Sometimes You Could Melt

Oscar has been getting really into golf this year. As I blogged a few weeks back, every Sunday for $10, from 4-6pm, there is Kids' Golf at Saranac Inn Golf Club. He has been using an old toy set we found at a garage sale and Joe surprised him today by sending him some new clubs. (along with my new camera, Joe was Santa Claus today). Clarke found Oscar "flapping his wings" outside today, which is what Oscar does when he can't stand the excitement. He has been outside since, practicing, and he just came in to ask some help with the staple gun....hmmmm. Here is the project he was working so diligently on. He used my bulb digger, his ripped flannel PJ's which I was saving for rags, an old curtain rod, and a plastic cup. I stapled the flag on and then after he obsessed that the flag didn't look like it was flying, we stapled on a twig for support.

Getting Ready

Hooray hurrah, hurrooh, the next weeks are fun fun fun. I really love having people visit here because the Adirondacks really are the host. You just point to a place on the map and head out...or point to a bottle of wine for the backyard and head out. Our visitors are also normally people that understand the word "rustic"doesn't mean silk sheets with bears printed on them.

First, Joe comes back tomorrow! We all miss him terribly when he isn't here, and not just because it's a pain to load the canoe on the car without him or because it took me 17 matches to light the camp fire last night. The reason we are in the Adirondacks is because the place is Joe's first true love (Here's where he fell in love) and it's hard to be with his true love without him. Last summer it was me in the city working with Joe and boys at the barn and it is torture I know. At least it's for a good cause.

Then on Friday we have some friends visiting from the city to have some outdoor fun. Because they are from Brooklyn, there's been talk of securing some special culinary items from a guy who knows a guy who knows where to go to get some good red meat (I love Brooklyn). The boys are especially excited to meet Harlan, the coonhound. Rex and Roxy...not so much.

Right after that, we are escaping for a 3 day canoe trip! More details on that later. We return just in time for a visit from my brother and his family, and then Joe's dad is on deck.

Should be lots of great pictures, especially since I received a surprise package in the mail today with a new camera! ( I bought mine from a bodega in midtown Manhattan 3 years ago at about midnight before our 5am flight to Costa Rica. It was about $50 and I think it says "OlympIs")

Hodge Podge of Thoughts from Today

Projects: When you live in a 100 year barn, which was turned into a house over a period of years by an admitted free spirit, you can become overwhelmed with possible projects, while conflicted with the feeling of keeping as is, or making life more convenient (or prettier). We generally fall into the "as is" camp but this summer (after some well problems) we insalled a new pump (wise), and now have an 8 ft. tall , cedar shake, walk-in pump house, complete with etched moon and stars on door, to replace our crumbling ancient one (maybe not so wise). As we say in the web biz, the project went way out of scope; our pump house is nicer than our house.

Sketchy Guy of the Day: After I made a comment about a man walking down the street while we were out and about the other day, the boys now look for "sketchy guy of the day". Wildly entertaining. Today Oscar saw someone and said this was "sketchy grandma of the day".

Massage: If you are in Saranac Lake/Lake Placid area, this is a tremendous place for massage. Low-key, value, great people. Balanced Body Works. Owner is Shelli LaPorte but I go to Karin.

Yoga: This wouldn't be the cliche "escape from manhattan and become one with the mountains" summer, if I didn't take up yoga right? I have to tell you, there is something to the practice of yoga. Feel great, think great. The people you meet are lovely which tells you something. Here's my place: Inner Quest Yoga. Very welcoming and all about making it your own.

Momentous Day: Have been up here 1 month today. Feels like forever, feels like I just arrived.

Proof

Some in my loyal readership have accused me of manically relaxing up here. They read daily and have gotten the idea that I haven't properly shut off my "go till you drop" valve. I dispute that wholeheartedly first ( you have no idea how shut off I am), but secondly, I wanted to let those skeptics know that on my weekly google calendar printed on the fridge ( I can't believe I'm using paper), I scheduled in yesterday and today as "hang" i.e. catch up on chores, call people, sit outside, listen to NPR. In fact, Clarke has said he is "sick" of Yahtzee. Surely, that tells you something. Here are some pics from today taken as we walked around the property looking to reposition our zipline, find more blueberries, and plan a tree house

