’Tween Season Tea

By Sandra Scott

In my youth I spent many wonderful days in New York State’s Adirondack Mountains. I forgot how much I missed the mountains until my recent stay at Lake Placid Lodge. Once again I reveled in nature’s beauty, the serenity, and the feeling of total relaxation.

Lake Placid Lodge is built in the Great Camp style. The Great Camps were the refuge of the wealthy during the Gilded Age. Even as a youngster I was amazed by the fact that the wealthy built grandiose family compounds in an area where most people were eking out a minimum existence. Having an Adirondack getaway with a “play house” that included bowling alleys was beyond my wildest dream.

Today people can experience the “good life” in Great Camp style. The main lodge of Lake Placid Lodge is new, rebuilt after a disastrous 2005 fire. On the same footprint as the original lodge, it has all its ambiance and trademarks. Great Camp construction makes use of native material and brings the outdoors inside creating a primitive, rustic appearance without sacrificing luxury.

My husband and I had comfy accommodations. Both the sitting room and bedroom with a side-curtained four-poster bed had a fireplace. The first morning I awoke to find a winter wonderland. It was the first snowfall of the season. The lake was indeed placid. Barefoot I went out on our room’s deck to check out the snow and take pictures. John started a fire in the fireplace and we delayed going to breakfast until the last minute pretending we were in our own personal Great Camp.

The fireplace in the dining room made it toasty warm. We were the only ones breakfasting so late. It was a ’tween season—after the leaf peepers have gone and before the snow bunnies arrive—my favorite time. I don’t have to share with a lot of tourists. The Adirondacks are all mine! With our English Breakfast tea, John and I enjoyed real Adirondack maple syrup on our pancakes.

After breakfast, we headed down a road lined with snow-covered fir trees to the main road and into Lake Placid village, which, by the way is not on Lake Placid but on Mirror Lake. Lake Placid Lodge is the only hotel on Lake Placid. Most of the area is Adirondack Forest Preserve and Forever Wild.

Lake Placid village has hosted the Olympics twice, an amazing feat for a small community of 3000. We toured the Olympic Complex and drove out to the bobsled run to watch the trials. They offer bobsled rides for those who want to experience the thrill of whipping down the slide track and up on the sides of each turn. But, we were not there on a day when it was offered so we headed to the ski jump area. The ski jumps tower over the trees and are so much higher than they look on TV. And, the landing area at the bottom is so much smaller. I wonder how many people get up at the top and want to change their mind!

It gets dark early during ’tween time so we headed back to Lake Placid Lodge. We were in time for afternoon tea. We warmed ourselves around the fireplace, one of 17 in the hotel’s public area.

“What kind of tea would you like, John? I’ll pour.” Choices. Choices.

“I think I’ll try the Organic Green. It sounds appropriate.”

“OK, I’m having Mountain Berry. I love tea during ’tween time, don’t you?”

Visit www.lakeplacidlodge.com and www.lakeplacid.com.

Sandra Scott is a frequent contributor to travel publications and to Copley News Service and has co-authored two books on local history. She lives in Mexico, NY.
Images by Sandra and J. J. Scott

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