Eagles Mere

On Thursday, we continued our relaxing morning routine sitting outside, talking, laughing, and then...

...getting the latest news, Facebook, text and email messages on our smartphones.  :)

We did play a game of SkipBo and Pinochle before driving to Eagles Mere that afternoon.  Eagles Mere is a small town just west of Pioneer Campground with a population of only 118 (per Wikipedia).  We first went to the Eagles Mere Museum to learn some of the history of the town.  It was original founded in the early 1800's as a glass factory and then became a resort town in the late 1800's.  At one time, there were 4 or 5 resort hotels in Eagles Mere where guests would come for summer rest and recreation.

Unfortunately, all of these big resort hotels were fire-traps (as described by the custodian at the Eagles Mere museum) and all of them burned to the ground at one time or another and are no longer in existence.

Eagles Mere is currently most known for its annual winter toboggan slide.  Capt. E.S. Chase, who was general manager of the Eagles Mere Land Company and was instrumental in the development of the town into a resort community came up with the idea of building a toboggan slide for people to enjoy sliding down in the winter.  The first toboggan slide was built in 1904 and has continued every year since (assuming the lake freezes hard enough and thick enough to cut the ice and build the slide).  The slide starts at the top of Lake Avenue and goes all the way out to the frozen lake.  The slide is still constructed using Capt. Chase's original plans, planer and method of grooving the ice.  One of the toboggans was on display in the Eagles Mere Museum.

After leaving the museum, we took a walk through town.  The old town clock is still ticking in the center of town.

Most of the town now consists of old summer homes and B&B's.  Unfortunately, the gnats were so bad we had a difficult time enjoying the walk.  One of the town's summer residents said they have never had gnats like they have had this year.

Despite the gnats, the views from some of these summer homes were beautiful.

After we had fought the gnats long enough, we drove to the Barn Tavern & Restaurant for dinner.  We each ordered and split delicious Philly chicken cheesesteak dinners.  They served the sandwiches with these hot peppers on the side that really spiced them up.

After dinner, Chuck and Ken thought that we should give the old bear hunt one more try and drove to the subdivision where the museum lady lived who had showed us pictures of a bear that had recently been in her yard.  We found the museum lady but no luck on the bear.

We finished up our last night together with a very close game of Up the River.  It has been such a fun week and a half with Ken and Bonnie.  We're looking forward to meeting up with them again in another week and a half.