I've been attending the Adirondack Balloon Festival all my life. It's a staple in my calendar…read moreevery September. That said this is a very weather dependent event but on the years when weather is good it's amazing. I favor the morning launches which a crowded but usually less so than the afternoons. I recommend dressing in layers as that temperature can vary quite a bit once the sun comes up.

We've gone to the festival twice and enjoyed it each time. It had a good amount of balloons and you…read morecan schedule a ride. Decent entertainment and food vendors.

Magical! Who doesn't love hot air balloons?! And to see so many of them take off and float up in…read morethe sky is just beautiful! This was one of my favorite travel moments of 2017. Yes, traffic was quite bad but we did get a priority parking pass so we were able to avoid most of the headache people complained about getting to the event. We attended both the sunset flight on Friday and the sunrise flight on Saturday and both were truly a special experience!

Wonderment abound!…read more One of my favorite books as a child was 'Around The World In 80 Days.' It created an obsession with the thought of riding a hot air ballon - drifting through the clouds, flying high above the world, alone with my thoughts, admiring the splendor of world around me. I was slightly delusional!! In reality hot air ballooning is HARD work! Don't get me wrong, all the beauty of my fantasy was certainly possible (though I never got to find out due to unstable winds), but I never knew that amount of precision, brute strength, and sheer luck that ballooning requires. The experience was worth it all the same, but here are some pieces of advice for those ballooning novices (like me) to make the most of your balloon adventure: 1. Get there SUPER early! The first flight is usually around dawn, I suggest you get there far in advance to ensure you find parking and call dibs on a good pilot. Around 5 am is a safe bet. 2. Bundle up - by that I mean dress like its the dead of winter. Temperatures on the ground will be cold enough, once you get up to higher altitudes in the balloon ... fogetaboutit! Freezing! 3. Realistic expectations - keep in mind that that flying is all about the winds/ weather. If they are not in your favor you'll be grounded. If you are grounded, like I was, you'll still have a fabulous time at the festival. There is so much to do and see. My favorite part was admiring all the filled balloons and the lighting ceremony.

Our 3 year old loved the museum! It was clean and well maintained. Staff were amazing and super…read morefriendly! Highly recommend!

This museum is so awesome for kids. It's small but has so many unique exhibits and is very hands…read moreon. I brought my two kids here and as usual was worried about what the baby, who is 1 year old, would want to do or try to get into since this is a museum. The very friendly woman at the desk was so encouraging of letting the baby explore and touch everything. This museum is very educational but kids can touch and play with everything. It's not one of those museums where you are constantly reminding your kids not to touch something. There are exhibits representing many different places and cultures, and the kids can play in all of them. There is a Central American kitchen with items stocked in the kitchen that would commonly be found in that region. There is a Japanese tea house, a Parisian cafe, a West African market (my personal favorite as there are so many fruits and vegetables that one wouldn't see here and cards describing what each plant is), a rainforest where you can learn about how chocolate is made and hold and smell a real cocoa pod. Such a cool place. If we lived closer, I'd take the kids every weekend. Still plan on going multiple times a year. It's just such a unique place.

Went to check out the art and wasn't to into some of the stuff, one thing they had looked like it…read moretook maybe 10 minutes. It was a piece of wood with silver wrapped around it in a few spots. I have better stuff. Dont waste your time.

LARAC hosts an incredible arts festival every summer & this year was no exception. A lot of new…read morevendors were there which was great to see the new variety coming in. I bought three gorgeous paintings from Kila Art, a jar of tasty black bean and corn salsa from Crimson Lion, tried some samples of moonshine from Lake George Distilling Company, bought a beautifully potted bamboo from a vendor whose name I forgot unfortunately, enjoyed a heaping portion of Southern Charm (mac & cheese with pulled pork & BBQ sauce) from the Mac Factor, and then wandered across the street to the Zonta fair. The amount of support LARAC gives these artists is incredible & to see the community come out the way it does for this yearly festival is amazing. My only complaint is that it's only once a year; would love more of these to support more local vendors who I may not be so familiar with.

Wonderful wine tasting - Audrie led me through the wines and was great! Will be back.read more

Service. Awful. No acknowledgements. Took forever to get waitress attention. Entire event…read morechaotic.

Oh dear, decisions decisions about the wonderful potential of The Shirt Factory. An old warehouse…read more type facility, multiple floors transformed into close to 50(?) smaller spaces that could be a retail gem! Many unique art spaces, photo studios and (maybe overly specific) shops all with highly varied hours leave this huge spot feeling eerily empty. You can walk around the entire space and literally there may be 5 or 6 places open out of 50. Uggh!!! They do have a wonderful gallery that showcases the best art from local school children and young adults which is surprisingly awesome. ALso Food Truck Thursday is pretty neat outside on the grounds (although we could seriously do without the county fair fried dough and cotton candy trucks). Social distancing enforced with divided picnic tables that are effectively wiped down between seated parties. Oh and craft beer- beer is good! Ultimately, what could really help would be hours 2 days a week where all shops were guaranteed to be open, say Thursday's and Saturday's 2-6pm and A SMALL MARKETING BUDGET for the building as a whole, standard signage on the OUTSIDE of the building letting potential customers what's INSIDE... Come on people, I know I'm not the only person who has drove past this place and thought, "What's up with that big building- is it open? what's inside? Common sense stuff could fix that issue. The potential is HUGE here because right now it's just a big boring building filled with interesting retail thats never open...

Almost 9 months later, I came back for another food truck rally this summer. Boy has this place…read moregrown! They now have 3 different outside areas packed with vendors selling food, creations, & services & it's incredible to see how much it's grown. There's still not a lot of signage though, especially inside, so it's extremely easy to get lost and confused inside the building, or even outside if you're looking for a certain vendor at the pop ups. I do wish that more consistent hours would be implemented here. When I went to this most recent food truck rally, I of course poked my head inside too to check out the shops and almost every single shop on the second floor was shut up, and a good majority in the basement as well. Nearly the entire first floor was open, and about 1/2 of the third floor. These businesses are missing out on a great opportunity! Why isn't it required for them to be open during these events? As a buyer it's disappointing, and as a local it's frustrating when you're trying to buy local yet the locals aren't taking advantage of such a great opportunity. Parking has become a bit of a nightmare during these events, which just goes to show how popular they've become, but on a regular day it's pretty easy to find parking here or right on the streets nearby.

I'm definitely on a roll with hitting local museums in the Saratoga county and surrounding areas…read more The Chapman Museum is yet another hidden gem right in the center of Glens Falls. There's a cute little gift shop attached to a lovely museum with great displays and even includes interactive components.

Beautiful little museum incorporating a historic home. The historic home is decorated in the style…read moreof eras past including past inhabitants. Victrolas, stitching primer on the wall. All the good stuff. A fun exhibit in games and entertainment that the kids can interact with. There was a yearbook themed glens falls retrospective which was a little hard to follow as the format lended to being disjointed, but was thoughtful and a cute concept overall. There was a photography exhibit of historic local photos too, but I can't remember the name of the artist. Great local museum. We were asked for $10 entrance fee, but some places say by donation so I don't actually know what to the deal is.