Out and About with Tom and Huck - Rambling Around with the Irwins         by Alice Irwin

Back in Time at Skaleateles, Part 1                                                     Return to Tom & Huck Page

August 30th, 2001 Edition of the Sun and Record

NYS Gazetteer Pages 59 and 60

 Last year while chairing our Antique Boat Show at the Sodus Bay Yacht Club Ethan and I had the pleasure to meet some delightful members of the Finger Lakes Chapter of the Antique and Classic Boat Society, Roger and DeAnne Townsend, and Jeff and Pat Williams.  Both Roger and Jeff returned to SBYC’s 2001 show, and each went home with a trophy for their beautifully restored Chris Craft and Century boats.  Their club hosts the annual Antique and Classic Boat show that’s held in Skaneateles and we decided it was time to pay them a visit for a change.  A long weekend sounded good, but with the show only about 6 weeks away at the time our prospects of finding a place to stay looked dismal.  We pulled a list of motels and B&B’s from the Skaneateles web site and began making calls.  No, No, and No Vacancy.  Then we hit it...The Arbor House Inn B&B was just off of downtown, sounded very elegant, and had a room!

 We scheduled a vacation day for Friday, packed a bag, and loaded up the bikes. “The Girls” would be fine for a couple of days with their dry food dispenser and monster water bowls and our neighbor buddy Lucas takes great care in feeding our fish.    Skaneateles is located on Route 5&20, just east of Auburn and south of Syracuse.    How fortuitous that it was lunchtime and we just happened to be in Seneca Falls, home of one of our favorite eateries, The Pumphouse.  High backed antique wooden booths line the dining room walls, each with an etched mirror.  An eclectic assortment of old dining room tables and chairs fill the main dining area and all kinds of small pumps and plaques of Gould’s Pumps highlight the room.  The waitress brings a blackboard on an easel to your table, listing the daily specials.  The food is always just what we’re looking for; we had stew-like fresh tomato and zucchini soup and personal pizzas on crisp homemade foccacia-like crust topped with parmesan, garlic, spinach leaves, tomato slices and fresh mozzarella.  I loved the slogan on their menu:  “Laugh Often, Eat Much, Take it Home”.

 After a couple of passes through town in Skaneateles, we found the Arbor House Inn.  It was lovely, and in a perfect location.  Built in the mid-1800’s as a residence for the President of Skaneateles , the home was meticulously restored in 1999.  Each room is richly decorated with period antiques.  The innkeeper is there during the day and the entire house belongs to the guests at night.   The kitchen was right out of magazine...professional appliances, granite counter tops.  We relaxed in some easy chairs on the wrap-around glassed in front porch and then took a walk “downtown”. 

 The restored historic buildings in the village are home to a marvelous collection of galleries, gift shops, and restaurants.  A public park is right on the water, with a long pier and docks that extend out into the spectacularly blue lake.  Antique boats were arriving and setting up for the show, and with the usual busy tourist crowds augmented by the show traffic, the town was bursting at the seams.   At dinnertime, one of the restaurants, Doug’s Fish Fry, had a block-long line of people waiting (we discovered the reason for the crowd when we had lunch there on Sunday…great food for a great price).

 We awoke to sunshine on Saturday morning and spent the early day viewing the antique boats.  There were 40+ boats exhibited in the water and another 40-50 set up in the park, with everything from Chris Crafts to Garwoods to Shepherds, Penn Yans, Amphi-Cars, Hacker Crafts, wooden canoes, ice boats, and many many more.  It was so good to see our friends Roger and Jeff again, and their polished wooden treasures were in their usual impeccable condition. We found a 1968 fiberglass Donzi that had been restored by Sodus’s very own Pete and Luzette Eaves’ Great Lakes Boat Repair.   You can’t imagine the ruined state that it was in before Great Lakes worked their magic; it was once again a beauty.

 We picked up a copy of the Walking Tour Guide to the Historic Homes and Buildings of Skaneateles.  The Historical Society was conducting bus tours, but that didn’t look like something we wanted to get involved in so we set out on our bikes and later on foot to explore the town.  Our book provided a detailed history of each building, most dating back into the early 1800’s.   As we found in Wellsboro, PA, the residents here have a tremendous amount of pride in their historic homes and grounds; from tidy cottage to grandiose estate they are all spectacular.

 Friday night we discovered that it was almost impossible to get into anywhere for dinner without a reservation, so Saturday we booked an 8:30 dinner at a new upscale Asian restaurant.  The selection of seafood and sushi posted in the window promised an excellent evening meal.  We did find a delicious dinner at the Sherwood Inn’s Tavern Room late Friday evening, of baked Scrod with lemon cream sauce and Sesame Ahi Tuna.   My tuna was served over spicy, crunchy seaweed that I absolutely fell in love with and I couldn’t wait to try it at the Asian restaurant. 

There’s a large white gazebo in the town park, and at 7:00 the Skaneateles Community Band began their performance.  Over 50 people comprise the band; they are GOOD and very classy looking in their black slacks and white shirts.  Some folks from the Lions Club were distributing copies of the 2001 Songbook and the crowd joined in for some old-time favorites: I’m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover, Let Me Call You Sweetheart, Oh! Susanna, In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree, Yankee Doodle Dandy.   In keeping with the Antique Boat Show theme, a local theater company strolled around the park in elegant suits and long dresses, the ladies with large fancy hats adorned with ribbons and feathers.  The crowd loved the concert; everyone from the young parents dancing with their infants to the white haired octogenarians in their wheelchairs, remembering the elegance of times gone by. Even the teenagers were getting into it. It was like a scene from a mushy movie, complete with a beautiful sunset... except it was real, and it was truly special to be there to enjoy it.

 Next time...Mills and Swamps and Tons of Trout!