Tag Archives: miniature golf

What to Do on a Summer’s Day

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Sometime summer seems endless, but we know too well that it isn’t so. But what DO you do (especially if you’ve got kids!)? On a hot day… a rainy day… or just any day? There are simple things to do, and they’re not too far away.

*Play miniature golf. It’s an American tradition, and no two courses are alike! Windmills, spouts, and bridges abound, not to mention crazy slopes, and it’s all in fun, and if you don’t take it too seriously, everybody has a good time. The course at Harris Hill Amusement Park has entertained players for many years – there are also courses at Corning, Watkins Glen, and Ithaca Sciencenter.
*Visit the comic-book store. I personally patronize Heroes Your Mom Threw Out in Elmira Heights, where Jared Aiosa loves kids as well as grownups. (And yes, at his shop I HAVE found comics that my Mom threw out!)
*Attend a summer service at Garret Memorial Chapel, on Keuka Bluff. It’s a lovely stone chapel, built almost a hundred years ago in memory of an only son who died too young. It’s a quiet place, set in the woods, with services only in summers. You may find that you’re growing quiet too, in the best sense of the word.
*Amble along the Erie Canal. Fairport is known as “the crown jewel of the Erie Canal” – the towpath is a fine place to stroll, with restaurants and other amenities on the route or just a few steps away. The same is true in Pittsford, and many another canal town. For a quieter, more rural stretch, start in Brockport. Check ’em all out. Now two centuries old, the Canal still welcomes visitors. Nathaniel Hawthorne liked it! Why shouldn’t you?
*Shop at The Windmill, on 14A between Penn Yan and Dundee: Saturdays only, April through November, with an occasional added day for holidays. Wander in and out amongst 175 shops and stands – it’s one of the largest open-air farm and craft markets in the state of New York.
*Get an ice cream! It just isn’t summer if you don’t make at least one stop at an ice cream stand. I use Emmie’s near Lake Salubria in Bath! And also Hokey-Pokey on Corning Northside. Honestly, there’s ice cream stands just about everywhere, and I’ve never found one that disappointed me. The closing of the ice cream stands is a sure sad sign of the end of summer. Get into the season while the getting’s good!
*Get a hot dog, and eat it “al fresco.” Central Hots in Elmira is a good place. Jim’s Texas Hots is a good place on Market Street in Corning.
*Take a walk on the waterfront. Watkins Glen in particular gives you lots of waterline to stroll on, lots of boats to look at, lots of birds to watch. You can also see the schooner True Love (used in the movie High Society, with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly).
*Listen to a concert in the park. Wow! LOTS of our communities have free evening concerts every week through the summer – I know for a fact you can find them in Bath, Hammondsport, Penn Yan, Watkins Glen… plenty of others too! Sometimes there’s a sort of ongoing theme, more likely there’s a different “sound” every week, from rock-and-roll to folk to country to “band music.” Somebody makes fried chicken, somebody sells lemonade, little kids run in and out… pick out the music you like, bring your lawn chair, chat with your friends, and enjoy the summer’s eve. Maybe stars will come out. Maybe you’ll see fireflies. “Just a song at twilight, when the lights are low, and the flickering shadows softly come and go; though the heart be weary, sad the day and long, still to us at twilight comes Love’s old song – comes Love’s old, sweet song.”

A Trip to Seabreeze, and Old-Time Minigolf

On the last Monday in June we did something we’ve been planning on for a couple of years, but kept getting stymied by broken legs and such. But it was one of those gorgeous Finger Lakes days, sunny, light breeze, temps in the low seventies, just right for a drive to Seabreeze and a round of miniature golf.

*This is NOT, let me say clearly, in the Seabreeze Amusement Park, but in the nearby hamlet of Seabreeze, in the Town of Irondequoit. We were headed to Parkside Diner’s Whispering Pines Miniature Golf.

*And why did this call for a trip from Bath to Lake Ontario? The minigolf course is on the National Register of Historic Places; it’s probably the oldest miniature golf course in the United States; and it preserves the early 20th-century style of course, making it quite different from most others.

*Here we don’t find turning windmill blades, little barns and churches. The original builders seem to have assumed that you came for the game, not the kitsch. If there’s a theme here, it’s obstacles.

*At the first hole, for instance, you have to drive up a fairly steep slope, hoping to get your ball under a low stone overhang, and down the reverse slope onto the green… except that there are posts and angled barriers along the way. It’s sort of like teeing off inside a pinball machine (without the lights and the noise).

*Unsurprisingly there are shafts, chutes, and tunnels to shoot into. There’s a “sea” theme here at Seabreeze, so many of the obstacles are bollards, heavy rope, and other nautical accessories. (The only miniature building on the course is a lighthouse.) Crabs, lobsters, and lobster traps decorate the course – salt water stuff, rather than the fresh water of Lake Ontario, but who cares?

*One tee just plain bewildered us. You had to clumb several steps onto a small platform, and then – what? We studied for a spell, utterly without success.

*But a mother, who clearly knew the course well, was playing a round behind us with her young boy. She pointed out that we actually had to tee up and drive from the platform, ten yards or so onto the green (which was surrounded with a sort of baseball backdrop).

*What with that broken leg we mentioned, Joyce didn’t want to climb to the platform, and told me to drive on her behalf. This worked out to her benefit! Unsure how much force to put into it, I dropped my own drive into the grassy rough… drove from there, and still came up short… and was on the green in three. By the time I addressed Joyce’s ball I had the hang of it, and left her lying one on the green.

*All the holes were par 2 or 3, and on most holes one or both of us either made par or birdied… though on some other holes we shot six or more. But we’re out of practice… we can’t remember when last we played… so that’s not too bad. (In our opinion!)

*There were perhaps half a dozen parties making their way around the links, shaded by beautiful evergreens. In my experience most miniature golf courses give an ephemeral air, using lightweight materials. Seabreeze is solid – built for the ages, with fossil stone brought in from the west, almost 90 years ago. It’s also delightful.

*Naturally we had lunch at the next-door diner, and enjoyed it very much. So did quite a few local folks – the place was pleasantly busy, but not overcrowded. The web site is www.parksidediner.com, where you can print off coupons for both diner and golf.

*If you’re reading this in the Corning area, I really don’t recommend a trip solely for the golf and diner. We did it, but that’s because I wanted to write about it. It’s 90 miles each way from Bath, so you might do better to take it in while you’re in the area. But if you’re in the orbit of, say, Canandiagua… or anyplace closer… you might find it’s worth the drive. We did!