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Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Bob Kundus and Esther Seehof enjoy a little sunshine outside their Laurel Mill Lodge.
Dining, partying and lodging: Laurel Mill Lodge covers it all
By Suzanne Cristallo
Envision this: a $55 New Year celebration in a massive old lodge nestled in a private, creek-forged valley that's surrounded by towering redwoods and warmed by soft zephyr breezes. The party includes a barbecue dinner, a party hat, hot tubbing for 20 revelers, a sauna, a big-screen TV for watching around-the-world festivities, a huge crackling fire, a bunk bed in a cabin in the trees, a continental breakfast and good company.
It's only 20 minutes (Highway 17 willing) from downtown Los Gatos.
The Laurel Mill Lodge, steeped in history going back 100 years, is in a constant process of renovation by owners Esther Seehof and Bob Kundus. Now experienced do-it-yourselfers after eight years of living their dream, the pair keeps "two or three of everything" they might need under the Lodge. The property once housed a redwood mill supplying San Francisco with wood after the 1906 earthquake.
To achieve its present state, the partners have yanked out 14-foot-high Scotch Broom, blackberry vines and poison oak; hauled out the muck from silt slides; made paths with bricks salvaged from earthquake-shattered chimneys; and reroofed, redecked, restored, replumbed, rewired and rebuilt.
The old buildings and what's left of two swimming pools sit on 27 acres that once served as a "bad boys'" community home, a girls' camp and a massage school called Getting in Touch. Although not everything is back in use yet, the property offers a fully equipped cabin and bunkhouse (bring your own sleeping bag) accommodations for 40, a 28-foot-by-56-foot hall with a 4-foot-high fireplace, two pianos and a big, sunny kitchen for making your own meals or facilitating catered events for up to 120 outdoor guests.
The New Year's feast is catered by Andy's Barbecue. The menu includes chicken and ribs, garlic bread, beans, potato salad, coleslaw, green salads and pasta. Cheesecake and macadamia-chocolate torte top it off. Guests should bring their own alcoholic beverages for welcoming the new century. The dinner and party is $20 for those who do not wish to spend the night.
"A lot of it is watching the fire and those big New Year's specials on TV, and eating yourself silly and enjoying the hot tub," says Kundus, a programmer and technical writer. "Come just for the company, or just hang out."
In addition to running the Lodge with Seehof, a psychologist who is writing a book about their experiences, Kundus writes the Laurel Mill Messenger, a newsletter for readers who want to know the latest about "what little I know about plant life," upcoming seminars, writers' retreats and the Sunday brunches resuming in April.
The lodge is all about community and communing. It's tucked away off Laurel Road, one of the Highway 17 turnoffs some two miles beyond Lindsey's at the Summit. There are 90 mailboxes along Laurel--which twists 2 1/2 miles downward through redwoods, laurels and oaks--but the homes the boxes serve are generally hidden, built for seclusion, not affirmation.
This is a place people remember. Kundus, forever busy clearing away copious fall leaves with his foot or pulling weeds as he proudly shows guests around, tells of a recent visit by a former "bad boy" from Oakland who helped dig the pool in 1947. The man just wanted to know the pool was still there, evidence of a contribution he once made.
Laurel Mill Lodge, 16770 Redwood Lodge Road, Los Gatos. Call for reservations: 408.353.5851 or visit www.laurelmilllodge.com on the Internet.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
