A Lovely Saturday Adventure

Olcott Beach is a lovely little lake side village just north of Newfane, NY on Lake Ontario. It has a small amusement area with rides and games for kids, a boardwalk with small shops, and several nice places to eat. I used to make sure to take the trip there a few times every summer, but haven’t made it down in quite some time — definitely not last year or this year (until now) and I’m thinking maybe only once the year before last. Sad…..I do enjoy it.

So, today, my friend Cathy and I decided to take a drive to Olcott! We got there a little before noon, which is when most of the shops open for the day. So, we strolled around browsing the few shops that were open and then sat on the boardwalk looking out over the water and talking until the rest of the village started to wake up!

Just after 12:00, we looked in a couple other shops and then headed over to a new restaurant that opened up earlier this year – the Olcott Lobster Co. They have a really nice set up there…..reminiscent of a seafood shack on any beach along the Atlantic coast…..just a bit inland on the shore of Lake Ontario!!! 😉 You get in line and order/pay at the counter and then pick a seat out on their deck areas and the wait staff bring it out to you when it’s ready. They have a nice selection of lobster rolls and other choices for prices that are reasonable for what you get.

Cathy and I both got the Connecticut Rolls — warm lobster with butter and homemade chips seasoned with Old Bay Seasoning. A beautiful day to sit outside enjoying the weather and a nice lunch!

We had planned to stop by Bye’s popcorn stand on the way out of Olcott, but the line was WA-A-A-A-A-Y too long, so we kept driving! We decided to head over to Lockport to treat ourselves to some dessert at Lake Effect Ice Cream. We got to Lockport and parked on the bridge that goes over the locks beside the ice cream place. As we got out of the car, we looked over the railing and discovered that we were just in time to witness two cool activities: 1) a tour boat going through the locks and 2) a group of folks getting their photos taken at the Lock Tenders Tribute Memorial. So, we stood there looking down while all this took place…..it was cool!!!

The Lock Tenders Tribute Memorial is a life-sized reenactment sculpture of an 1897 photo of 12 Lockport Lock Tenders and a little girl (the little girl was the daughter of one of the lock tenders in the photo) taken by photographer Frank B. Clench. The sculpture, by artist Susan Geissler of Youngstown, NY, commemorates the photo reenactment as well as a statue of the photographer taking the iconic photo! Here is the original photo found on the internet:

Looking down on the life-size statues of the Lock Tenders Tribute Memorial (minus the statue of the photographer standing just out of the shot.

Here is the group of folks who were gathering to get their photo taken among the statues…..

We were excited to see a tour boat coming up the canal approaching the first of the locks at Lockport. Cathy and I took this same tour quite a few years ago and actually rode through the locks — what a thrill that was! But, seeing this boat go through the process from above today was also pretty cool!!!

The locks take boats through multiple stages to lower them easily along the varying elevations that the historic Erie Canal flows. Each section either drains or fills to lower or raise a boat before lock doors are opened to allow the boat to proceed to the next elevation. In Lockport, there are two modern locks along side the original five locks built in the mid-1800s. These locks are just a sample of the many engineering marvels of the Erie Canal.

Watch as the following photos take this boat full of fascinated tourists through just one of the Lockport locks – lowering it from one elevation to the next:

Then, we walked across the courtyard to Lake Effect Ice Cream for our final treat of the day…..I’ve had Lake Effect ice cream (they make their own) at a few events over the years, but I’ve never actually been to their shop — it’s famous around here and I’ve heard people rave about their amazing ice cream many, many times…..and now, I can finally say that I’ve been there and experienced it for myself!!!

The sign in the window says “It’s never too cold for ice cream”…..a VERY true statement, for sure!!!

Choices, choices, choices……how would you ever read every single one of these many, many choices and then choose just one…..????!!!!! I finally narrowed my choices down to loganberry, something with Paula’s Donuts in it, and salted caramel……

My final decision was the salted caramel with hot fudge sauce and Cathy chose TWO flavors – raspberry and strawberry…..I had severe “order envy” when I saw she had two flavors and I didn’t think of doing that!!! UGH!!! But…..all was so very delicious!!!

On the drive home, we both agreed that it was a wonderful way to spend a lovely Saturday and that we were both ready for a nap!!! hehehe!!!