A Visit to Hammondsport, NY

Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Today, all of us voted for an hour or so trip north to Hammondsport, NY at the southern tip of Keuka Lake - one of the "finger lakes."  Because Harold has now gone home so his motorhome can go back into the shop for additional repairs following the damage done by a lightning strike in June at the Pennsylvania State Rally, we were able to fit into three vehicles for the trip.  Our goal was the historical downtown which is wrapped around a central green with its own little bandstand.

There were several gift/variety type stores that drew various members of our group and some even came away with small bags of items purchased.  Meanwhile, Ken and I discovered the towns draw of interest - large paint pallets with various  paintings on them.  Each was numbered and had a letter that was to be recorded on a provided brochure to help gather enough letters for 5 mixed up words that you were then challenged to solve for a future drawing.  We decided rather than shop we'd rather check them out so we set off to find all 22 of them.  What fun finding them and gathering the letters.  It took us all over the little downtown and even down to the lake just one block away.  It also took us by many of the very old homes in this town - most of which had the year they were built posted on them. Many were built around the 1860s.  I took pictures just to give a taste of our adventures

This beautiful old depot acts as the city offices as well as a restroom for Depot Park on Keuka Lake.

 Everyone had worked up an appetite for lunch so we all met at Timber Stone Grill and enjoyed a meal together.  (Ken is out in front writing down another of the letters from the palette in front of the grill)

After lunch Ken and I were off to gather the last couple of letter we needed and then we joined everyone else at the ice cream parlor for dessert.

A bit more shopping was followed by a stroll down to Depot Park on the lake where we sat enjoyed the view and beautiful breezes coming off the water.  It was quite warm and humid so they felt great. I was able to get a phone connection so I could chat with Mary Elizabeth for a short time.

Two car loads then headed back to the campground and we headed to a winery just a couple of miles up the hill outside of town.  It afforded a great view of the lake and surrounding hillsides including lots of grape vines

The winery itself was a huge complex including the processing plant, a visitor center and restaurant, a gift shop, a tasting room, a museum and gorgeous gardens.

Bette and Jan were the only ones interested in doing any tasting

Ken and Frank enjoyed just taking it easy in the rockers in the huge tasting room while I wandered the gift shop down the hill.

Once we returned, every one regathered at the Beer's rig to just chat and enjoyed more time together. I broke away long enough to enjoy a chat with Jen on the phone in a spot where I seemed to get enough of a bar to talk as long as I didn't move.  My phone has not been very useful here for sure!!

As the evening wore on, Steve and Ron built a fire and roasted marshmellows for somemores for everyone - our dinner for the evening :-)

So ended another day in this beautiful area set in the green mountains of Pennsylvania and New York.

PS After a little research on the computer we finally figured out what the five words were on our "letter collecting" form that went along with all the palettes.  We had solved three of them but couldn't get the others but decided it must be names of boats that sank in the Keuka Lake.  Sure enough that was it so we now know the following have sunk: Lulu, Mary-Belle, Tanglewood, and the Garfield.  A couple of these were tourist steam boats but others were working boats hauling fruits and other items to various markets on the huge lake.  There are actually a large number of boats lying on the bottom. Just an interesting sidelight to our trip to check out Hammondsport.