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"    Sometimes I like to take a break from the city\u2014the dirty laundry that&amp;#039;s, for whatever reason, piling up next to the hamper; the work assignments that can spill over into the weekend; the dishes that haven&amp;#039;t found their way out of the washer just yet. Retiring to a relaxing, beautiful location (and luckily, in Upstate New York we have a bounty of them) for a few days definitely recharges me.     Restless for a fall escape, last weekend I went with my friends Jolene (that&amp;#039;s her on the right) and Summers up to Lake Placid, New York. It&amp;#039;s a town best known for hosting the Olympics, although, to be honest, we didn&amp;#039;t care a lick about that\u2014we just wanted to spend a weekend in the mountains. After work on Friday, we loaded up Jolene&amp;#039;s car and fled the city\u2014or rather crawled out, since the traffic and spitting rain seriously slowed our retreat. By the time we pulled up at the cozy Mirror Lake Inn, we were tired and cranky, so after I checked us in\u2014and took a complimentary cookie\u2014we crashed into our pillow-y beds in our palatial room.     The phone rang way too early at 8:15 the next morning, but despite our grogginess we decided to go ahead with our 9 a.m. canoe ride. (You don&amp;#039;t go on vacation just to sleep, right?) We met our guide, Gary Marchuk of Bear Cub Adventure Tours, in the lobby. (That&amp;#039;s him in the photo\u2014after the fact, we decided he looked somewhat like Lance Armstrong.) Gary led us through an extensive canoeing lesson\u2014I&amp;#039;m pretty sure I know all the basic strokes now\u2014and we hit the water on a misty but peaceful day. Suddenly charged and awake, we drifted along the Chubb River, testing our new paddling skills, checking out beaver dams and breathing in the fresh air.     In the afternoon, we peeked into the adventure-wear shops on Main Street, stopped for warming bowls of chili at a lakefront restaurant and sampled New York State wine at the Goose Watch Winery&amp;#039;s tasting room. After extra-long naps, we had a chance to check out the hotel&amp;#039;s rustic-chic lobby (I sleepwalked past it the night before while Jolene and Summers waited in the car)\u2014imagine a warming fire, mounted animal heads, plush couches and piles of magazines and newspapers. Post-supper we laughed our way through a photo scavenger hunt we created on the fly at the town&amp;#039;s bustling pre-Halloween bar parties.     Tucked in the Adirondacks, Lake Placid is a beautiful and serene town (you could say it lives up to its name), and we made several stops to take photos and enjoy the backdrop on the\u2014finally sunny!\u2014trip home. But wherever you go, it&amp;#039;s really the company that counts. If you haven&amp;#039;t done so lately, grab your friends for a stress-releasing weekend\u2014or even a night out. Need inspiration? Check out our 15 Just-the-Girls Getaways.\u2014Jennifer Conrad What&amp;#039;s your favorite way to bond with your girlfriends? Share your ideas for fun getaways in Comments. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/a41269/a-weekend-away-6232/>