2010 SEPTEMBER BLOG

Here are only a few photos from our week at Chautauqua, N.Y. Most vacations are over or shortly coming to an end. School, Football and a myriad of other activities have started but I couldn't let my blog move on without mentioning what has become one of my favorite get-aways. If you have not been to Chautauqua, please put it on your calendar for a future year. It is a great escape from the Texas heat.

There are 9 theme weeks each summer. This year we chose Week 7, " Sacred Spaces". There were many speakers including Ken Burns who spoke to a capacity crowd in the 600 seat amphitheater on two occasions. Each morning there was a sermon and worship service led by Calvin O. Butts, pastor of a New York Harlem church. There were afternoon discussions about possible solutions to the Israel/Palestine problems in the "Hall of Philosophy", a Greek temple "look-alike building". In the evening in the "amp" there were concerts by the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and by the tribute band playing Abba songs of the sixties. On the porch of one of the many Victorian houses on the campus there were readings by the author and poet in residence sponsored by the oldest continuously meeting book club in America. The big old Victorian hotel was orginally lighted with gas lights until Thomas Edison electrified it. The Edisons, as well as the Fords, Goodyears, Pennybackers and other familiar names number among those early Chautauqua fans. And while I'm dropping names, one of the practice studios has a sign indicating that George Gershwin wrote one of his piano concertos in that little building near the music school.

There is indeed something for everyone. Last summer we rented a house at Chautauqua and took our whole family. There were 11 of us. Our two smallest grandchildren went to a day camp and rode bicycles all over the automobile-free campus in the afternoons. Our teenage girls learned to sail on Lake Chautauqua while their brother played golf on the course acress the highway. Our daughter sketched and painted, our son and his wife played tennis, our son-in-law photographed and went to lectures with my husband and I took sculpture in the art school.

Check out the Chautauqua Institute website: www.ciweb.org for more information about next summer. And make plans early, especially if you hope to find a house to rent. We usually stay in the St. Elmo condominiumns which all have small kitchens and are located in a 5 story building on Bestor Plaza in the center of the campus. It is truly a unique experience satisfying such a variety of interests. Don't forget to be still long enough to enjoy such pleasures as rocking on a front porch or visiting on a balcony with friends and family.