The rest of the story

One might think in reading this blog, that we are immune to the little problems of the country. We are too entrenched in our fun world of hiking and canoeing to even notice tiny annoyances and discomforting nuances of country living. I am here to tell you that is usually true, except days like today. Remember those chores I have been putting off? One of them involved taking our garbage to the dump. No trash pick up, except private firms. Quite belated but today was reckoning day. I had the boys sorting recyclables and I walked back to our garbage area to start hauling garbage bags to our car. The horror I encountered will keep me up tonight I believe. A very strong and creative country creature had torn through just about every garbage bag. Trash of all kinds was strewn and wet all over. From this, multiple species of insects had infested. I won't continue with details as this is a PG rated blog. The boys started gagging and ran away (city chickens) and I spent more than an hour, scooping, rebagging, and then hauling a roughly 25 lb "bear proof" container out to the yard to de-infest. Ugh! But there is a happy ending! We finally loaded our car(the stench was overwhelming). The boys were thrilled to pile in for our 15 minute car ride to the dump. As we pulled down our street, I spotted one of the private garbage trucks right in front of me... and this is when City Chutzpah comes in handy in the mountains. I flagged them down, had them pull over to the side of the road, told my tail of woe, and had them load every bag of garbage onto their truck for $15 - SOLD! I now have the card of their company - the price is $20 per month! I will even give up a few Donnelly's runs for that. Now all that remains is figuring out the tricky business of never having this happen again. Sidenote to husband: You're right; we need to keep up with the garbage better.

Questionable Parenting Take 1 and 2

Most Excellent Wrong Turn

First, I just finished watching Wayne's World with the boys so I just changed my title from "Fortuitous Wrong Turn" to "Most Excellent Wrong Turn" in honor of the gentlemen from Aurora. Anyway, like many other days this summer, I had a heaping of chores to do but the weatherman insisted I throw those ideas out the window and get to a swimming hole. Those who know ADK weather, know that a whole sunny day in the 80's is not to be ignored. I had heard about "the rocks" in Jay, near the "old covered bridge". When people pass on this knowledge, I usually try to casually ask for more details in hopes of getting actual street directions (vs. just go to the center of town and you'll find it). but invariably I end up nodding vigorously and start driving around randomly...exactly like today. So, we found a swimming hole but quickly learned it wasn't "the rocks" (more on that later). However, we have found our swimming hole. It is on the Ausable River, about 100 feet across, with huge, flat white stones across, shallow and deep swimming areas and....drum roll please...a small flume for riding. I saw the flume, thought we should give it a try and decided I should go first to assess brain damage potential. I had clarke recite 911 before I did it (I'm irish). What a blast and for the next 5 hours the boys did this over and over and over. We also picniced on the rocks and walked up river to explore. And we were completely alone until late late in the day. Party On Wayne.


We then decided we should actually see "the rocks" and wrangled a local into explicit directions. OK, it is quite an impressive site, but the chutes were too scary to ride (city chickens, maybe next year), the boys found leeches, and it was crowded. I would go back but our new spot is the place- The Williams Rocks. Attempt at real directions to The Williams Rocks: coming from the intersection of 86 and 9N in the town of Jay, take a right on 9N and head toward Upper Jay. You will pass one designated parking area for the river on your left, at the 2nd parking area on your left, turn in and you are there. You should see lots of white flat rocks when you look down.

Impromptu Fun at Caribbean Cowboy

Our Rainbow Lake friends Linnea and Angus called with an offer to dine at Caribbean Cowboy last night. We hadn't been there since early winter, Joe was heading out of town early the next morning, and our cupboards were bare. SOLD. I am always impressed with this place. However, they don't seem to try as hard as their counterparts around here. Service and attitude feel much more Manhattan. Nevertheless, the most creative menu around for sure: a crazy mix of Asian, Jamaican, Mexican, Southern, Tropical etc. It is the only place I can imagine in the Adirondacks where a drink order of pina colada (me) and banana rum drink (joe - ahem no umbrella) would not be met with laughter and stares. Daily specials are always impressive. I wish I had the patience to type the menu because there are many great dishes but we were pretty conventional last night. Nevertheless, the food was great. Orders: from the specials, I had sweet potato chowder with bacon and cilantro pesto. Main course, baja cakes ( or was it bayou cakes....please note: not a professional restaurant reviewer). Seafood cakes. Accoutrements were impressive: chipotle sauce, salsa fresca, mango sauce and asian slaw. Joe had burger which was stuffed with blue cheese ( zzzz i thought as he ordered but oh no my friends, this was not to be poo pooed) Oscar: chicken tenders ( a definite zzzz saved by well prepared and spiced sweet potato fries) and Clarke had cajun chicken quesadillas which were great (again good sides with these). The corn bread is dark brown and seeped in molasses flavoring (thanks for the flavor tip Angus). Linnea had a vegetarian mole enchilada...and darn it, i forgot what Angus had. The desserts looked great but.....we went to Donnellys for black rasberry.

