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! 

Read More ยป

Seeing Naples beyond the grapes

“Grape Pie Capital of the World” or “Finger Lakes Simplicity” or “Easy like Sunday Morning” or “Nooks and Crannies” or “Where People are Just Plain Nice.” What is the potential tagline for Naples, New York? When you work in tourism your mind often goes to taglines. What quick phrase can sum up the feeling you have when you’re in a place? Naples is a small village of approximately 1,200 residents who are gearing up for what some estimate to be visitors to the tune of 70,000 or more for the Naples Grape Festival. The folks in Naples sure appreciate all those visitors, and the festival remains our most requested special event. Why not, we all agree.  It’s fun, it’s busy, it’s purple, it’s tasty. And, despite all of this, I suggest that people take the time to visit the “non-grape-festival-weekend” Naples as well. Why?  Well, let’s get back to the title conundrum. What is Naples, NY…

Read More

The Finger Lakes farm-to-supermarket connection

There are not many parts of the country where the local supermarket is a tourism destination, but a lot of us Finger Lakes lifers bring our out-of-town guests and family members to Wegmans Food Markets, an award-winning supermarket chain with deep roots in the Rochester and Finger Lakes region. Staff is exceedingly friendly and helpful. The produce department always looks ready for a Martha Stewart photo shoot. And in the Canandaigua store where I shop most frequently, there is a burger bar, sushi counter, coffee kiosk and an outdoor patio where I can eat all the food I'm too lazy to cook myself…

Read More

Blasts from the past at Antique Wireless Museum

Several weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the Voice of America made its debut on radios beyond our borders, broadcasting in German as a new strategy to counter Nazi propaganda and promote American democracy and other values to Americans in occupied territory as well as to overseas allies. The original VOA relied on shortwave radio, a technology, which previously had only been used in private enterprise. The Antique Wireless Museum, a mind-boggling collection of historic communications equipment and hardware, now brings a sizable piece of VOA history to Bloomfield…

Read More

The bucks stopped here. And here. And here.

The first time I noticed it I had to stop and stare to figure out what I was really seeing and why on Earth it was there. Sure enough, as I paused on my way to a meeting at the Inn on the Lake in Canandaigua, a large deer adorned with clouds, vines, and the rolling hills of the Canandaigua area stood off to the left of the main entrance, seemingly greeting me as I walked in. It stood, lurking behind a few trees, gazing ominously back at me. No, it was not a real animal, and no, this wasn’t something out of a Hunter S. Thompson story; but why a hotel would have such a large deer painted like a scenic landscape eerily hiding behind the front door landscaping was completely beyond me. I stared at it in disbelief, like (okay, you saw this coming) a deer stuck in the headlights…

Read More

A pageant that lets you let off a little (or a lot) of steam

In just a few days the town of Hopewell near Canandaigua will welcome more than 40,000 people to the 55 th annual Pageant of Steam.This event will bring visitors of all ages, backgrounds and lifestyles.  I really admire the mission statement from the N.Y. Steam Engine Association, which promotes this unique event. ”Demonstrating the past to educate the future.”  It truly is a pageant dedicated to steam. In fact, I think of it as four days of tractor performance art…

Read More