July 20-23 - Cazenovia, NY

"We thought the best would be behind us, but the best keeps getting better all the time." -Allan Jackson 

We spent our anniversary with Kyle and his family last week in Aurora, but we thought we should have a little get away of our own, so to celebrate our 40th anniversary we traveled to the quaint little town of Cazenovia. The town was founded in 1798 and sits on the southeast shore of Cazenovia Lake. It's a charming, picturesque, Norman Rockwell style village full of cute little shops, restaurants, wineries and breweries, a lake, beautiful homes and lots of waterfalls...a great spot for us to relax and explore. Cazenovia was named one of America’s Coolest Small Towns in 2020.

We stayed at an Airbnb close to the downtown area. We had the whole upstairs of this beautiful house. It made a great home base while we explored the area. While we were in Cazenovia we visited 8 waterfalls, spent a morning at Green Lakes State Park, visited the Lorenzo State Historic Site, did a little shopping, a little hiking and ate some wonderful food. I'll be doing separate posts on the waterfalls and Green Lake...since I have so many wonderful pictures to share.

Lakeland Park in Cazenovia seems to be the only place on this lake that is open for the public to swim. The town and the area around the lake are beautiful with huge impressive estates. A great place to have lake front property...if you can afford it.

Lincklaen House has been a historical landmark since 1835. For more than 180 years, the Oldest Grand Hotel in Central New York has provided a comfortable atmosphere, and extended gracious hospitality to all its visitors. The restaurant provides the town with a wonderful place for casual fine dining. We enjoyed our meals so much we actually came back a second night.

The first night Stan had the grilled salmon and I had the seafood Carbonara.

The Lorenzo House was completed in 1809, and was the home of the father of Cazenovia, John Lincklaen. The home overlooks the south end of the beautiful Cazenovia Lake. Lincklaens’ descendants lived in the house until 1968 when it was given to the state of New York. 

The Brewster Inn is named after Benjamin Brewster, an American industrialist, financier, and one of the original trustees of Standard Oil. In 1890 Brewster built this summer home on the southern end of the lake and named it "Scrooby" after the English manor house where his ancestor William Brewster lived before setting sail on the Mayflower. This expansive mansion remains one of the largest homes Cazenovia has ever seen...and there are a lot of huge beautiful homes on the lake. Today it houses 4 dining rooms, a large kitchen and 9 guest rooms.

Our view with dinner...the end of July and we actually had to have the heaters on to be comfortable outside for dinner. Stan had the horseradish encrusted cod and I had the spicy lobster pasta...both were delicious.

On the way home from Cazenovia we drove up to Skaneateles to check out the Antique & Classic Boat Show and do a little browsing through the cute shops. Skaneateles is another cute town in upstate NY. We had a wonderful getaway.