Best Carnival weekend ever?

This is either my ninth or tenth Winter Carnival in Saranac Lake and – wow – this one’s been picture-perfect.

There were some worries early on about whether organizers had enough money to pull the whole thing off – but thanks to about a billion volunteers, it’s been amazing.

Despite some rain, our Ice Palace has held up, and it’s fabulous.

Actually, there are four (!) palaces this year: a pirate ship, a small blockhouse right on the shore of Lake Flower, a glowing blue pyramid, and the main palace.

Today, four ski-planes winged in and landed on the ice, drawing tourists and locals out onto Lake Flower to look them over.

Definitely a cool way to tour the North Country mid-winter.

And the parade yesterday was almost too long – the floats just kept coming.

The Adirondack lawnchair ladies were out in force, along with the Bearded Men marchers (think hirsute activists…) and one pirate ship float actually fired confetti canons into the crowd.

And people are still talking about Joey Izzo’s piano rendition of Styx’s “Come Sail Away” (nautical theme, get it?) at the Rotary show Friday night.

(Read the Daily Enterprise’s account here.)

It was definitely the sort of weekend that gives you the mojo to ride out these last weeks of hard winter…