Chautauqua

For our anniversary this year, Peter and I went down to Chautauqua, New York.  The Mormon Tabernacle Choir did two concerts at the Chautauqua Institution, and we went to the matinee performance.  We reserved a night at a bed and breakfast in Mayville, New York (it ended up being only about 5 minutes away from the institution gates).  It was a beautiful old Victorian house named Plumbush.  It doesn't look like I took a picture of it, so the picture below is from the website.

We stayed in the Chautauqua room (pic also from website):

It was beautiful and it was nice to get a chance to be away, take things at a slower pace, and enjoy the quiet.  Eliza and Brad Damstedt watched the kids for us. 

The first night we drove around Mayville and Westfield - two quaint little towns.  Apparently Westfield is one of the largest producers of concord grape juice in the world - who knew?  Also there was a little girl who lived in Westfield and wrote to Abraham Lincoln before he became president and told him he should grow a beard.  He followed her advice, and stopped to meet her on his way to the inauguration in Washington, DC.  They put up a statue in Westfield to commemorate the meeting.

On Saturday morning we were hoping to go out running, but it was raining and we decided to take a slower morning and not get soaked.  So we slept in a little, got breakfast (which was delicious - fresh fruit, coffee cake, and omelettes), and then headed to the Chautauqua Instituion to look around.  The grounds were beautiful and it was fun to see all the Victorian architecture.  People take a lot of pride in the area and it shows.  People were very friendly and always willing to help.  We must have looked confused a lot because we kept geting offers of help to find stuff. 

The Athenaeum Hotel

The Hall of Philosophy

Hall of Christ

Other sites around Chautauqua

We intended to get lunch before the concert, but neither of us was very hungry after the big breakfst we had, so we split a protein bar and went to the concert.  It was beautiful and a fun concert.  It was also cool to see so many non-Mormons be excited about the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  I would guess 90% of the sold-out audience were not LDS.  It was fun to be a part of it.

After the concert we went to a little antique store on the grounds and bought a lantern that we'd found earlier in the day.  I want to hang it up in the living room, but I still need to find the approriate hardware to do it. 

We had lunch at a little diner on the way out of town and headed back to Buffalo and reality.  It was a fun anniversary weekend.