Easy Fall Weekend Getaways

People like Rainer Schnaars help give Lake Placid its idiosyncratic quality. Schnaars moved to the area from Bremen, Germany, over 25 years ago to follow true love and to bake. “Things fell apart with the lady, but I stayed for the lake and the bakery,” he says in his thickly accented English. The Blues Berry Bakery (26 Main St.; 518/523-4539) is named for Schnaars’s favorite band, the Blues Brothers, and is where the gregarious, bearded 49-year-old creates pastries like a flaky apple strudel or a decadent Black Forest cherry cake. In the center of town, the Interlaken Inn (doubles from $155), a cozy Victorian hotel built on Signal Hill in 1912, overlooks Mirror Lake. There are 10 tidy, affordable rooms and a stellar restaurant (dinner for two $104) that draws on the region’s bounty. The locally sourced New York strip and horseradish cheese grits stand out for their wonderful simplicity—just like the town itself.

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