Of Sunny Days and Silver Bays

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by Arundhati Basu

Silver Bay was salve for the soul. It showed up in hues of ombre, startling us with the marked tones of silver along the shore, otherworldly in its beauty.  I particularly liked the sound of it on the tongue for there is something mellifluous about it. It was a splendid day that – when beneath a mellow afternoon sun we walked past sprawling Victorian mansions, old gymnasiums and boathouses and small stone churches peeping out through the vast spread of greens rolling down into a few tennis and basketball courts. It was imperative that we messed around the basketball court, lobbing the ball around and shooting it through the hoops, Adi dribbling the ball away from me so often that I made pouting faces and harumphs and then finally left him to it. It was a delightful little hamlet on Lake George just as the other one called Bolton Landing which had enough pumpkins to feed an entire town, pretty cottages, old shops selling antique and Adirondack chairs, cider donuts and where I came close to confiscating the most perfect Garfield I have ever seen on a little girl with pigtails. Yet I had to think twice because the store I detected her and Garfield in was so stuffed to the gills that when I did a little jig to the music playing on what sounded like an old, old radio, the wooden floors shook alarmingly and porcelain cups and mugs rattled to make Adi glare at me in alarm.

I cannot bypass Lake George in the Adirondacks, said to be the birthplace of the original concept of the American vacation when a preacher from Boston in the 19th century touted the idea of returning to nature as an escape from the trammels of city living. So the wealthy built their summer homes here — a collection of beautiful log cabins in the woods, a scene completed by the accoutrement of boats and fishing gear — along the glistening lake with the burnished hills across it. There is the reconstructed fort there where the Huron tribes massacred British soldiers in the mid-1700s – so it is inevitably host to ghosts and what not.

The drive around this part of the Adirondacks was filled with such sceneries of peace that even though we reached home that day after a fantastic pile-up on the road which took hours to clear up, we had the indescribable beauty of the day to see us through.

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Lake George
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Log cabins by Lake George

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Hills on the way to the town of Hague

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Bolton Landing
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Antique stores in Bolton Landing

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Into Silver Bay

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Silver Bay

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Arundhati Basu

The great affair in my life is to travel. I count myself immensely fortunate that my partner shares this passion. We are a team that likes to spend time planning and plotting out places to go. Destination check, flights check, accommodation check, cheesy grins check. Off we go.

56 thoughts on “Of Sunny Days and Silver Bays”

  2. Your photos are so lovely, this place looks so refreshing. I love the idea of a “salve for the soul” and “otherworldy in its beauty” too. x

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      3. I know, they fall so fast. The ones on my driveway, I have to rake them right away, otherwise, the rain makes stains from the leaves on the concrete. So saying goodbye, also have to clean up. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      4. You have a fair bit on your hands but love the thought of raking them. The other evening a father and his kids were playing with the hoe and a big pile of dry leaves in the park…the kids were tickled pink.

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    1. Hey Lorelle, I love antiquing too. It has the smell and feel of discovering forgotten treasures, isn’t it? I have a big weakness for Garfield 🙂 Haha Adi is hardly one but he did enjoy it that day with that view at hand. xx

      Liked by 1 person

  15. Antique stores, beautiful countryside with yellow, red, green and brown colors, wonderful story of the origins of vacationing and a reconstructed fort with a disturbing past! Definitely a place that Lex and I would love to visit one day. The Garfield doll with his unusual goatee is irresistible! Thanks for sharing your lovely trip.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. This place looks amazing. I would love to go fishing here. Looks very natural and peacful.
    I live in the SF City and this place looks so relaxing. Almost ready to take the leap and move out somewere like this.
    Thank you

    Liked by 1 person

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