The berry obsession

I know this is probably a city mouse/country mouse thing that I am this excited about wild berries but it seems a miracle that I can be walking along and stumble upon delicious things. I scoured our property and found 3 different areas with rasberry/blackberry and have been patiently waiting for them to ripen. (yes, i had to look at google images to actually figure out they were the right bushes). Then, the other morning I was running on McKenzie Pond Road passed an old, abandoned barn (for those interested parties, right at the top of the hill, heading toward Lake Placid) and found an enormous stash of rasberries already ripened. So today, i brought the boys with me for a little old-fashioned trespassing. We only had about 15 minutes to spare but we did some damage. This picture of blueberries was taken by Oscar on our hike yesterday before he devoured them. I plan on heading to the rail road tracks later this week. Stay tuned.

Finding the corpse

Our cats, Rex and Roxy are tried and true city kitties - never having seen the outdoors except on the way home from PetCo to our apartment. We wondered how they would deal with barn living, assuming they would adjust. Well, that is an understatement! They have gotten in touch with their inner tigers and are loving life here at the barn, running around outside till all hours, rolling around in the sun...and killing, lots of killing. It started with moths and butterflies, soon escalated to chipmunks and mice, and just last week there was a Frog Maiming. We tried to rescue the frog and send him back to the pond for rehabilitation. All seemed well as he valiantly stroked through the lily pads with only his back legs, but alas, the next morning told a more somber tale. Of course, we are ok with them keeping the barn clear or rodents but it is getting a bit alarming. They come in smacking their lips and with a look I've never seen on their faces - something akin to Hannibal Lechter. I hope we stay on their good side.

Hiking Free Form

Jack Rabbit Trail, yesterday, blueberries!, hills?, teen angst, toads, Fallen Leaf Pond, impromptu fist fight, "oranges are a bit of heaven", annoyed mother, Fallen Leaf Pond again, 6 miles, lost in Lake Placid, thankful pick-up, glad it wasn't a 46er, crime and punishment.

The deed is done

1 canoe, 1 kayak, 4 life jackets, 3 canoe paddles, 1 kayak paddle, 2 dry bags, 1 canoe car carrier = $10 million dollars ( it sure felt like it). Being able to hit the waters on a whim = priceless. We got our new boats this afternoon and immediately took them for a spin on Lower Saranac. The day was beautiful and we brought sandwiches from Lakeside Deli (102 River St, Saranac Lake) for dinner. The boys loved being solo in the kayak - quite a feeling of independence. A lovely afternoon and evening which capped off with......rhymes with Zonnelly's. Now back home and making a fire, as it is a typical, cool mountain night.

A morning of garage sales, flea markets, and a hero

This morning I was up and at 'em to meet my friend Linnea at her beautiful Rainbow Lake camp. Our plan was to take the town wide Onchiota garage sales by storm. We were there a bit after 9am and people had been out for an hour already! I met some really nice folks, got a great tour of the Rainbow Lakes area....and bought some fun stuff. Most excitedly, I met Mrs. Donnelly ....of Donnelly's ice cream fame! I tried not to act star struck. I bought a beautiful pewter milk pitcher from her. Also procured: 2 camp chairs, a dresser for Clarke, an old iron egg basket and a watering can. I am most definitely NOT a collector of anything but the barn is in need of storage and some decoration. Then on my way back to town, we stopped in at the Saranac Gun Club Flea Market. This was not the place to display Manhattan pride let me tell you. I tried to look tough as some man said he came to the city once and there were drug deals going down...ON EVERY CORNER, ."every corner I tell you". I shrugged it off and said "yeah, you get used to it." Why burst his bubble and tell him you have a better chance of getting stabbed by a Manolo Blahnik heel on most street corners these days.
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Saranac Lake Gallery Walk

Lots of rain kept crowds away but fun scene at Greens & Beans tonight. Great place for a sandwich, coffee, hang out. We saw lots of families with little guys who could play upstairs in the playroom while the parents hung out. At one point, Clarke had a mosh pit of 2 year olds around him. Here's our hero at his first paying gig.

Tonight!

