Everyone needs a place like this:
A place that isn't necessarily "home", but feels like it every time you visit, no matter how long it's been since the last time. A place that holds so many precious memories. A place that doesn't need to beg for you to want to introduce it to other people... you love it so much, you want everyone to experience it.
Okay. Enough of the Nicholas Sparks descriptions.
Like I said, everyone needs to have a place like this. And for me, that place is Lake George, New York. Just look at that photo. There it is. In the flesh. In all its glory.
Okay, okay. So, Lake George may not have anything on the postcard beauty of a Lake Louise or the tranquility of a Lake Matheson... but it is so very near and dear to my heart. And that's way more important. (And look how beautiful that sunset is! Just put an extravagant, little cottage on one of those islands, and Thomas Kinkade couldn't resist painting a masterpiece).
I've been visiting Lake George every summer from the moment I was born, and I don't plan on ditching that tradition anytime soon. My wonderful grandparents (Grammy and Grandpappy) live a mere ten minutes from the village, and every year, my family makes the trek up to visit. (Ps- Just so you know, my grandparents are the coolest. They have their own website: Check it out here).
There we are. In the flesh. In all our glory. Unfortunately, we were missing quite a few people this year. Some of my cousins won't be there for another week or so, and my uncle wasn't there yet because of business. But, this ragtag group before you still made the most of the trip. It's impossible not to have a fantastic time in Lake George.
Now, on to why Lake George is so awesome. Here's a mini description of our adventures this past weekend:
The absolute first thing we do every year when we arrive is eat a giant, heaping plateful of Belle's Spaghetti. Belle was my great-grandmother, and her recipe for spaghetti is, hands down, one of the best. Ever. Just look at the chaos ensuing in the photo below. The food had literally just been placed on the table. My grammy doesn't even know what to do with herself.
I know you are drooling on your keyboard right now. The incredible photo quality just really makes the spaghetti shine here. But have no fear. One day soon, I will post the recipe for this delectable dinner.
Another unbreakable tradition is the daily (sometimes twice daily) trip to Martha's Dandee Cream. This ice cream oasis is famous for their smooth and creamy soft serve as well as their incredible array of toppings and insanely large portions. They've been featured on the Today Show. That's how good this stuff is. My go-to order is my own, mini version of a Double Chocolate, Double Fudge, Raspberry Truffle Sundae (say that ten times fast, whydontcha?). It is heaven in soft serve form.
There it is on the left. (Pardon the strange face I decided to make). And there's Bobby with his Mint Chocolate Twist ice cream with rainbow sprinkles. Mine is a kiddie size. You don't even want to know what the large looks like.
I know it might seem like our Lake George traditions center exclusively around food, but I promise we add some strenuous physical activity to our agenda every year as well.
Case in point: mini golfing at Around the World.
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| Thanks for the guest appearance, Bobby. |
Around the World Mini Golf is definitely the best mini golf course I have ever been to in my entire 21 years of life (and I've done a lot of mini golfing, lemme tell ya). It was even featured in a Yahoo article based on the top mini golfing courses in the United States. Impressive, right?
There are two course options to choose from when you get there: Either the traditional, "Around the World" side, or the "Around the United States" side. Both are pretty great, although, this year, we decided that "Around the World" was better. I'm pretty sure we change our mind on the "best side" every year.
Time to quit the chitchat. Let's get down to the question I know you are all itching to have answered: Who won?
I don't want to brag, but I'm going to. I rarely ever win in mini golf. We played three times in total while we were in Lake George, and I don't know what was going on (maybe everyone else forgot to take their mini golf vitamins?), but I won. Every. Single. Time. If this whole music thing doesn't work out, I may consider going pro.
There ya go. Just a little taste (see what I did there?) of our 2012 Lake George Adventures. There's much more to Lake George than I could ever cram into a blog post, but I hope you can see why it's so special to me.
And if this blog post doesn't prove anything to you, then maybe you want to check out the song that I wrote recently about Lake George.
And here's the semi-rough live version, if you want to get a kick out of me awkwardly talking to a Macbook computer camera:
Happy listening,
Nat :)
Ps- Check out how stylish my brother is. He saw this in a shop in Lake George Village, and couldn't resist.
Don't forget: YOLO.
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