Trip to the Adirondacks

As is our custom, we took a mid-October travel break this year. Thanks to the pandemic this, as has been everything this year, was a little bit different. Due to New England’s strict quarantine regime (good for them), we decided to stay in the Empire state so that we could honor the best health practices.

On the other hand, we really wanted to see some pretty foliage. I found the leaf peeper map on and realized that the upper-right corner of the state near Lake Placid was most ideal, and so we made reservations in Lake Placid.

Complicating all this was that a week ago my viking of a wife underwent surgery and had spent a week resting and recuperating on bed. At the prospect of canceling, she wasn’t having any of it and she insisted we go on. We both had the suspicion fresh air, movement, and nature were an important part of her healing, and we were right.

We headed out and committed to taking slow back roads most of the way. We figured this would help the shuddering of the car and help the recuperating patient. We were also able to de-stress more as we wound our way through Westchester county and into Duchess County where we stopped for lunch (in Poughkeepsie).

Our slow progress meant that we needed to put down some miles as we moved into late afternoon so we chose a more direct route. Lauren’s sensitivity insisted we stop for a bit in Saratoga Springs and that worked well. We had a chance to stock up on some supplies at a Target before continuing the drive north.

Lake Placid

Having grown up on the magic of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice,” I was anxious to see the site of former Olympic Glory. I had also seen Squaw Valley when I was back out in California. Arriving into Lake Placid, I was immediately struck by how small the village was. For me, it was an amazing recalibration of how small the Olympics once were: it was barely much more than world-wide ski weekend with a highly global attendee list.

Day One

Our first day was pretty challenging as it was raining throughout the morning. This made for some very moody atmospherics and Lauren caught a few solid shots of clouds sliding over the peaks.

Upon our return to Lake Placid, Byron had been struggling a bit with cold so we got him an authentic Mountain Man red-checked sweater that he loves. He even wanted to sleep in in one night. We called it an early night, watched “Wonder Woman,” ordered an amazing pizza, and that was great.

Day Two

Our second day was the kind you dream of: clear skies, cool, and crisp. We headed out of town and found a light hike (1.3 mi.) that Lauren was willing to venture on. We braved some muddy bogs but reached amazing lookout.

On the return trip we stopped through the village of Saranac Lake. I think we’d really like to visit there again and take more time to explore it. It seems to be a good bit larger than Lake Placid and surely has some special things to it.

We closed the evening with this beautiful walk along Mirror Lake

Food Out

Not really a thing in a pandemic. Yay for Hanaford’s market and Johnny’s pizza. As all mountain towns must, the pizza was solid post climb carb.

Along the Way

This was the first time we explored the upper Hudson with brief stops in Saratoga Springs and Albany. Since Albany was a good mid-point, we stopped there for lunch on our drive back. We found a good Indian restaurant and enjoyed it in the beautiful Washington Park. Byron got a chance to stretch his legs and we were able to prepare for heading back into the city.

Back through Hallow’s Eve Westchester

On the final leg back in we took the scenic path through Westchester county and even passed through Sleepy Hollow (yes, that one). It looked too busy for our pandemic sensitivities so we passed through, but there was that special autumn light, the old Dutch graveyard, and the knotted old trees scratching window panes that surely fueled the imagination of Washington Irving.