Which way do we go?: Lucy & Chautauqua

About us

We are a couple of Californians, recently transplanted to Bellingham, Washington. We like our new hometown but we also love to travel. We think travel is important and we choose to live frugally so that we can travel as much as possible.

We are currently on a six month trip through Turkey, Italy, and Spain. We also sometimes travel with friends on chartered ships (Thane does massage for them). Of course, it is all subject to whim, so why don't you travel along with us and see where we go?

We like to travel slow and get to know local people and customs. We typically travel on a low budget. We believe that traveling this way enhances our experiences because it tends to keep us in closer contact with local people. This also allows us to travel for longer periods.

We agree with Rick Steve's who says that travel allows us to discover that "Certain truths that we consider to be 'God-given or 'self-evident' ... are suddenly not true" and that "One of the benefits of travel is the eye-opening realization that there are logical, civil, and even better alternatives."

We like seeing how other cultures approach life, family, politics, food, music, communication and the differences between the sexes.

We previously used this space to blog about an 8 week car trip across the USA in 2008. We've left those blog entries here because we enjoy looking at them still and think that you might too.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Lucy & Chautauqua

Posted by Melissa
We headed from Niagara Falls to Chicago via the scenic Chautauqua area of New York - thanks in part to my son Spencer who called us after reading a travel article on this area. Jamestown,NY is Lucille Ball's hometown. We stopped by the Lucy-Desi Museum and really enjoyed seeing all the photos, costumes, and memorabilia. We watched some of the old TV clips and really enjoyed her character's silly antics.

I am continually impressed with the age and character of the towns we have seen on the east coast. Even the alleys are interesting - this is in downtown Jamestown where both the sreets and alleys are paved with brick.

We drove around the lake stopping for lunch in Bemus Point. We stumbled upon the Hotel Lenhart, a quintessential east coast resort overlooking the lake. This hotel has been owned and operated by the same family since 1881.

Is this old school or what??

The prices are not too bad considering that they include both a full breakfast and full dinner. The prices are less on the second and third floors because there is no elevator.

I think I could manage to while away a few days here!

As we continued our drive around the lake we found that there is a sizable Amish community here as well. Our drive through the Pennysilvania Dutch area was on a Sunday so the Amish were not working, but instead were out and about visiting. This time it was a work day and we saw a farmer working the fields..