I spoke to friends yesterday regarding my upcoming travel plans. For many years I would spend a week in July or August in Lake Placid with these friends. I hadn't taken this trip for several years, for a variety of reasons. New job, old job, morbid obesity, but it was never because I didn't want to to spend time with these friends. Well, several months ago I made a commitment to join them again this summer. I asked Pumpkin if she wanted to go and, at the time, she didn't think she had the vacation hours available. Additionally, part of the trip is hiking trails in the Adirondack State Park. While Pumpkin loves nature, she mostly loves it from afar.
Loving nature in the abstract is something that Pumpkin and I share. When this group first started taking this trip we did so with mountain tents, gas stoves and the intention of living outdoors for several days. That inaugural year went fine until it began to rain. A little rain never hurt anyone, but a lot of rain, when you are tent camping, is a real bummer. After an afternoon of rain, then a full night of rain, then a full morning of rain, leading to rain in the early afternoon I turned to Joe and said "Joe, I was a Boy Scout from age 11 until age 18. I earned the Eagle medal. I've done this type of camping a lot. You know what Joe? This sucks. I'm hiking out to the trail head, getting into my car and driving until I find a hotel or a motel." At this Joe looks at me and asks, "you can do that?". "Yes, Joe. You can.".
So, the group of us hiked to the trail head, got in our cars and we began driving. We found a hotel in Lake Placid, which was much farther away than I had anticipated. I forgot the actual name of the hotel, but it could have been The St. Maritz. We checked in, dried out, got dressed and went to a steak and seafood restaurant in town for dinner. I think we also saw a movie that evening. The next day we drove back to the trailhead and hiked back to the camp site. We did this because we had left all the camping gear there. We had left in a hurry.
Now, let's put this into perspective. The hotel was awful. The plumbing leaked. The walls were paper thin. There were bugs. We were sharing rooms and my roommate, Chris White, snored like a bus with the need of an engine rebuild. Still, it was better than being rained on yet another night.
Since that weekend we, as a group, have stayed in hotels in Lake Placid. For a number of years it was the Ramada, which has since changed hands. For the record, the Ramada was also awful, but not as awful as the St. Maritz. We then moved to the other end of the street and stayed at the "Golden Arrow". The "Golden Arrow" has a pool and is along Mirror Lake, so that was nice. I began staying in following years at the Holiday Inn. The advantage of the Holiday Inn, from my perspective, was that it had a nicer pool and it was not the Golden Arrow, where my friends were staying. The friends had begun bringing their wives and children. I felt they needed to be free of my bad influences.
The Holiday Inn is now a Crown Plaza. They have added a lounge on the front of the hotel which is stunning. It has a great view of Mirror Lake and the Adirondack Mountains. The group now all stays at the Crown Plaza, which is great with me. The kids are now young adults, with whom I am able to converse. Their parents are not as likely to take hikes which lead to death or permanent disability (One year we hiked Algonquin Mountain, thinking it was a moderate hike. I walked "funny" for the next two weeks.) And the last I heard, the steak and seafood restaurant is doing a good business.
I don't really know what to expect of my week in the Adirondacks. I haven't hiked a challenging trail in a number of years. I suspect I'll get in one good hike early in the week and then spend the remainder of the week taking Tylenol and reading books on my ereader. That will be fine. The rest of the group can meet me at the Crown Plaza in the evening, and we can go out to dinner.
That's my idea of a vacation.
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