Summer Excitement

It's been a very busy few weeks here in July with a full house of guests, a busy restaurant and lots of activities going on outside on the trails, at the beach or just relaxing on the lawn.  Just this last weekend we had a wonderful wine tasting event featuring 5 different wine makers from around New York State.  It coincided with Governor Cuomo's White Water Challenge weekend which was to promote the Adirondacks as the great vacation destination that we are.

We were honored to have State Senator Betty Little as our guest in the afternoon and we had a very nice chat with her

State Senator Betty Little and Mindy sampling the wines of Suhru, based in Eastern Long Island.  Each wine maker had a display of the wines they offered during the afternoon

In the afternoon, Dan Berggren serenaded everyone with local folk songs about the Adirondacks.

Meanwhile, other guests enjoyed their wine outside on the lawn on a warm summer afternoon.

In the evening everyone had a wonderful dinner tasting the wines of 5 different New York wine makers paired with the most delicious entree courses from Chef Heidi Plumley.  A great time was had by all.

The week before Mindy and I had the pleasure of accompanying one of our long time and frequent guests on a quest to explore the caves at Chimney mountain in nearby Indian Lake.  It was quite and experience to slide between some very large rocks to enter a massive cave complex that descends deep in to the mountain.

The hike begins at this beautiful bucolic farm at the base of the mountain.

The top of Chimney Mountain as seen from the cave section across the divide.

The cave entrance is a very slim crawl space between the giant rocks.

A pose for the cameras deep within the cave

The truth is stranger than fiction moment when we came across a room key to one of our guest rooms sitting by itself on this large boulder deep within the cave.

A group staying with us enjoying some smores out at the campfire after dark

In the background is a girl twirling a lighted hula hoop

Abbey with Cooper and Reagan on the lawn

A deer enjoying lunch by Thirteenth Lake

My niece Abegail enjoying the sights at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake which is a short drive from the Lodge.

Once again, Abbey with her Mom, enjoying a ride on a paddle board on Thirteenth Lake

Self Explanatory

Moving Along

We're happy to announce that we've made some significant changes to our website in order to make it more appealing, more informative and easier to find things.  Of course you've probably seen the changes already as you've most likely navigated to this blog from the web site.  If not, here it is: www.garnet-hill.com.  With this upgrade of our site we will also be able to add lot's of additional content in the future to better communicate all that we have to offer.

Mark Millington, our in-house rustic artisan, has completed a beautiful garden arbor that we will also use for weddings.  The bride and groom at our June 1st wedding enjoyed it very much.  We are also in the process of upgrading the balcony railings of the Log House and expect to be complete with that by the beginning of July.

We've created a new sitting area in the screen porch where guests can go outside to read or talk and still be out of the weather and away from any bugs or insects.  We've also placed additional chairs and tables in the screen house as well for those who would like to be even closer to nature.

 Everything is lush and green as spring makes it's presence felt.  Mindy has been busy putting in the flowers, window boxes and hanging baskets to make everything nice.

Our wedding season has been in full swing with couples holding their ceremony here for the last 3 weekends.

 The new arbor was a great addition to our wedding venue.

 A Luna Moth stopped by for a few hours just outside our front door.

It's a Brand New Year

That's right, with the end of the Winter season and the onset of Spring, a whole new year really begins here at the lodge.  In spring we clean everything, organize everything, and start a new cycle of improvements that will impact just about every aspect of the lodge in one way or another.
We'll be continuing to paint and spruce up all the buildings, we'll be developing new menu ideas, making improvements to the kitchen, dining room, pub, guest lounge and all of the guest rooms again this year.
It's really a lot like our own version of the shows Hotel Impossible and Restaurant Hell in fact.  Except for us, it's on-going.  We're not doing just a quick fix here and there and a new coat of paint on the walls and declaring everything turned around.  (I wish it was that easy though).  I do like watching those shows though if only to identify with what others go through in this business and feel better because we haven't made quite so many mistakes as most of them.

Here are some of the new room pictures we've recently posted on our Website.  We're very proud of how far the rooms have been improved over the last year and a half.  They are now cleaner, neater and better appointed than ever...  and we still have a long list of things we want to do with them.

 Room 1

 Room 4

 Room 7

Room 9

 This is our cat Sandy sitting on the main Grooming Snowmobile as it awaits a trip to the shop for repairs.

Sandy is very curious and loves to go for rides.  When he rides in the car with me he sits on my lap with his paws on the steering wheel looking out the windshield, so this was right in keeping with him wanting to drive.