTROL }{ TRAVELING WITH AGNESS } YOU ARE ENOUGH. SIX MONTHS AND THE WORLD COMES TO LAKE PLACID
BY NICOLE HEROUX WILLIAMS I PHOTOS BY NSP STUDIO BY RANDY AGNESS
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I’m hoping that the fans of Travel with Agness Wine Cellars haven’t moved on as my column has been absent from Rochester Woman publications for a little bit. I am so sorry about the time away and I missed communicating with everyone which I truly enjoy and like to share my experiences.
The recovery has been difficult to return form after having a stroke, but I’m back now and ready to provide some great information to share – and this is something that many will be very interested in attending. Yes, only six months from now, or even sooner, New York’s Olympic City Lake Placid will be hosting the 2023 World University Games in January. What is significant about this event =- everything! First, this is the first global winter amateur contest and New York is going all in. The Olympic Development Corporation of New York is the organization at the center the upgrade and return of the Placid Olympic venues to Elite World Class status.
I have visited Lake Placid many times over the last year and half to meet with officials heading this massive venture which also includes the building of an Olympic style village to house the athletes, trainers, and officials during the course of the Games. During one of the recent visits I was able to tour several of the upgrades and even was able to watch the practice runs of the mixed arial team as they prepared for the last winter Olympics Games where they took the Gold Medal.
The centerpiece of the work has to the reconstruction of the of the Lake Placid Hockey Arena where the Miracle on Ice in 1980 took place and became what has to be the most famous Hockey Game in the United States history. I didn’t get the opportunity
to go inside, but according to the Olympic Development Corporation nearly 100 million dollars and was under budget. The hockey arena is being renamed after the coach Herb Brooks.
Why have I travelled so many times? Well, if you happened to see the interview on Spectrum News 1, you would see why. Last year on the Fourth of July, Agness Wine Cellars announce our support for the construction of the tribute to the USA Hockey team for the Miracle on Ice Statue. This is no ordinary statue, it will be full sized bronze of the entire team on the medal stand with their USA jackets and their gold medals pointing to the sky indicating they were number 1 as recreated in the movie “Miracle”.
The statue will be placed at the main entrance of the arena.
How did this come about? Well first this group of amateur college hockey players were selected and trained vigorously to compete in the 1980 Olympic Games. And for us, two things took place. First during a wine tasting, two-time
Olympic Gold Medal Seed Skater
Cathy Turner same into a wine tasting in Greece being run by a very good friend of mine. Cathy tried our Finger Lakes Semi-Dry
Riesling and asked if she know who she was? Cathy loved the taste and a conversation took place where Cathy indicated that she would like to do something with us in the future. I meet her and we discussed the possibilities. The second thing that took place was I was reading a copy of a local newspaper where and article indicated that an effort was taking place to fund the Miracle project.
I was able to find the group spearheading the effort to determine how we could get involved? I talked to Cathy at length about this opportunity.
of training in Lake Placid NY and it became her second home. She got to know the players on the Miracle Team and travelled extensively with the team captain Mike Eruzione supporting the US Winter Olympics. So being our donation chairperson. Cathy was also featured on the cover of Rochester Woman magazine and her story is quite amazing of her accomplishments would say we had a lot in common as Agness Wine Cellars also has two International Gold Medals for our Riesling. So how the donation works is quite simple as you buy a bottle of our Finger Lakes wines and we provide a donation.
Based on the number of times visiting the Lake Placid and surrounding area, I can make a few suggestions. First, book your hotel stay now as the rooms will disappear rather quickly. I can’t emphasize that strongly enough! Buy tickets to the sports you want to see as those will be purchase quickly as well. As far as fine dining options, the number one choice for me has been the Mirror Lake Inn (proper attire is absolutely necessary. A nice option would be the Cottages which might be seasonal. Lake Placid. One thing that has become very apparent that Lake Placid is now a great place to have some gold medal beer at places including Lake Placid Brewery, Big Slide Brewery. and Great Adirondack Brewing Company to name a few.
