Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 28, 1995 TAG: 9506010027
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: G-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SU CLAUSON-WICKER SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The southern section of the Kayutah was bordered by swamp and trailers, the north by swamp and farmland. Locals held demolition derbies on the ice every winter, and the junked car or two that broke through often remained in the murky waters until June.
These were the days before the Finger Lakes started becoming gentrified. Tourists would stop at nearby Watkins Glen to run their kids through the gorge, buy cedar souvenirs stamped with waterfall pictures, and then head north to Hammondsport for a sipping tour of the winery owned by PepsiCo Inc.
If they stayed overnight, it was likely to be in a family motor court, and dining was probably at Curly's Chicken House or in Chef's Diner, a place with good French fries where no chef would be caught dead.
Now - 20 years later - bed-and-breakfasts are almost as plentiful as tractors, and many of our grape-growing neighbors have become "vintners," with farm wineries built to use the fine red-wine grapes that PepsiCo stopped buying in the 1970s. A whole class of Cordon Bleu School chefs could be employed at the dining establishments in Ithaca, Geneva, Watkins Glen and Naples. Even my little mud lake sports the Fontainebleau Inn with banquet facilities for a Trump wedding. But, alas, demolition derbies are no longer held on the ice.
In 20 years of visiting the Finger Lakes as an estranged local, I've become somewhat of a connoisseur of the area's tourist attractions. Some favorites survive from my childhood, such as the sailplane rides over Elmira and Capt. Palmer's boat rides on Seneca Lake. Others, like the new and improved Corning Glass Museum and the Women's Rights National Historical Park at Seneca Falls, have grown up and become extremely interesting.
Of course, you can't write about the Finger Lakes without paying homage to the lakes themselves - long channels of indigo water that stays cold enough to make your skin tingle even on the Fourth of July. When glaciers scooped out the lake beds 12,000 years ago, they set the scene for the hundreds of waterfalls that plunge down the steep hillsides. In the spring, you can hear their thunder over the traffic in the smaller towns of Watkins Glen and Montour Falls.
In the fall, the scent of crushed grapes wafts along Seneca, Cayuga and Keuka lakes, as the wine making season begins. Tours at the area's dozens of smaller wineries are available daily May - October. My favorites are the Four Chimneys Organic Winery, Wagner's octagonal winery, Giasi with its cherry dessert wine and Heron Hill. Taylor, the largest, is open year round in Hammondsport and features a tour that includes a theater in a wine tank.
Entering the Finger Lakes region from the southwest on New York 17, you come first to Corning, with its restored turn-of-the-century downtown and the free-flowing bubble of glass that houses the Corning Glass Center museum. Ever since I visited the center with my third-grade class, I have loved running my hands over the 200-inch glass mirror disk for the Hale telescope in Mount Palomar, Calif., one of the largest pieces of man-made glass. Thousands of other glass objects depict 3,500 years of glassmaking history, as shown on a circular time tunnel around the building's center. A glass-covered bridge leads to the Steuben Glass factory where visitors can watch the process of forming, polishing and engraving fine crystal. The center is open daily 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
A sure way to lift your spirits is to take a 20-minute sailplane ride at the Harris Hill gliderport, 10 miles east off New York 17. The only sound you'll hear is the rushing wind, and the views of Chemung County are spectacular. The National Soaring Museum on Harris Hill displays the world's most extensive collection of classic and contemporary sailplanes. Sailplane rides are available during summer and on sunny weekends year round.
At the town of Watkins Glen, a half-hour drive up New York 14, you can enjoy nature's sights under your own locomotion. From the Watkins Glen State Park's entrance on the main street, you can scramble over, under, around, or through 19 waterfalls. If you're on the tired side, you can catch a shuttle to the upper entrance and hike the steep gorge 11/2 miles downhill to town. Even on a warm summer day, its likely to be cool in these stone tunnels and narrow gorges. On summer evenings, a sound and light show beamed upon the gorge wall dramatizes the story of Watkins Glen gorge. The park is free, but there is a charge for the Timespell show. Camping and cabins are available at the park.
Watkins Glen is also known as the "home of American road racing." Although the track no longer hosts races on the Grand Prix circuit, races, including the Winston Cup series, are held all summer.
You can walk down the main street of Watkins Glen to the marina at Seneca Harbor Park. Here you can check out the Vintage Auto Museum or take a ride on Capt. Bill's Seneca Lake Cruises. When I was a child, Capt. Bill chartered a tipsy, pine boat that looked like it might have been made by a Boy Scout troop for a Boy Scout troop. Now he gives brunch, lunch and dinner cruises along the cliffs in the huge, stable Columbia and Stroller IV. The narration is the same - stories about Indians, a glimpse of rock paintings they may have done and a brief history of the salt mining industry.
If you care anything for history and even a smidgen for women's rights, you should take New York 414 northeast 45 minutes to the Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls. The town is nationally recognized as the birthplace of women's rights and the home of activists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Amelia Bloomer. On July 19, 1948, more than 300 women and men assembled there for the first Women's Rights Convention, and that date is celebrated here each year with plays, tours, races, music and stories.
The visitors center features 19 life-sized statues of people who attended the first convention, interactive videos, artifacts and a film. The Elizabeth Cady Stanton House, with its hate-to-housekeep decorating scheme, is open for tours all summer. The National Women's Hall of Fame honors the achievements of extraordinary women from Abigail Adams to athletic phenomenon Babe Didrickson Zaharias. It is open daily May-October.
The Fingers Lakes offer many other attractions: horseracing and a spectacular rose garden in Canadaigua, Mark Twain memorabilia in Elmira, Cornell University's art museums, ornithology lab, gardens, gorges in Ithaca and numerous farm zoos, but if you have only two or three days, these are my picks. For more information and suggestions, call the Finger Lakes Association at 1-800-KIT-4-FUN.
by CNB