Back to The Hedges

Turning down the drive to The Hedges always feels a bit like coming home, our Adirondack great camp home - our happy place. We adore being right on Blue Mountain Lake, where the scenery is always beautiful, the water is clear and cold, and the loons call to one another. Bliss.

Each time we visit, we stay in a different room or cabin, but this time we think we hit upon the one in which we want to stay each year:

The Warriors' Den has two bedrooms, a covered porch, and is right next to the Dining Room. We had a great view of the lake from the porch:

James and Aidan, of course, did a lot of fishing:

They started a friendly (mostly) competition to see who could catch the most fish. The final tally was Aidan - 72, James - 67. I wonder how many times they caught the same fish, over and over!

There were many families with children and Aidan met them all. One set of cousins from Rochester and Buffalo, five in all under the age of six, took a particular shine to him. He would play with them in the swimming area, allowing himself to be the Monkey in the Middle or the target of their squirt guns, or would jump off the end of the dock into the lake with them. But what they really enjoyed was watching Aidan fish and they clamored to be the one who helped him get the fish off the hook. He did an excellent job of having them take turns and not lean over the edge of the dock. Here are two members of his fishing posse:

We also did some kayaking and hiking. All three of us went for a paddle on the lake one morning after breakfast, and then James and I went out on our own another morning before breakfast. Later that same morning, we hiked Sawyer Mountain, just down the road in Indian Lake. The view from the summit was well worth the hike:

Aidan did a little rock climbing along the trail:

I was able to spend a lot of time on the cabin porch or in a chair under a tree, gazing at the lake, knitting or reading, which is just what I like to do while on holiday.

One evening, there was live music at the campfire. It was a spectacularly beautiful evening, and it seemed like every guest was down by the water, enjoying the music and the sunset. And what a sunset it was:

As always, we handed in our reservation request for next year as we checked out. Life is good at The Hedges, and we are already looking forward to next year's visit.

A fine getaway

We returned a few days ago from what has become our annual visit to The Hedges. This year we decided to tack on a day at the beginning of the trip to make a quick visit to Lake Placid. We went to Lake Placid in August of 2010, which is when and how we fell in love with the Adirondacks.

Lake Placid is a beautiful village and last Saturday was a lovely day. We were so eager to start our holiday that we arrived several hours before we could check in at our hotel, so we enjoyed wandering through the shops on Main Street and gazing out over Mirror Lake:

The little Episcopal church right on Main Street, St. Eustace, was having their annual Strawberry Festival:

We climbed the steps up to the church and bought three strawberry shortcakes. While the desserts were only ho hum, we enjoyed talking with the church ladies and peeking inside the sanctuary. The ceilings and walls were all gleaming wood:

St. Eustace was founded in 1894 and has been at its present location since 1900. The sanctuary contains many beautiful stained glass windows, including a Tiffany window. The photos I took did not turn out well, but you can see the windows on their web site.

We checked into our room at the High Peaks Resort and were delighted to learn that we were on the top floor facing Mirror Lake. Here is the evening view from our balcony:

We were even able to hear the loons from our balcony. Aidan was delighted to learn that the hotel has two swimming pools - indoor and outdoor - and he put them to good use. He went swimming before dinner, after dinner, and before we checked out the next morning.

Just before we left on Sunday morning, we watched part of a birds of prey demonstration. Aidan made a new friend, Tess, and even got to hold her:

 

Tess is a barn owl and is quite beautiful.

As much as we enjoy Lake Placid, we were ready to get in the car and head to our happy place in Blue Mountain Lake.