May of 2006 marks Innkeepers Marc & Maria Donaldson’s 27th year of welcoming guests to the Darby Field Country Inn & Restaurant. After graduating Syracuse University in 1970, Marc apprenticed under Japanese Master Chef Hiroshi Hayashi, who was himself trained in a Japanese inn. It was he who planted the seed in Marc’s mind to someday own an inn.

Marc spent several years in the restaurant business, helping to open a restaurant in Colorado, working in a Boston Japanese-stlye natural food restaurant, and managing a restaurant in Caracas, Venezuela. It was in Caracas where he met and married Maria Lastra, a native of Spain, who was working as a journalist for radio, television and magazines. After extensive travel, Marc and Maria settled in Jamaica, Vermont where Marc was head chef at the Three Mountain Inn.

“It was my long time dream to own an inn,” Marc said. “But buying the Inn was like standing at the top of a high diving board. Once you decide to go, you just jump.” And jump they did. The first place he and Maria looked at was the Darby Field Inn; one month later, May 2, 1979, they owned the Inn. He and Maria, two year old Jeremiah and six month old Heather moved in, and after one month of renovations, opened the Darby Field Inn. It is here they have made a country home for their children, Jeremiah, Heather, Damien and Tess, and have made visitors to the Mount Washington Valley feel at home.