Every year
for two weeks in August my son Michael goes off to camp. My husband Frank and I
take this opportunity and try to find things to do together while Michael is
gone. Things that he would usually find boring or not so much fun for a teenager.
So, last August we booked a dinner cruise on
the Canandaigua Lady.
As of
writing this, and four attempts later, we still have not boarded the boat.
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We are so
fortunate to live at the tip of the Finger Lake area in Upstate New York,
closest to Canandaigua Lake, one of the five Finger Lakes. Canandaigua (meaning
“the chosen spot”) is a resort community with great shopping, restaurants and access
to the shores of one of the most beautiful of the lakes.
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The
Canandaigua Lady is a paddleboat that docks at The Steamboat Landing restaurant
on the lake and provides lake cruises throughout the Summer and early Fall.
For our first attempt at cruising on the lake in a paddleboat, we were
driving the 20 minutes with plenty of time to get there when we ran
into lines and lines of traffic outside the area we needed to get to. I know the area pretty well so we tried other
ways to get in. All were clogged up with lines of traffic. It could
only mean one thing. There was a concert at CMAC Performing Arts Center,
another wonderful feature of this area, just not this particular night for us!
CMAC is
located on the campus of Finger Lakes Community College. The outdoor amphitheatre
brings in top artists from all over the country to perform. That night it was a
huge performer, although I can’t recall his name now!
We were
literally on Lakeshore Drive, within site of the boat, and could not get there
because we were sitting in bumper to bumper traffic. The anxiety was high in
the car, because of me, and I considered abandoning it and walking the rest of
the way! The time came and went to board the boat and it was still sitting at
the dock! By the time we got there a half hour late, we were told that the
cruise was cancelled due to high winds.
Fast forward
to this August. We still have our rain check from last year. We booked another
cruise and an hour and a half before we were to be there, we had one of the
worst downpours of rain this summer. We cancelled because the rain had washed away our idyllic perception
of being on a boat out on the sunny lake with the water shimmering in all its
calmness.
We rescheduled
for another day that week. By now we are running out of time because if we don’t get
it in before the last week of summer camp, the rain check will sit there
another year.
The day of
our cruise I woke up sick and in much pain. Another cancellation.
All along I
had been having doubts about being able to be on a slow moving, enclosed boat
(they no longer serve dinner on the open air upper deck) while eating Eggplant
Parmesan. Since childhood I have had a motion sickness problem. We rescheduled
the cruise anyways for this past Monday night.
As Monday
wore on I was increasingly concerned for the motion, the weather and how cold
it was going to be out on the water since it was already one of the coolest
days we’ve had this summer. The clouds were as dark as snow clouds.
Then Frank
thought of something that never occurred to either of us. On a cruise you
usually sit at large tables with other people you do not know. At the risk of
sounding antisocial, we did not want that! We were on a mission to spend time
together, alone, something that is scarce in our busy lives with a teenager at
home.
A phone call
confirmed that we would sit at a table for eight with six other people. Another
cancellation.
Resigned to
the fact that we would probably NEVER go on the Canandaigua Lady, we made
reservations at the Steamboat Landing restaurant, sat outside on the deck
overlooking the water and had a wonderful dinner together.
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After dinner we walked along the shore and since we were in
full view of the boat, we watched as others boarded. The weather had
miraculously transformed from dark, dreary clouds to bright sunshine that spilled
over the shimmering, calm water. Yup, exactly how we had wanted it to be. There was even a rainbow over the horizon!
It was just
not meant to be. And so goes the saga of The Canandaigua Lady. Farewell
Canandaigua Lady….….farewell.
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