Easing into fall with polo, girls in sports and a car you've gotta see.
PLUS: An important update on short-term rentals.
Track is over, the tourists are gone, the locals are resting … this weekend is glorious if you’re in the mood for going out to eat without hitting huge crowds. (Bocage and Standard Fare were slammed Thursday night, but still.)
I’ll be going to a little cocktail party at Libby Social Club at Union Gables Inn — soaking in the history of a storied Union Avenue mansion while I relax by its pool with a cocktail is about my peak energy level right now. What’s everyone else up to?
“Busses are back and annoying,” said one friend when I asked around, reminding me that school is back in session, too. “School lunches, lugging around that huge thing for band, back-to-school clothes — between sizes so 85 stores later — supplies, back to sports…”
Saturday’s place-to-be (and get ready, boys)
Ah, yes, school sports — Saratoga’s unofficial fall place-to-be kicks off this morning. Yup, I’m talking flag football. It’s gotten so big that the whole circus has moved to the Bloomfield Road polo fields. The Chargers have a female assistant coach (go, Amy, go!), and female players are extra-charged now that their flag football career doesn’t have to come to a crashing halt after ninth grade. Saratoga Springs High School’s Girls Varsity Flag Football team — launched in the spring of 2024 — has been a smash hit. Expect even more girls to put the heat on the guys this season.
Polo’s so back, baby
Speaking of the polo fields, polo’s back, baby. Not only did $300 season tailgate passes completely sell out for the Skidmore College Polo Club last spring (the team’s home games are also at Bloomfield), but the Saratoga Polo School in Stillwater is on fire. Last weekend’s women’s tournament was deemed “bad-ass, aggressive, impressive” by someone who knows way more about the sport than I do. The Labor Day Women’s Northeast Challenge brought women from all over the region. Congrats to the Chica & The Don team, champs after a “nail-biting final.”
The facilities have a beautiful new deck for spectators, who bring chic, picnic-style snacks for the exciting matches. I highly recommend going this fall!
Spotted: Lake George Family Truckster
On the scene with Steve Thurston
I didn’t even know the Lake George Family Truckster existed, but caught a snapshot of it at the Algonquin Restaurant in Bolton Landing Friday. My wife, friends and I had seen some classic cars on the Northway — a ‘57 Chevy Bel-Air — and on Route 9N — maybe a classic Ford Falcon slipping by in the opposite direction, another ‘57 Bel-Air and maybe a ‘56 Bel-Air (it has smaller tailfins than the ‘57).
They are in Lake George for the annual Adirondack Nationals Car Show. Various cars had burned the trademark rubber into the uphill lanes of Lakeshore Drive as we made our way north.
But parked at the Algonquin was the Lake George Family Truckster, a fun surprise.
The very active Facebook page of the LGFT has been around since 2014, so not knowing about it was on me. It is, of course, the faux version of the Wagon Queen Family Truckster that Chevy Chase drove through National Lampoon’s “Vacation” in the 1983 movie hit. The Lake George version even has the corpse of Aunt Edna, who (spoiler alert) dies in the movie, tied atop the luggage rack.
Update to our STR story
We ran the story about short-term rentals yesterday, and afterward Commissioner of Accounts Dillon Moran reached out to the Dispatch, saying the language in his quote near the end of the story was stronger than he meant to say, adding that he simply meant, “In my opinion we need less nonprimary STRs.”
The short-term rentals law, passed last December, divides homes rented for less than one month at a time as “primary” and “nonprimary,” meaning the owner uses the home as a primary residence except for the short periods when the home is rented and “nonprimary,” meaning the owner does not live there and may use the property to generate investment income. — Steve Thurston
Keep reading!
Disposable camera pics add retro charm to throwback event
Opera Saratoga one of four nationwide ‘new work’ grant awardees