Lake Chautauqua

My parents own a house on lake Chautauqua in New York. It was my Mommaship’s dream to own a house up here where our entire family could congregate for vacations and holidays. Three years ago, they finally found the perfect property — located in the cute little community of Lakewood — and, officially became the owners of multiple homes.
Lake Chautauqua is surprisingly idyllic — set in the finger lakes of southwestern New York — it is surrounded by wineries and cute little communities like Bemis Point and Jamestown (which was the birthplace of Lucille Ball.)
It’s about 40 miles east of Erie, PA and 80 miles south of Buffalo; it is also easy to get to from Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New York City.
The lake it’s self is about ten miles long and is great for fishing, boating, tubing and other variety of water sports. The Chautauqua Institute is nearby — hosting concerts and a series of high profile speakers (Al Gore, Jane Goodall most recently) throughout the year. The community of Lilydale is host to a psychic community (and, fairy houses) which is renowned throughout the country — a little wacky, if you ask me, but very interesting to visit.
Year round it is a beautiful place to live: the colors in the fall are amazing, winter brings lots of ice fishing, skiing and such, spring and summer are big tourist times here.
Frankly, the only time I am truly relaxed is for the two weeks of vacation I get to take with my family (yes, I know I am a dork for liking to hang out with my family on vacation.) We sleep late, eat well, sit around on the boat or deck reading/​playing cards/​staring at the mote in the middle distance, drink wine and just chillax.
It’s wonderful.