Live, in a rare public appearance, Clarke Williams will be playing at the Saranac Lake Gallery Walk. He will be stationed outside Greens and Beans on Bloomingdale Ave. (across from Stewarts). Here is a picture of the early days

Embarrassingly....another dinner review

But this one was a winner! A few weeks ago I was buying some wine at Outpost Wine (in the same shopping center as Price Chopper on 86. Really nice people, great-value, off the beaten path wines) Anyway, they said the "best" restaurant in the whole area was right next store to them called Caffe Rustica. "The Best"? Strong words. Nevertheless, Joe is back from the heat, smells and explosions of Manhattan, and we decided to head to town and have a family dinner. I can't definitively say it is the best, but it was a really great restaurant, even given the strip mall location. Ordering run down: Joe had italian sausage, gorgonzola with herb risotto, boys had thin crust wood fired pizzas, I had seared scallops with new potatoes. Joe and I split their tropical salad which was hearts of palm, arugala, feta ( i think) and a lemon basil vinagairette. Service was lovely, wine list was good, outside tables were a hit. For a special, they were serving local, organic, grass fed, steak which sounded amazing but did not strike the mood ( if I were a real restaurant reviewer I would have tried it or at least remembered the name of the organic farm from which it was procured). Joe rightfully pointed out it was the most expensive ADK family dinner we had encountered but we felt quality definitely merited the cost. Entrees were around $18. After that, Joe and I dropped boys for a movie ( Ratatouille won the debate this evening) and we had a lovely glass of wine at The Cottage. Picture is view from our table.

Another Dinner

We've been dining out more than usual this week because we were without water and we blew off our grocery shopping duty until this evening. Tonight we wanted quick, casual, and filling (this applies to about 95% of the restaurants here btw) because we all missed lunch and we wanted close to Price Chopper in Lake Placid. We decided to give Desperados a try because the last time I was there I had the flu and couldn't properly judge. So bad. Lame menu, really poor execution. I am all for standard issue Tex Mex malarchy if you are clear that is your schtick and you prepare it well. This was awful. I tried the tortilla soup which was tomato broth with onions and tortilla chips on the side, not a chicken or lime to be found. Then I ordered ( don't ask my why) the standard taco salad with grilled shrimp. Outrageously bad. The shrimp were in a heated, ketchupy sauce and were the size of snails. I told them to hold the cheese, but little did I know the only other item in the "salad" was lettuce (possibly 1 or 2 tomato chunks). Oscar had a quesadilla which was literally a tortilla microwaved with cheese inside-no accompaniments, not even a browned tortilla. Clarke had deluxe nachos which looked mediocre. I would comment about the margaritas but I don't want to make my husband jealous as he sweats in Manhattan until tomorrow. Prices were same if not higher than Casa Del Sol ( I will wait until my next dinner there to give the low down but they are in different league than Desperado's). When I told Oscar how bad I thought it was he said "well at least the service is nice." Then, we waited and waited and waited for our check and he took it back.

Canoe O Rama

Team Williams is in the market for canoes so we have been hanging out around St. Regis Canoe Outfitters, trying to convince them to sell us a few of their used ones before the end of the year. There is one which we think they will do and we decided we should absolutely take it for a test drive today. A Bell Northstar I think is the name. We put in at Floodwood Pond and went through this great little creek called Fish Creek to Little Square Pond. We then docked on a sandy beach and the boys floated around the pond for a bit. We could have continued to Whey, Rollins and looped back to Floodwood if we had wanted an overnight or even a whole day but we backtracked as this was just a 4 hour jaunt. It was spectacular. We saw a river otter, blue herron, and a mother duck and her ducklings were right next to our canoe. Clarke was a stellar front paddler for most of the trip and Oscar tried his hand for the first time. Warm weather, sun, and light breeze made for a lovely first canoe day of the year. At the end, some nice man showed me the technique for a shoulder carry, as Clarke's muscles were not up to the task of carrying back to St. Regis. These Kevlar canoes are so much lighter even a chic can do a shoulder carry. And....um....we stopped at Donnelly's on the way home....again. We arrived home to find out we are the proud owners of a new submergable well pump. I have goosebumps.

Tail O the Pup

First, I have to be honest. I love this place. This pic from last year sums it up. It is cheesy, touristy, mediocre food , high prices but I love the concept: outside, picnic tables, ribs, lobster, live music, outdoor pool tables, fire pit, playground, big cold beers, bottles of root beer for kids. The boys talked me into going tonight because it had been "weeks" since we were there. They left me to play pool and I realized I even liked it without a big table of friends or family. Really fun. I had blackened tuna sandwich and it was... pretty ok. To get there from Lake Placid, take 86 toward Saranac Lake and you'll see it on the left after you pass hwy 35 intersection. Look for the gigantic lobster.

