{A Day at Chautauqua}

Hooray, it’s the middle of the week! I am steadily packing up my apartment and thanks to my Beach Boys Pandora station, I haven’t lost my marbles (yet). If you read yesterday’s post, you know that the weekend before last was a tough one for me. If you missed the post, you can read it {here}. After a weekend of reflection, tears and sadness, my mother & I decided to shake off the tears and renew our spirits. Early last Tuesday morning, we hopped in the car and drove 90 minutes to The Chautauqua Institution.

Founded in 1874, The Chautauqua Institution is located in the sleepy village of Chautauqua, New York. The Institution is dedicated to “the exploration of the best of human values and the enrichment of life” so you are surrounded by art, music, and literature throughout your day. By a happy coincidence, it was Digital Media Week and the big speaker of the day was Vivian Schiller, the Chief Digital Officer of NBC. I really enjoyed her conversation and her thoughts on digital media. I had the opportunity to meet her after the presentation and she was very sweet, even gave me her business card!

The rest of the day, my mother and I walked around the grounds, oohing and aahing over the absolutely, positively gorgeous homes! I couldn’t possibly post all the photos I snapped in this post so click here for {more photos}. We listened to a poet from Virginia Commonwealth University talk about online publishing for poets and then stepped into a cute cafe called “Afterwords” for lunch. My mother and I had a delicious meal and made a mental note to return later for their scrumptious chocolate cake…

In the mean time, we strolled and ducked into a couple of events: like a musical story telling of “Little Red Riding Hood.” I was probably the oldest “kid” in the audience with my mother but it was adorable and the musicians were very talented. Afterwards, we hopped on a bus tour of the grounds where we were the youngest by far! The tour was incredible and chock full of fun facts about the grounds and even the houses themselves. Most of the houses were built before the turn of the century and are rich with history. One of the houses was owned by the Women of Christian Temperance Union and others were summer homes to distinguished names like Thomas Edison, Ulysses S. Grant and Eleanor Roosevelt!

We got off the tour bus and headed back to Afterwords Cafe, that chocolate cake was calling our names!

We took our slice to go and went down by the lake to sit next to the iconic bell tower. A little before 6, a woman comes down to play the bells and you can request songs! Since my mother’s birthday is approaching, we requested “Happy birthday” and our favorite, “The Sound of Music.” We chatted with the pianist and I even got to strike the last note!

It soon grew dark so we settled in to listen to the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. Their conductor was a little ball of energy and was incredible to watch him enthusiastically pump his arms and egg the musicians on. In my opinion, he stole the show because of his lively stage presence! After the concert ended, my mother and I headed home. By this time, it was going on 11p.m. and we were ready to hit the hay after a long but amazing day…

I loved my day at Chautauqua, it reminded me of the way life should be lived. I saw people ride by on their beach cruisers on brick pathways to the lake (I love old fashioned bicycles) and others reading on their front porch of a beautiful house. There was a serenity in the atmosphere that just made me want to take a deep breath, put down the iPhone and just enjoy. It was the perfect way to spend the day and I felt refreshed and rejuvenated. Thank you, Mom for driving there and back! I enjoyed sharing the day with you.