Planes, Trains, Automobiles & Boats on the Byway in NY and PA: Top 110 Seaway Trail Happenings Now Online

Looking for something new to see or do? Happenings for all interests are in the 2007 Top 110 Events for the Seaway Trail now online at www.seawaytrail.com Eleven county tourism promotion agencies (St. Lawrence, Jefferson, Oswego, Cayuga, Wayne, Monroe, Orleans, Niagara, Erie and Chautauqua counties, NY, and Erie County, PA) selected the festivals and activities happening along the St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, Niagara River and Lake Erie.

Festivals along the Great Lakes Seaway Trail freshwater shoreline celebrate the birds of Lake Ontario in Mexico, NY; spring flowers in Rochester, NY; apple blossoms in Williamson, NY; and Highland games in Edinboro, PA. The famed Thunderbirds headline the Thunder of Niagara Airshow August 11-12 in Niagara Falls, NY. Train excursions with Thomas the Tank Engine and through fall orchards filled with apples. Murphy Orchards in Burt plans an Underground Railroad Art Festival for September 3. Modified and supermodified racecars roar into Oswego Speedway for Labor Day weekend.

The "Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes Seaway Trail" are the focus of a May 17-September 20 exhibit and noted speakers series at Seaway Trail Discovery Center in Sackets Harbor, NY. The exhibit – open daily from 10 am to 5 pm – will feature an interactive underwater-simulated learning program courtesy of Pennsylvania Sea Grant, a series of interpretive panels, underwater photography displays, and a collection of reclaimed ship's anchors on loan from French Creek Marina of Clayton, NY. The speakers series includes National Geographic Photographer-in-Residence David Doubilet, deep water divers, historians, authors, a dive charter captain and an ROV designer-builder.

The full-scale 1862-class canal schooner, Lois McClure, visits Medina in July 21-22. The Antique Boat Museum's 43rd Annual Antique Boat Show and Auctions will be held in Clayton August 3-5. Wooden boats take the spotlight August 11-12 at the Orleans County Marine Park.

Also in the Top 110 are events commemorating the life and legacy of Lucille Ball in her hometown of Jamestown, NY; and French culture in Cape Vincent, NY; and Buffalo wings in their hometown of Buffalo, NY. Professional sports are on the list: check for PGA, LPGA, and Pro Rodeo Cowboy competitions and Class A Auburn Doubledays baseball.

Like music? Look for free summer Sunday concerts at Bemus Point, NY; jazz festivals in Rochester, NY, and Erie, PA; Harborfest in Oswego, NY; Massena's Dam Jam; bluegrass in Gouverneur, NY; and Blues in the Bay in Alexandria Bay, NY. Thirty-five hundred musicians and dancers are expected to compete in the 43rd Drum Corps Associates World Championship in Rochester on Labor Day Weekend.

Theatre goers will find listings for professional performances at the Merry-Go-Round Theatre in Auburn from May 30 to mid-September and the September 21st Curtain Up! date for Buffalo's 14 theaters. Rochester hosts the High Falls Film Festival each November to celebrate woman in international film.

Pirate raids in Olcott Beach and Alexandria Bay, NY; living history encampments; and a recreation of Elizabethan England in the woods of Sterling, NY; Halloween candlelight cemetery tours; and November holiday wine weekends at wineries along Lake Erie are also part of the fun on the byway in 2007.

The online events, also in the 2007 Great Lakes Seaway Trail Journey magazine, include a sailing and writing workshop, a carp fishing school and tournament for kids and parents, and outdoor survival classes for ages 6-17.  For more info on traveling the Seaway Trail, one of America's Byways and a National Recreation Trail, go online to www.seawaytrail.com or call 1-800-SEAWAY-T.

April 25, 2007   Posted in: United States East