Chautauqua County welcomes winter fun

One-Tank Trip / Chautauqua County

By Deborah Williams - SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
Updated: 01/20/08 7:07 AM

Marshall Brown

Enjoy a sleigh ride during the Currier & Ives Rally at the Chautauqua Institution.

The white swans that arrive every December have left Chautauqua Lake for warmer climes, but the skiers, skaters, ice fishing enthusiasts and those who enjoy peace and quiet in an idyllic setting are now coming to the Chautauqua Institution and surrounding regions.

In the winter, the Chautauqua community resembles an old-fashioned Christmas card. There's a quiet, contemplative ambience to Chautauqua during the off-season.

The New York Department of Tourism has designated Chautauqua-Allegheny as the official 2008 Winter Festival Region.

The area benefits from bountiful lake-effect snowstorms fueled by winds off Lake Erie. Cross-country skiing is popular on the grounds, the golf course and the frozen lake. Horse-drawn sleigh rides are available through the grounds of the Institution from 1 to 4 p.m. every weekend during January and February. Sleigh ride tickets are sold at the Chautauqua Bookstore, which is open year-round.

Danielle Morgan, who works in the bookstore, has a special appreciation of Chautauqua in winter.

"It is so beautiful," she said. "I don't think people realize what a jewel that the area is in the winter. Of course, I love all the seasons."

Morgan, who first came to the area as a child to visit her grandmother who lived at Chautauqua, moved to Mayville in 1987 from Los Angeles.

"This is the only place I chose to live," explained Morgan who lived around the country and world as an Air Force brat. "It is so quiet and peaceful in the winter."

The highlight of the winter season at Chautauqua will be the 28th Chautauqua Sleigh Rally at 1 p.m. Feb. 3.

The competition, free to the public, begins at 9:30 a.m. and finishes about 3 p.m. Sleigh rides are also available.

There are dappled gray horses, giant Clydesdales, Belgian draft horses, Morgans, even a couple of miniature horses pulling miniature sleighs. The melodic sound of sleigh bells punctuates the air.

The highlight of the day is the Currier & Ives parade at 1 p.m. Drivers and their riders dress in period costumes; drivers are judged on their sleighs and costumes. Dogs often ride along in the antique sleighs and leashed dogs are welcome at the rally.

Afterward, many visitors walk up to Bester Plaza to be on hand when the horse-drawn sleighs arrive. Their arrival harkens back to a time before automobiles when the sleighs provided the only winter transportation.

Snowflakes and more

Also on Feb. 3 is the Snowflake Festival at the Audubon Center in Jamestown. There's snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, sledding, sleigh rides, food, indoor arts and crafts and bluebird- house building. The event is designed for families to spend the day outside on Super Bowl Sunday.

This year there is another opportunity to step back into another century. On Feb. 2 there is a tour called the Currier & Ives Winter in Amish Country with Snowflake Luncheon. Participants meet in Cherry Creek at The Depot, an 1896 restored Victorian railroad station, which features a variety of Amish goods, handcrafts and antiques. Proprietor Patty Frost will share history and anecdotes of her Amish neighbors.

Travel by van in the township of Leon, where 75 percent of the population is Old Order Amish, a group that clings to their 19th century ways and eschew the modern world including electricity, telephones, autos, radios, televisions and computers. The simple clapboard homes and farms are distinctive for their lack of electric wires. Horse-drawn buggies are more common than cars on many of smaller rural roads in the area. Many Amish create distinctive wooden furniture and quilts that they sell from their homes and in area shops.

Stop at the Quilt Shop with hand-sewn quilts, the Top Shop with handmade wooden toys, Shaffer's Smokehouse & Sausage Kitchen and Valley View Cheese Factory.

Lunch is at the Cherry Creek Inn housed in the George N. Frost House, a beautiful Italianate Victorian built in 1864 and an ideal setting for the Victorian- themed luncheon.

The weekend of Feb. 9-10 is a favorite for chocolate and wine lovers — the Wine & Chocolate Weekend. Nineteen wineries in Chautauqua County and Northwestern Pennsylvania invite participants to travel the Chautauqua Wine Trail and enjoy wine and chocolate desserts. Everyone receives a wine glass, a packet of recipe cards and a gift.

Just a couple of miles north of the institution at the head of the lake is Mayville, home of the I.C.E. Festival that will be staged for the 20th year on Feb. 16-17. It will be held at Lakeside Park, Route 394 in the village of Mayville. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, before the days of refrigeration, ice harvesting was one of the leading industries in the county.

If weather conditions are right and there is enough ice in Lake Chautauqua, a castle will be made from ice. However, more likely because of the January thaw, there will be another kind of castle.

"We have a back-up plan which we think will work out well," explained Melissa Balch, a festival committee member. "Area farmers have agreed to provide many bales of hay and we will make a giant hay castle. It will be 12 feet high and 50 feet wide. Then the fire department will spray the hay castle each night so it will be covered with ice. There will be lights on it at night and it should look great."

The festival kicks off with a parade at 10 a.m. on Feb. 16. Other activities on Feb. 16-17 include broom ball competitions on the tennis courts, ice skating on the lake, Snowball Distance Throwing Contest, pony rides and petting zoo, carriage rides, snowmobile rides, face painting, Children's Snowman Building Contest, ice carving contests, outdoor barbecues, food vendors and a giant slide. At 6 p.m. on Feb. 16 there will be a bonfire and at 6:30 p.m. a Snowmobile Flare Parade, followed by fireworks.

The Cool Jazz Festival runs in conjunction with the I.C.E. Festival. Jazz bands fill the air in Mayville with music at area bars, restaurants and hotels on Feb. 15-16. The highlight of the festival is the Cool Jazz Snowball

at Chautauqua Suites featuring the Babalu Swingtime Band at 9 p.m. on Feb. 16.

If you go

For information on Chautauqua County: www.tourchautauqua.com or (866) 908-ILNY (4569).

Weekend sleigh rides are available 1-4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays during January and February. Tickets are available at the Chautauqua Institution Bookstore for $3 for adults and $2 for children. Call (716) 753-2404.

Reservations are required for the Wine & Chocolate Weekend (Feb. 9-10) and no tickets will be sold after Feb. 1. Call (888) 965-4800, (800) 374-6569 or visit www.chautauquawinetrail.org. Tickets are $21.

Reservations are also required for the Feb. 2 Snowflake Luncheon and tour ($30). Call Carol Lorenc at (877) 468-5523 or (716) 962-3412. She also operates Fox Farmhouse Bed & Barn, a bed-and-breakfast. Visit www.foxefarmhouse.com. The Chautauqua Sleigh Rally is 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Feb. 3. Admission is free. The rally is at the Hurst Parking Lot at the Institution.

Mayville I.C.E. Festival (Feb. 15-16): (716) 753-3113, www.mayville-chautauquachamber.org. Cool Jazz Festival (Feb. 15-16): (716) 753-2800, www.mayvilleevents.com. Chautauqua Suites, 216 W. Lake Road, Mayville; (716) 269-7829, www.chautauquasuites.com. Jamestown Audubon Nature Center, 1600 Riverside Road, Jamestown; (716) 569-2345, www.jamestownaudubon.org. Snowflake Festival, 11-5 p.m. Feb. 3.

 

For more information on Chautauqua Lake Real Estate & Living visit: www.chautauqualakehomes.com