ADK Taste Guide

Albert Einstein loved sailing. There was just one problem: he couldn't swim.

During one of the six summers he spent on Saranac Lake, Einstein's sailboat capsized—and a 10-year-old local boy came to his rescue.

But that's only part of Einstein's remarkable Adirondack story. He came here for privacy, sailing and music, spent summers at Knollwood on Lower Saranac Lake—and was there when news of Hiroshima reached him in August 1945.

We've revisited one of ADK Taste's most-read stories with new details about Albert Einstein in the Adirondacks.

👇 Full story in the first comment.

Do you remember this Lake George?

Storytown. Roadside motels. Cabin colonies. Water-ski schools. Nightclubs where you could dance until 3 am. And the family car packed for two weeks at the lake.

After World War II, Lake George transformed from a summer retreat for the wealthy into one of the Northeast's great family vacation destinations.

On the new ADK Talks, Lisa Hall of The Bolton Museum and Tony Hall, Editor of the Lake George Mirror, take us back to that remarkable era—and reveal why the story is about much more than nostalgia.

🎧 Storytown, Motels, and Summer Memories: How Lake George Became America's Vacation Paradise

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

How well do you really know Lake George?

You may have climbed its mountains. Paddled its waters. Spent summers returning to the same favorite places.

But Lake George has a way of reminding you there's always more to discover.

For the newest ADK Talks, we took our mobile studio to the Lake George Land Conservancy Hike-A-Thon after-party, where hundreds of hikers and paddlers had spent the day exploring trails, preserves, ponds and peaks around the lake.

We asked them what they'd found.

Their answers took us in some unexpected directions: a new view of a familiar lake. Birds most of us would walk right past. A family connection stretching back more than a century. A hiking community born during COVID. A completely different perspective from high above the lake.

And, yes, one rather large timber rattlesnake. 🐍

🎙️ NEW ADK TALKS: From Trail to Sky — Voices From the Lake George Hike-A-Thon

It's a different kind of ADK Talks episode—and a reminder that no matter how well you think you know this place, there's probably another Adirondack story waiting just around the bend.

🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Link in the first comment.

James Bond slept here. Sheep are working solar farms. And somewhere in the Adirondacks, there's probably something happening this weekend you don't know about yet.

Our subscribers got the good stuff Thursday.

Every week, ADK Taste sorts through the stories, places and dozens of things happening around the Adirondacks to find what's actually worth your time.

Next week, be the first to know: adktaste.co/subscribe

There are days when dessert should come first. 🍦

Speculator Creamery makes a persuasive argument.

We first discovered this little Central Adirondack ice cream stop when it won the 2024 Battle of the Cones. Turns out, the voters knew what they were doing.

With dozens of hard and soft-serve flavors, sundaes that don’t believe in restraint, and the easygoing feel of a classic Adirondack ice cream stop, Speculator Creamery has become one of our favorite reasons to pull over in Speculator.

If your summer travels take you along Route 30, save room.

🍦 EAT LOCAL | ADK Taste

The Adirondacks have reached that point in August when the correct response to "Where did summer go?" is: stop asking and go enjoy it.

This week offers plenty of opportunities:

🎡 Franklin County Fair in Malone
🚴 Cycling Film Festival in North Creek
📚 Adirondack Family Book Festival in Lake Placid

And those are just three highlights from ADK Taste's hand-picked guide to what's worth doing across the Park.

Fair food, films or books: which one gets your vote?

👇 Tell us below.

👉 The full weekend guide is in the first comment.

The ADK on Jeopardy! during tonight’s tournament of champions episode. And it was the first Daily Double. Did you have the correct response?

Apparently, what America needs isn't more cowbell. It's more Teddy Roosevelt. 🔔

Joe Wiegand got a laugh when he said it on ADK Talks—but he wasn't entirely joking.

For Joe, Roosevelt still resonates because so many of the questions TR confronted feel remarkably familiar: conservation, economic inequality, labor, citizenship and the responsibilities of public life.

And 125 years ago this September, one of the defining moments of Roosevelt's life unfolded right here in the Adirondacks.

Joe joins Newcomb TR Weekend Chair Mary Monaghan on ADK Talks to revisit that extraordinary Night Ride—and look ahead to the 125th-anniversary celebration in Newcomb and North Creek.

Come for the cowbell. Stay for the history.

🎧 Listen at the link in the first comment.