Ontario County, NY and surrounding counties will be in the path of totality for the upcoming Total Solar Eclipse. Prepare your safety and travel plans today! 

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Author
Valerie Knoblauch

The Finger Lakes runs deep in Valerie’s soul. She is a native from the Keuka Lake area. She has lived here her entire life, is the President of the Finger Lakes Visitors Connection and maintains an absolute encyclopedic knowledge of all things Finger Lakes. She takes a special interest in all the wonderful food and outdoor recreation of the area. Valerie has biked around all 11 of the lakes! One of her favorite activities in the Finger Lakes is visiting the wineries. Valerie can often be seen along the roads of the Finger Lakes taking breathtaking scenic shots and interacting with visitors. If the Finger Lakes had an award for its #1 fan, Valerie would most certainly win it!

4 Guarantees for Your Next Finger Lakes Camping Trip

Summer is almost here, and that means taking advantage of the Finger Lakes’ great outdoors. Even if you don’t consider yourself the camping type, you may reconsider when you realize camping today can fit almost any type of personality. If you want to bring your tent, hike in the woods, and set up au naturel, you can do that in Ontario County. But if you’re more like me and my “city-boy husband converted to the great life in Upstate NY,” you might prefer all the new choices available where camping has turned to glamping (glamorous camping)…

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Small Town America - Finger Lakes Charm - Gorham, NY

I was on my way home from a family reunion a while ago and came over a small hill and literally stopped. I looked across the expansive fields of hay bales, into the white clouds, blue skies, and green, green, green. I knew that just about 18 miles away was Canandaigua – bustling with tourists and waterfront activity. Beyond that in another 20 miles is Rochester with nearly 350,000 people. Right now though, in my world over that hill, there were no people – and that’s the kind of moment that is just as precious in our tourism world.  Real, authentic, fresh air in the country!  I was in Gorham, New York…

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Vacation Fun for Your Whole Family Tree? Better Be-leaf It!

The Finger Lakes isn’t only a beautiful place to make new memories with your loved ones. It’s also an area filled with nostalgic bliss—a place to share deep-rooted memories with the people you care about most. And historically speaking, the older generation tends to be responsible for carrying family legacies and holding the keys to a past long ago, but never forgotten. There’s a lot to learn from them to be sure, and many experiences to pass on and share together. But who says memories can’t be passed from kids to adults, too…

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A spiritual game: Lacrosse in Western NY

Growing up in the hills of Branchport, NY—I was a farm girl. When I wasn’t helping my family around the farm, I was either at school or playing basketball. With such rural roots, it was hard to understand the impact of lacrosse on the Finger Lakes region. My youngest son, Andrew, started playing…

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National Travel & Tourism Week: Where to go on your Finger Lakes trip

It’s National Travel & Tourism Week! This is such an exciting industry because it’s never the same and the workforce is growing. This blog is a hats-off to our visitors! From May 7 to 13, we value all of you for choosing our destination as a place to play and stay! And in the true spirit of my job, I can’t help but give you a few tips on how to play and stay in 2017…

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A Snowy Day - a Facebook Snow Show

Our son called us from Atlanta. The temperature there – about 55 degrees. He’d heard we were getting some snow, so he was checking in and being a true New Yorker, “wished he was here because he missed the snow.”  It’s always fun to be in town when a record is set. February 16, 2016. 17.9 inches of snow! This gives all of us "FLX - Finger Lakes" folks certain bragging rights. And, show off we did. I asked my son how he knew about our snow and he simply said, “all the Facebook posts.” …

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Finger Lakes sunsets: An impromptu competition where everyone wins

All people of the world share the same sun, but in New York’s Finger Lakes we were blessed with a special treat of “Sunset Spectacular” a few nights ago. Less than five minutes later my sister posted the sunset view from her home in Gorham - different than my pinks, purples and blues. Captured at the same time, her sunset was made of oranges and golds with a barn backdrop and a window teasing the sunset to come in. I was deep into some kitchen event when my husband alerted me to the beautiful sky out our western window…

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Who is bringing the dessert for Thanksgiving?

With Thanksgiving upon us, I’ve heard a lot of discussion lately about desserts for the infamous holiday dinner. Certainly, this is one of the key components of our American traditions for this holiday. Jake, our newest team member, is fresh out of college and going home for his first Thanksgiving as a working professional in the real world. He wanted to contribute to the dinner and got a great suggestion from Karen, our second to the newest team member (and a former food writer and in-house culinary expert), that he should consider taking a grape pie. I heartily endorsed that suggestion…

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