October 12th, 2024
Upper Jay, NY
Would you believe that I ran my first official half marathon? Would you also believe that I was two steps behind my dad – who started training a month after me and is fifty-five years old – the entire time? I thought I would be the one keeping the pace up, but I was proven wrong. No matter, I’m not bitter (I am).

We ran in the 15th Annual Lake Placid Half Marathon. My family has a fair amount of history in the Adirondacks, as we used to have a cabin there and my dad and I still sometimes ski at the ever-icy White Face Mountain. I figured it would be gratifying to run in a place that has significance to me and my father, and it was. I had forgotten, however, about the hills… I had not trained for said hills. Most of them weren’t so bad thought, and were, in fact, welcome variations to the long trail in pursuit of the finish line, but the final hill was lethal. It stretched for the entirety of the last half mile. I just had to put my head down and make-believe that it was flat, that was the only way I could get through it.

You’re probably wondering why I’m talking about running in a blog that is about, well, many things, but certainly not running. The day after the race my dad wanted to take me to a cafe/breakfast place in Upper Jay that was once the location of an amusement park called “The Land of Makebelieve.” The park existed from 1954-1979 before it was permanently closed due to flooding from the Au Sable River.

The restaurant that has taken the place of this amusement park is called the Adirondack Mountain Coffee and has many pictures/relics of its past. The paper menu features illustrations from Arto Monaco, who was the designer of The Land of Makebelieve. Arto Monaco lived from 1913 - 2003 and had a fruitful career as an artist of all things whimsical, from designing sets for movies, making toys, and assisting in the design of Disneyland in Anaheim, CA. Monaco, as I found out, was also the designer of one of my favorite places as a child: Santa’s Workshop.
Here's a gallery from Santa's Workshop:
I still think fondly of Santa’s Workshop, and remember how magical it felt when I was a kid (I have included some pictures from my several trips there, one of which being the moment that I licked the “north pole,” which concerns me at this present moment). I can only imagine how incredible The Land of Makebelieve was to the kids that had the opportunity to go: including my dad, who still smiles when he talks about it. According to the pictures and a few searches, the park featured a castle, a riverboat, an old western town, and fairy tale houses – which were actually relocated to then Storytown in Queensbury, but now Six Flags Great Escape.


The restaurant does a brilliant job of keeping the magic alive, and it was a perfect way to end our brief trip to the Adirondacks. It being the day after the race, the Western Omelette and house coffee were perfect ways to cure my intense hunger and slight sleep-deprivation. They roast their own coffee, evident from the functioning commercial coffee roaster they have on display in the seating area of the restaurant. Am I proud of myself for knowing what a coffee roaster looks like now? Yes, I am. Little victories.
A few months ago, I didn’t think that I would be running a half marathon. Let alone alongside my dad, who I haven’t run with since my brief foray into the 5K category during my stint in Girls on the Run when I was 12 years old. The Lake Placid Half Marathon was – how do you say – a distant goal, a dream. It is only fitting that our trip should end in The Land of Makebelieve, as it, too, was like a dream coming to life. With a bit of imagination and hard work, anything is possible. Thanks, Art Monaco.
AK
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