Our Day at Lake Colby Beach

Not a Lazy Sunday

So after a late wake up due to watching serious films like Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Starsky & Hutch, we certainly made the most of today. We started out at the Wild Center. I had heard all the hype but I have to say it was really impressive. Small indoor exhibit space but very well done. I don't know if it was the way it was executed or the fact that it felt closer to the boys' world but they were much more interested in reading and learning about the environment, flora, fauna, wildlife etc. than a typical museum. The otters were of course a big hit. Then we hiked the outside trails for a bit. Loved the parking designations. Twas embarrassing to be in our big gas guzzler and that's a good thing. After that it was on to Oscar's first golf lesson. Saranac Inn Golf Course offers junior golf clinics from 4-6 pm Sunday all summer for $10. Bargain! After that.....well we had to pass Donnelly's on our way home.. and it seemed a tragedy to keep driving right? Donnelly's, it is a summer ice cream institution. One flavor a day, pick your size and grab a space on the grass for a fantastic view of a few of the high peaks. For flavor schedule, see sidebar

Night on the town

Last night we dropped the kids off at the Palace Theatre in Lake Placid to catch a movie. This theatre is one of those great old-fashioned places, beautiful decor, community atmosphere, great prices. The kids chose "Live Free or Die Hard". Not one I would have chosen but it was intense negotiation as Clarke wanted to see Harry Potter and Oscar wanted to see Ratatouille and neither wanted to see Transformers. Joe and I headed across the street to the Brown Dog Cafe (you'll notice that most of these places don't have websites so I sometimes will link to another review with address etc.). We started off with a lovely Miner Viognier at the bar while we waited for our table. There are only about 6 tables in the restaurant with a big window overlooking Mirror Lake which make a really great atmosphere. We split the duck quesadillas, a Joe non-negotiable and jumbo prawn (they were the size of Oscar's head) with mint, spring pea risotto and asparagus, a Bridget non-negotiable. We ordered a Pinot which was "eh" and then I had a yummy dessert wine from Hungary, called tokaji. Really subtle and lovely with a beautiful pinkish color. Somehow we skipped dessert. Shocking but the items looked terrific anyway. Overall, the food was really well prepared and the menu was creative and fun, while still showing the favorites of the area - meat! As this was a wine bar, the selection was great. Service was efficient but not overly friendly or helpful. After dinner we were walking to meet boys and stumbled upon them on the street. Joe and I hung back and watched them. They had snuck into a candy store and were walking down the street with their bottles of root beer, and sharing a bag of candy. It was pretty adorable. They finally caught us and home to the barn we went.

Waterfalls!

Ok, so this isn't all technically hiking just the 46ers. We had to write about this great hike. I found a book at the Regis Canoe Outfitters in Saranac Lake called Adirondack Waterfall Guide: New York's Cool Cascades. (could have bought on amazon for less!). Anyway, there was an amazing 10 mile hike that covered multiple waterfalls. I have been obsessing about waterfalls and thought boys and I would give it a try. Sadly sadly, my dumb camera decided not to work so I took a few shots with my mobile. This was an amazing hike. We started out at the Ausable Club. Incidentally, what a weird place! I felt like I entered 1950. "Nobody puts Baby in a corner". Ok I digress, once we hiked past the plaid wearing, scary people, we turned right at Lake Road and found trailhead of West River Trail. The entire trail is skirting the Ausable River. It was a fantastic hike. Sometimes it was a trickle, sometimes raging, sometimes we were high up looking down and sometimes we could dip our toes in. The first waterfall was Pyramid. We had to go off main trail only about .2 but were quite disappointed. (or we never actually saw the right waterfall.) From there, we headed to WedgeBrook waterfall, which was absolutely lovely -three different levels with pools and streams between. We had lunch on the rocks there and that had to decide if we were going to continue because we had only hiked about 3 miles. We decided to definitely make it to Beaver Meadow Falls and then decide from there if we could do Rainbow Falls, the grand-daddy. I am really happy we decided to forge on because the next two were in a different league. At Beaver Meadows, the trail gets you close enough to feel the spray from the streams. It was "magical", as Clarke is fond of saying. Of course, we forged on to Rainbow after that. It was really beautiful and the grandest. It was more difficult to get up close to Rainbow then the others. I had the boys crocs in my bag but it was looking like rain and we decided to high-tail it outta there. The great news is the Lake Road is accessible from Rainbow so we didn't have to take trail back, as the boys were getting pretty tired. Lake Road is a flat road that runs parallel to the East and West River Trails. You miss all the beauty and fun but it direct, and paved, and flat - so a great way to head home. We hiked about 8 miles total. Then of course, we called Joe(who was working all day) to meet us at Casa Del Sol for dinner. Margaritas and shirley temples for all my friends