Friday
Part 1
We left the next morning at
8am. Paul and Betsy had let us know they
would be getting to The Point for lunch at about 1:00 pm. Based on what I had heard of the food, it was
very important to get to The Point for lunch.
Very important. Seeing Paul and
Betsy would be an added benefit.
We had a beautiful drive
through Adirondack Park and eventually arrived at Saranac Lake. The GPS took us up an unmarked road past some
unremarkable houses until we eventually arrived at a gate that spelled out, in
iconic Adirondack twig-work, "The Point". We had arrived.
When we got to the gate we
punched in the code we had been given and announced ourselves. The gates slowly opened and the attendant
came out to greet us. She told us to
drive up to the main lodge and go in to find our friends for lunch. I wondered aloud whether we should check in,
take our luggage to our room, give them a credit card, etc. She chuckled and said the staff would take
care of that. She didn’t seem to know what a credit card was.
We pulled up to the main
lodge, and were greeted by a staff member with a tray of champagne. I was told to leave the keys in the car and that
lunch would be served in the main lodge.
Paul, Betsy, David, Robin, Duke and the kids arrived just after us from
the Saranac Lake airport. Mac and Jill
were already there I think and we all just milled around in front of the lodge
greeting one another. The key staff
members introduced themselves, including Cameron who, over the course of the
next couple of days, would transform us from capable human beings into needy,
dependent leeches, incapable of taking responsibility for even our most basic
human needs.
Interestingly, while we
were at the Point, a YouTube video was released of Mitt Romney at a private
fundraising event making a point about the increasing role of government in
American life. He claimed that 47% of
the US population refuses to take responsibility for itself—these people do not pay taxes, are fundamentally dependent on
government through one or another entitlement program, feel like victims and
believe they deserve free food, welfare, medical care and anything else they
can glom onto. Apparently The Point has
the same impact on people as the Federal Government. We didn’t pay for anything, let the
staff do all the work, demanded food and alcohol and were ultimately incapable
of taking responsibility for anything, least of all ourselves.
After the greetings
outside, we went through the lodge to the patio and had a delicious lunch of
Salmon Nicoise with the other guests.
There was a crisp rose wine that was perfectly paired with the meal (and
was head and shoulders above the Coke I had paired with my Big Mac on the trip
up the previous day).
After lunch we wandered
down to find our room. We were in “Trapper” a nice cozy room
overlooking the lake. The Adirondack décor was charming—bearskin rugs, a fur throw
on the couch, primitive outdoor painting on the wall, a bottle of wine and
fruit plate on the sideboard, huge walk-in closet, and a fireplace. The girls (Ann and Daisy) were very
happy. Daisy curled up on the bearskin
as though she had skinned it herself.
I discovered later that we
had code names among the staff. We were
Trapper One and Trapper Two. Daisy may
have been Trapper Yapper for all I know.
The staff had a pretty good view of the property and most of the guest
houses from the large kitchen window.
When we would go off on a walk or a boat ride, someone would radio that
Trapper One and Two had flown the nest and they would send someone down to
straighten up the room and leave us wine, cheese, water, you name it (whatever
we didn’t eat we stole when we left).
After getting settled we
wandered back up to the lodge to find out what the plan was. There we found Sam befriending the Chef. Sam Shiverick, Paul’s son, is an engaging young guy that you can’t help but like. He is also
6’5” and 25 years old and therefore
has a prodigious appetite. The salad
Nicoise at lunch was a mere hors d’oeuvre for Sam—it didn’t even move the
needle. He sidled up to the chef,
complimented his cooking and asked him if he had anything else to eat. The chef, eager to fill the gnawing hole in
Sam’s stomach, suggested truffle frites and a plate of cured
meat. Sam signaled his approval and
promptly tucked into the large plate of food that the chef produced (with Uncle
Bob’s help).
It was fun having the kids
there. Sam was working as a geologist
for an energy company in Colorado. Jane
was working for David selling wine in New York and apparently was doing a great
job. Hope was working for another wine
distributor in Southern California for the summer. We had to laugh when Hope told us her wine
company had taught her the 7 secrets of selling. David, who has been selling wine since he was
Hope’s age, was eager to find out what these were. He said that he was intimately familiar with
the Seven Deadly Sins, but unfamiliar with the 7 secrets.
There was a printed
schedule of events in our room which we had studied carefully. There was a croquet match, a scavenger hunt,
boat rides and several other events planned.
Betsy, a very talented hostess, recognized that this dysfunctional group
of her husband’s friends was unlikely to
comply with any prearranged plan and had the wisdom to tell us to just ignore
the schedule. As the weekend progressed,
it became clear that anything noted on the schedule was certain not to happen.
The group had decided to go
on a boat ride around the lake. The
Point has a large wooden speedboat, a larger wooden cocktail yacht (not sure if
“cocktail yacht” is the correct nautical
name, but I’m pretty sure it was used
exclusively for booze cruises), a water ski boat and several small wooden
electric powered boats to putter around the cove. I believe there were two full time employees
at the boathouse at all times, standing by against the possibility that one of
the guests might get it into their heads to go out on the water. Of course the boathouse has a full bar so these
two would almost certainly be qualified to make you the stiff drink of your
choice as well. A tried and true
combination—alcohol and boating. In this case with two full time enablers.
We hopped into the wooden
speedboat with perhaps eight of the other guests and Daisy. Cameron piloted the boat and gave us a little
history lesson on Saranac Lake. There
were a host of robber barons who built so-called Great Camps on the lake. These were in a vernacular Adirondack style
that was said to be influenced by the British Arts and Crafts Movement. The rustic simplicity of the architectural
style was belied by the scale of these places, some of which had over 30
buildings surrounding massive main lodges.
Some of these have burned down or been demolished and others have been
sold piecemeal to cottagers. A few
continue as grand properties owned by wealthy families.
At some point during the
boat ride, Sam turned to his father and said, “I think we should have a
Great Camp!” Paul, correctly interpreting this to mean
that he should buy the Great Camp and Sam should have the run of the place,
said, “I think so too. That’s a wonderful thing for you
to aspire to. Work hard.” Or something like
that. In any event, we didn’t hear any more chatter from Sam about acquiring a Great Camp.
Lunch and the boat ride put
me in the proper frame of mind for a nap.
The entire Mueller family, including the ugly dog-faced baby, retired to
Trapper for a snooze. David and Robin
had been swimming and as we got back to our room David was doing his impression
of Michaelangelo’s David (albeit in a towel,
thank God) on the deck above us which led into their room. Robin was scampering inside to get warm. David felt very superior that he had been
swimming while we were getting ferried around by Cameron.
According to the printed
schedule, we were supposed to be playing croquet at this time. The staff had put out a couple of large
tables on the croquet lawn with snacks, iced tea, lemonade, beer and chilled
wine. Nobody showed up. That’s how you stick it to The Man
at The Point.
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