The Herkimer Diner...

Actually, it's called the Empire Diner in Herkimer, NY. That was one of my absolute favorite moments on our recent family vacation. Yeah, it's usually all about the food. Unless it's the spin rides. Or a near-death experience.

Day one started with a not-so-approved trip down the flooded West Canada Creek. Me, my brother, and sister-in-law went down at dusk in three separate tubes tied together with rope so we wouldn't lose each other in the rapids. How could we have possibly been any safer?!

I was given the tiniest tube of the three - they felt that would be good enough for me. Almost immediately, the tiny tube started losing air. Then right after that, the rapids brought us into the path of an overhanging tree and I flipped out of the tiny tube. From that point on, I was on my stomach on the deflated tube trying not to destroy my knees on the rocks in the shallow rapids.

And that's how my legs got tied up in the knot of rope and tubes when Rick and Christine flipped out in the rapids. Christine had a near death experience in the whirlpool that's pictured right after the giant rock. It looks like nothing, but the current was definitely powerful.

I couldn't help since I was trying to get untangled. Rick couldn't help because he was further downstream chasing after Christine's lost shoe. And naturally, this happened right in front of my parents' motorhome as they were watching us go by. They were kind of annoyed over the whole thing. That's how the long weekend started.

Day two is when most of the area had flood warnings. There was nothing to do. So me and my brother thought a brilliant idea would be to drive 90 minutes to Lake George and go to the Great Escape Indoor Waterpark. The park's got a bunch of cool slides, a surfing attraction, and a lazy river (which my brother and Dad love turning into a demolition derby).

We managed to go around the lazy river three times before the power went out and the entire place shut down for the day. It was a total of fifteen awesome minutes at the waterpark after over three hours driving roundtrip & $250 for tickets for the seven of us. Yeah, my parents were having the time of their lives at that point. I'm kind of thinking they'd be insane to take any more trip suggestions from my brother or me.

For the record, the park couldn't refund us our money that day since all the power was out (can't really do credit card refunds without power). But later on, they called and refunded the money completely. That is awesome customer service!

So now day three was supposed to be the Alpine Slide at Jiminy Peak. But the roads were still flooded out. So we went to the Herkimer Diamond Mine instead. My niece really liked it. She had a blast hammering at the rocks and looking around for the diamonds.

Me and my nephew liked it too - for about three minutes. Then we were bored to death and went and ate rock candy. After that, he played on the playground for the next two hours or so while I continued eating rock candy lol. Everything's better when food is involved.

And that's when things really got exciting. After the Diamond Mine, we went to Ponderosa. It wasn't my parents' first choice. Or second or third. But after everything else we went looking for was closed, they settled. And there was pigs-in-a-blanket AND chicken pot pies on the buffet! Suddenly, the vacation was back to awesome. For me at least.

For day four, I contemplated going home by way of Massachusetts to do the alpine slide (yes, the total wrong direction, but that's usually how I do things). But the roads were still flooded that way, so I decided to just head home. But before leaving Herkimer, I needed to eat at the local diner. So we all went down to Crazy Otto's Empire Diner.

If you're ever driving down the 90 and pass the Herkimer exit, get off and eat there!

I love diners to begin with. I try to eat at as many diners as possible when I'm on vacation. This was one of the best. I had peanut butter & banana french toast. It was amazing. It looked kind of small when I got it (turns out, looks were deceiving), so I also ordered a large order of biscuits and gravy (which was excellent and super filling).

To add to the awesome diner atmosphere, some of the diner regulars who were sitting nearby came up and offered to take a family picture for us.

That's why I love diners. The food's almost always good and no one is ever strangers there. I mean, I don't ever just talk to people I don't know. I barely talk to people I do know. So this is really only something that would happen in a cool diner.

It was a great way to end the trip. Even my parents loved it (finally something went right). I'll be going back. Not to the Diamond Mines though. And probably not to stay either. But a quick stop at that diner on the way to the alpine slide is definitely part of my plans now.