A Chautauqua Sojourn

A few days ago I teased on Facebook by saying "When was the last time you checked into a hotel and got one of these?":

Well, the answer is that you get an old fashioned key when you check into this place:

This is the Anthenaeum Hotel at the Lake Chautauqua Institute and Resort in Chautauqua County, New York, about a three hour drive from the our home.  As an early birthday gift, Linda treated me to a one night stay in this old grande dame  of a resort hotel.  Many years ago, I had driven through the Chautauqua resort area, but had never stayed there, so this was quite a treat.  The Chautauqua Institute was founded 150 years ago in 1874.  In fact, we were there on the literal 150th Anniversary of the place, August 4.  It was started as a religious retreat and it is still that, but it also has evolved into a vacation resort with boating, golf, swimming, places to eat, and an amphitheater which houses the wonderful Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.  More on that in a bit.

The hotel is a beautiful building, as are the grounds on which it sits, but it is old.   The key is only one example.  Window air conditioners and outdated bathrooms in the rooms are two others, but at least they had an elevator!  We were disappointed with our room, but, hey, we were only there one night, and the setting, the food, and a great lobby bar more than made up for it.  Another thing that is old at the Anthenaeum is the clientele.  I turn 73 next month, and I'm guessing that I was below the average age  of the folks who stayed there.

No matter though, because the highlight of our stay was a pops performance by the Chautauqua Symphony entitled "Sinatra....and Beyond" featuring guest vocalist Tony DeSare.  Linda was limited by our calendar by what date we would be in Chautauqua , so she was flying blind insofar as what we would see at the Amphitheater that night.  She was gonna take whomever or whatever happened to be scheduled for August 3, and did we luck out.

No, we had never heard of Tony DeSare, either, but what a performer!  He did a two hour twenty minute set, with an intermission, that paid tribute to Frank Sinatra.  He was not a "Sinatra impersonator", but rather a talented and engaging performer in his own right, who more that did justice to the Chairman of the Board's musical stylings.

He also did some of his own songs.  He is also a singer/songwriter who has recorded his own  music and has performed across the country.  He told a delightful story about performing in a New York City hotel cabaret when he was terrified to discover one night that none other than Paul McCartney was in the audience.   And after an program of Sinatra ballads and his own jazzy love longs, he and the terrific Symphony closed the evening by bringing down the house with Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire".  He didn't play the piano with his feet like the Killer did, but he more than did it justice.

It was great one day/night getaway, and a terrific birthday gift from my wife.  I will close with some pics from our trip.

We ate lunch at a place called The Fish in the town of Bemus Point, NY

Here we are with the maitre d'.

We also stopped at this Bemus Point watering hole, which was, apparently,

a big stop on the Big Band circuit back in the day.

By the way, I had mentioned that I had been in this neck of the woods once before.  In a Grandstander post dated September 20, 2013 (you can look it up) I called Bemus Point a "Mayberry-like village" and posted this photo to prove my point:

Well, times have changed, and Bemus point has changed with them as this photo taken this past Saturday from the same approximate spot proves:

Finally, a couple of shots if that terrific open air amphitheater where we saw the concert on Saturday night.  What a wonderful musical venue!

I will close by telling you that someone had an idea about what a great time we would have and tried to stow away for the trip.

She didn't get away with out, though.  And we aren't going to tell her that the Chautauqua grounds are dog friendly.