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Lake Chautauqua is my friend Lin Winters' childhood home. Many of you may remember the beautiful woman in the long red dress at our wedding. She was my "best person." Her parents owned a rather distinctive home on the shores of the lake, within the Chautauqua compound. I've heard stores about this place from her for years and we finally made it. We found a really great RV park just a few miles from the village. Once again it was a huge residential and holiday home resort. There were only two travelers in the transient area when we arrived. end of the season. Bright blue and cloudless skies blessed our four-day stay.
In the nearby town of Jamestown, we toured the Lucy and Desi Museum. Lucille Ball was born a few miles from here is a small lakeside town and this was also the home of her famous Lucille McGilooguddy character. It was great fun touring the sets from the I Love Lucy show, seeing the memorabilia, and the costumes. Something I was not aware of was that the original set was done in all greys, included most of the costumes. The cinematographers wanted the filming to have a greater resolution on the screen.
A lot of bike rides and a drive around the lake filled out days. We devoted one day to visiting the Chautaugua Institue. The village of Chautaugua is a completely gated community. We have to get a free ground pass to even enter. The events at the institute are over for the summer and after finding a suitable parking spot for the truck, we unloaded the busses and rode around this unique enclave for a few hours. The historic residence, the grand hotels, and all of the pavilions of learning were quite impressive.
What stood out also was in visiting the family home of our friend. The Packard Manor, as it is still called, was built by the luxury car manufacturer as a summer home. All 32 rooms and 12,00 sq. ft. were home to my friend's family from the early fifties (her dad paid $25,000) until 1996 when she and her siblings sold it for a "few" million dollars. The house sits impressively on the lakefront, on what was once 100;s of acres of private land, lawns, and gardens. Over the years the land surrounding the home was sold off. While we were not able of course to visit inside, it was still impressive.
Our drive around the lake took several hours, on narrow local roads, passing beautiful parks, homes, and amazing hardwood forests...all of course in glorious fall color.
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