You may think that no one likes obscure, dated arenas as much as me, but you'd be wrong. My friend Yaz is an equally huge fan of old arenas and as a result, we've talked for years about a road trip focused around watching hockey and visiting different rinks.

Flying from Newfoundland to Toronto to Hartford, I initially had plans to spend the night in NYC via bus, but incoming flurries worried Yaz and he wanted to to pick me up right as I landed at Bradley International Airport.

From there, there was only one stop - Taco Bell in Clifton Park, New York - before pulling into the Lake Placid Summit Hotel in wintry upstate New York.

I had to go back and check our emails about this trip because I was confused as to why we went to Lake Placid when I don't like winter and there wasn't any hockey being played. In addition, I've loved almost every city in New York State I've ever encountered, so why not check out somewhere cooler like Watertown or Rome?

As best as I can remember, Lake Placid seemed like an agreeable place since I'd heard of the town due to it hosting the 1980 Winter Olympics. Standing here today in blustery flurries, it seemed like a silly place to escape the Newfoundland winter, but escaping winter can be accomplished by doing stuff in other wintry places. At least here in Lake Placid there was going to be some joy. It wasn't going to be just another humdrum day, another 1000 hours long Corner Brook day, continuing indefinitely and challenging one's belief that one day you'll actually see blacktop again.

And with that, let's give this Lake Placid place a chance and check it out!

I was greatly amused, and a bit nervous, when it became immediately apparent that Lake Placid is a destination partly because of the Miracle on Ice.

For those of you who may not know, the Miracle on Ice was the 1980 semi-finals in Olympic ice hockey, where a group of American amateurs pulled off one of the greatest sporting upsets ever by beating the Russians - an all-professional team, littered with international hockey experience, and who had won the last four Olympic ice hockey golds.

I was partially nervous because I hadn't watched the movie about the Miracle on Ice that came out in 2004, I obviously have no memory of the game happening, and I barely knew the story. Of course I've seen the clip where Al Michaels yells out, "do you believe in miracles? Yes!", the Miracle on Ice is always shown in those sporting montages that make you tear up, and I've picked up bits and parts of the story just like I have say the '72 Summit Series, but that was it.

Now one time I'd told Yaz I'd never seen Slap Shot and he was shocked. I figured the same reaction was coming if he quizzed me about Miracle on Ice things like coach Herb Brooks or it only being the semi-finals match or whatever, haha.

Anyway, the above shot is the Herb Brooks Arena, where the Miracle on Ice was played.

Part of the problem is that I don't live and die with Olympic ice hockey. Ever since I was little, I thought it was silly that there's some patriotic obligation where I would be deported if I didn't cheer for Team Canada. I liked Robert Lang and Jaromir Jagr - why would I suddenly cheer for Mark Messier's goofy ass?

Yaz didn't know this though, so I was able to give him a hard time about the earlier 1932 Winter Olympic results here in Lake Placid. And hell, Jagr wasn't playing for Czechoslovakia at the 1932 Olympics, so maybe I would have cheered for Canada over Poland, Germany, and the States.

Figure skating was more important than hockey back in 1932, so six of the twelve hockey games were held outside on a field known as Olympic Stadium.

The outer skating oval remains open to this day and you can go there at night for a pleasant glide through the brisk temps.

The Canadians wouldn't have won their 1932 gold medal in the same arena as the Miracle on Ice, as the Herb Brooks Arena was only built in 1980.

Instead it was over in still standing Jack Shea Arena, also known as the 1932 Arena.

Now this was much cooler than the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena. Nothing like a window and a concrete ledge inside a rink!

Speaking of the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena, one thing I liked about it was that it has played host to the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) finals since 1993. The ECAC is one of six divisions that makes up NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey, and home to a few rinks that we were going to see in the upcoming days.

I was a bit far from home here, so it was neat to discover all of the ECAC members since I only knew the ones that've ever made any noise in the Final Four of college basketball.

Clarkson University? St. Lawrence State University? Quinnipiac University? Yaz assured me these were real places.

Looking out and seeing today's weather, the fact that the arena's were connected by hallways and concourses made for a much more enjoyable and comfortable afternoon.

An added bonus was the Lake Placid Winter Olympic Museum located between the arenas, where I discovered fun things like climbing in a bobsled (after I stood there waiting for a child to get out).

There were also game-used sticks from different countries that participated in 1980's men's ice hockey, as well as plenty of Miracle on Ice memorabilia, 1980's Olympic logo emblazoned tchotchkes, and recreations of all of the winter olympic torches.

There was time to kill after the museum, and having seen Lake Placid's Legion Hall just up the road, it looked plenty worthy of stopping in for a cold one.

Oh yeah, this would do.

There weren't that many drinking establishments in Lake Placid and even though we never set out to booze, I think we checked them off via going to Zig Zag's Pub on Monday for a nightcap (it was your average college bar), or going to Wiseguys Sports Bar & Grill on Tuesday evening, which was slightly better but still too clean and bright. Lunch was at the Lake Placid Pub & Brewery, where although I'm usually not going to give the gold medal to the local microbrewery, this one was set in a pleasant building, where the basement had low ceilings and warm wood finishes. Not to mention that the Lake Placid Pub & Brewery also had decent beers, even though I still enjoyed my Busch at the Legion.

I also enjoyed the cost pyramid of liquors at the Lake Placid Legion.

The exciting thing we were killing time for? The 2pm open skate at the 1932 arena!

I don't think Yaz and I would normally stop for an open skate, but we had nothing but time here in Lake Placid and the thought occurred to me that it would be a fun time. Plus they had big enough skates for me to rent.

From what I've gathered Yaz is a pretty good hockey player, so it was funny the two of us just looping and bantering on at speed, passing almost all of the people except for those teenage hot shots that always have to go full Pavel Bure at open skates.

Back outside, we took a different street to the motel and came upon the Lake Placid Toboggan Chute, which shoots you out onto frozen Mirror Lake.

Part of me realized I should to do this, but people were flying down and I thought about how I've tobogganed a grand total of one time in my life. I couldn't stop picturing waiting through the big lineup, then all these rich kids here on winter getaways with their families putting the pressure on, just for me to blow it halfway down the chute and barrel down the rest like some Canadian Chris Farley.

After hemming and hawing for a bit, there would be no chute for me.

It truly was funny to walk around a winter holiday destination as someone who converts so much of his energy into hatred for winter.

I was enjoying my time here though and I could see how others would too. The problem as always is the idea of living somewhere with 5.5 months of horrific weather, not visiting said places and having a cheery time drinking hot chocolate and walking on frozen lakes.

Waiting out the weather here in Lake Placid meant I finally had time for another bucket list item - seeing a movie at one of those stereotypically American small town, main street movie theatres. I've always wanted to do this, but not enough to plan ahead to book motel reservations and show up three hours early to some small town of 5000 people.

Today we had all night though and here was Lake Placid's Palace Theatre showing our choice of four separate movies: Sonic, Birds of Prey, 1917, and Downhill.

We went with the ski hill drama/comedy Downhill, mostly because it featured Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Two hours later, it barely achieved its humble goal of killing a couple hours and checking out one of these theatres.

A grand total of four people, including us, were here for Downhill. Yaz and I were both impressed with The Palace Theatre though, and being cut from the same cloth, I laughed as we both slyly waited out the other two people and then broke out into full-on documentation mode.

Waking up the next morning, the slight bit of overnight snow was only present in the parking lot while the roads were entirely bare. It was time to move on to our next New York destination.

Continue to Part 2...