Since we were being babies about camping in the rain I had some time to waste in the Adirondacks. I had never been to the area before and was interested in seeing what all the hype was about in Lake Placid and Saranac Lake.
We didn’t have a place to stay, seems to be a common theme during this trip. So I hopped on AirBnB to find a reasonably priced place to stay. We decided on the Doctors Inn because it is dog friendly, something a bit difficult to find. The Inn was very cute with wonderful Innkeepers Andrea and Mike. Upon arrival both Andrea and Mike greeted with the warmth of old friends. After a quick tour of the place we chatted about what brought us to the area and maybe complained a little about hauling packs when hiking. Ok that was just me. Andrea then revealed that Mike had written a book about ultra light backpacking. Mike seemed a bit reluctant to talk about as if he didn’t want to self advertise but we encouraged him because we are truly interested in the concept. He let us borrow his book for the evening to look over when we stayed. This book is full of useful tips. Some of the tips seem a bit extreme for me but we ended up buying the book from him so we could read more.
After dropping our stuff off and taking a shower we went in search of a brewery. Can you believe Saranac brewery is not in Saranac? I knew it was in Utica because it is the end of the boilermaker but for some reason didn’t put it together. We ended up the Blue Line Brewery. This is located in a repurposed car wash and had a sports bar theme. The special of the day was $2 cheese pizza with the purchase of a draft. Hells to the yeah! I will have a pizza and an IPA! I also ordered the pretzels because I am a huge fan of salt and had most defiantly not had enough in the past few days. I ordered blue cheese and the lime/cilantro sides with the pretzels because I can’t pick just one. The cilantro lime sauce was a-mazing; it was a very interesting combo of flavors that worked well together.
The coffee at the inn was freshly ground, dark, and organic what more can you ask for? I made some French press coffee. While pondering why I didn't use my fresh press at home, I vow to make this one sliver of vacation part of my weekly routine. I drank my coffee on the front porch of the inn while browsing tourist flyers. When I was officially jittery and flying off my seat from the amount of coffee, it was time to head out to brunch.
Brunch was one of the highlights of the whole trip. The Blue Moon Café in Saranac Lake is such a cute little café with some tables outside to accommodate dogs. I ordered eggs benedict with a crab cake on it along a side of avocado and it was fantastic! I believe all eggs should be served with avocado because they are an unbeatable combination. Actually lets scratch eggs and put everything is better with avocado!
We stopped off in Lake Placid along the way home, which was not my jam. We took a stroll along the main drag and people watched. I saw many big name stores and even some outlets when squeezing past many fellow tourists hauling an extreme amount of shopping bags. If you go on vacation to shop I guess this is the town for you. The best part of Lake Placid, the running store of course. I couldn’t resist a stop in the local store and had some great conversation about shoes and local races. After about a half hour I had my limit of consumerism and had to leave before my inner peace found in nature was disrupted.
The return to Ithaca was a slow pace with a few stops. One stop at a local farmers market to try some sheep’s cheese and have some education time about different greens. There was some confusion about rainbow chard and rhubarb previously that prompted this tutorial on farms stand greens.
On they way back through Keene I had to stop at the ADK Cafe for a piece of homemade pie I spotted previously. The pie selection went on for days. I found it very difficult to decide between apple or ginger pie. I really just wanted a small piece of each but didn't think they would accommodate. Final decision was on ginger pie because I had never heard of this before and was very intrigued by the idea. Of course the pie was amazing, I mean how can you go wrong with pie. Don't think it would be a regular order item for me but very happy I gave it a try. The food also looked really amazing, the service was lacking immensely. I wasn't in a rush, so I could sit around for 45 mins for our check. I did overhear quite a few who were a bit quicker to judge the service.
We finally arrive home with a very tired puppy that napped for 2 days. I returned invigorated and ready to take on some local trails in the morning!