Lake George Upstate New York

I'm sure my fellow upstate New Yorkers can relate to this: when you say you're from New York, most people assume you mean New York City. While NYC is wonderful and well-known, the real, raw and natural beauty of New York is UPstate. This is where you can go to find fresh air, National Parks, nature, trees and LAKES!(These are a few of my favorite things!)

I went up to Lake George in the Adirondacks for a wedding this past weekend; it was my first trip up in a couple years. I've been going to Lake George ever since I was young. It's a town that's best to visit during the summer, but I've also had a fair share of fun times there throughout the Northeast's four seasons.

We waited until last minute to plan for our accomodations, so a lot of the options were booked up. We ended up booking a night at the Fort William Henry Hotel. This is an older hotel, so our room smelled a little musty. Besides that, we had a great stay. What it lacks in modernity, it makes up for in LOCATION. We were able to see the lake from our window; just a few steps out the back door was the pool overlooking the lake, with the main lakefront drag just at the bottom of the hill.

We had breakfast the next morning in the banquet room at the FWH, which had a lovely lake view. The breakfast food was enjoyable and they sat us right by the window. It was a 20-30 minute wait for a table, so I'd suggest putting your name in early if you're dining with people who tend to get hangry quickly! This banquet room doubles as a wedding venue at night. The wedding we attended was at a different venue, but we did see them setting up this banquet hall and the view from the room is truly gorgeous.

The wedding we went to was at the Inn At Erlowest, a fancy older establishment. The ceremony was right by the water, so the soothing sounds of the waves lapping at the shore was a nice touch. It was drizzling a little during the ceremony, but the rainbow that came later was well worth the rain drops! The cocktail hour was on a stone terrace, with two bars set up for drinks. They had a couple tables full of delightful hors d'oeuvres, plus they had servers coming around with others. I really enjoyed the ahi tuna wonton and the watermelon with mint! The meal was awesome too; I had salmon, asparagus and mashed potatoes. The reception room was smaller, which I prefer to a larger room because it's makes the experience more intimate. We were on the dance floor all night with family and friends, it was too much fun!

My favorite part of the weekend was after the wedding. I used to be a big drinker and partier, so a few years back you would find me post-wedding inside a dingy bar taking shots until the wee hours of the morning. While I still enjoy a couple drinks here and there, this isn't really my typical scene these days(and I'm happy about that transition!). We went back to the hotel, changed into comfy clothes and got the largest Life waters they had at the front desk. As we ventured down to the water, we heard a woman telling her son that she had just seen a shooting star, which reminded me that it was the weekend of the Perseid Meteor shower! We walked out to the end of one of the docks and I said aloud "I hope we see a shooting star!" We simultaneously looked up and within 10 seconds, we laid our eyes on the same shooting star! Ask and you shall receive, said the Universe:) We continued on to take a long, relaxing stroll on the walkway along the water, past the beach and around the happening nightlife scene.

Scroll through some pictures from our little getaway:

~Grateful Travels~