Seyon Lodge

This past weekend was spent at Seyon Lodge, which we rented for our vow renewal (about which I'll write tomorrow).  We rented the whole lodge for the whole weekend so our out-of-town guests would have rooms and meals -- and since many of our out-of-town guests cancelled, we had enough for the local guests to also have rooms (and in fact we ended up with several rooms empty).

The lodge was originally the hunting and fishing lodge of a wealthy Vermonter, who built it back in the 1920s.  He was rich enough to buy a bundle of land surrounding a pond (which he named after himself) on a high hillside, build several buildings there (including a power station), and then visit it for fishing and hunting when he felt like it.  And to name it all after his own name, reversed.

Having, apparently, enough other houses to will to his family, he willed the lodge and its lands to the state, which eventually converted it into a very nice bed and breakfast as part of the Groton state park system.  The lodge has bedrooms for up to sixteen people or more, a conference center, a very comfortable living room with a nice fireplace, extensive grounds lined with trails, a lake with fly-fishing and boat rentals, and a full kitchen able to cater your events.  And its rates are very competitive with other B&Bs, particularly during peak foliage season when everyone else's rates shoot way up.

The staff there do a great job of making sure everyone gets what they need.  Their cook is skilled and inventive, and more than willing to make things to request.  He'd never cooked Indian food before, but he made naan, a rogan josh, and some rice dishes, all of which were deemed well done even by the two guests who are from India.

Siobhan has rented the entire lodge two other times, once for a winter knitting retreat last February and once for the retreat this coming February.  Whenever they're not fully booked with an event, though, their rooms are usually available for individual booking -- in fact, two of our guests are staying a few extra days there.  I recommend it unreservedly for a Vermont vacation; it's one of those "best kept secrets" places, since it's pretty far from major transportation or city centers, but for all that, more a taste of what visitors really are hoping Vermont will be.