Wednesday, August 11 TRIVIA NIGHT: 7:00 PM. Creekside Coffeehouse. 35 Fennell
St. Free (315) 685-0379 or www.creeksidebooks.com
Thursday, August 12 MUSIC: 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM Jen Parker & Brad Beardsley
Creekside Coffeehouse, 35 Fennell St., FREE (315) 685-0379 or
www.creeksidebooks.com

Individuals from Auburn’s Arts District Study group will be reporting on their April 2010 visit to Paducah, KY at 7:00 pm, Thurs. Aug. 12, 2010 at Auburn Public Theater, 8 Exchange St. at Genesee, Auburn, NY. Donna Lamb, Ex. Director of Schweinfurth Art Center, Angela Daddabbo, Artistic Director of Auburn Public Theater, and Hilary Ford, Acct. Executive, Mack Studios visited Paducah to learn more about how Paducah used the arts as a tool for economic development, and how we might apply some of their lessons and successes in Auburn. The team will be giving a power point presentation about Paducah, and sharing ideas that could be implemented in Auburn. The presentation is free and open to the public. The Arts District study received funding through a grant from the Kauffman Foundation and Cayuga Community College.

AUBURN PUBLIC THEATER (APT) is a new, non-profit, professional performing and presenting company currently renovating the former Grant’s building located in downtown Auburn, New York as an arts complex. The building is air-conditioned and free evening and weekend parking is available in the garage directly behind the theater. This is an exciting new cultural center in Central New York. For any other information, call (315) 253-6669 or www.auburnpublictheater.org

For Auburn NY lodging visit www.skaneatelessuites.com Skaneateles Suites

Fun Fact about Syracuse/Onondaga County …. did you know …..

…. that the Columbus Circle monument was financed by Syracuse-area descendents of Italian heritage and was created by Florentine sculptor V. Renzo Baldi in Italy. The Depression made it difficult to pay for its shipment to Syracuse so the shipping costs were picked up by dictator Benito Mussolini with the stipulation that the inscription “Christoforo Colombo, Discoverer of America” be added to the monument. The unveiling of the monument happened in 1934. Columbus faces west, the direction in which he sailed.

Attached, please find this week’s edition of the Friday Facts. For details on any of these events or others down the road, take a gander at our website at www.VisitSyracuse.org.

Check out our FINE ON-LINE STORE (http://store.visitsyracuse.org/home.php?cat=249) featuring great Syracuse items such as T’s, hoodies, fleece items, tote bag & more! If you’re looking for Syracuse items, we got ‘em right on the website (items available for purchase on-line only). Check it out TODAY!!!

Look-it … it’s right here at www.VisitSyracuse.org!

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Mid-Lakes Canal Cruises Offer Idyllic Way to Explore Upstate New York

Summertime, and the living is easy.

That’s particularly true if you’re cruising the New York State Canal System at about 7 mph on the Emita II.

Mid-Lakes Navigation offers all-day, two- and three-day cruises aboard the Emita II, a double-decked tour boat that accommodates up to 42 passengers. Tours depart from Syracuse, Oswego, Amsterdam, Buffalo and Macedon.

Doug Wilson, of Macedon, recently took the daylong cruise from Syracuse to Oswego along the Oswego Canal, which runs 23.7 miles and connects Oswego to the Erie Canal at Three Rivers, where the Seneca, Oneida and Oswego rivers converge. The cruise passes through seven locks and includes a side trip to the H. Lee White Marine Museum in Oswego.

Wilson started taking Mid-Lakes Navigation canal cruises in 1994, and found them so relaxing that he has taken close to a dozen since. His original goal was to traverse all four canals—the Eastern Erie Canal, the Western Erie Canal, the Oswego Canal and the Cayuga-Seneca Canal. Once he did that, he began to retake the cruises in reverse.

“The different sections of the canal system offer very different experiences,” he says, noting that the eastern section, which runs along the Mohawk River, is his favorite.

“Along the eastern section, the river gets wider the further east you go, so there are massive dam structures at each lock,” he says. “The central section passes through some small towns and undeveloped areas—the edges of the canal there are often irregular. The western section, which is man-made, is uniform in width. It passes through 11 canal towns and has a 60-mile stretch with no locks, but 15 lift bridges that must be raised to allow boats to pass.

“If you haven’t done them all, you haven’t gotten the full experience.”

The Emita’s captain is Dan Wiles, now in his 31st year at the helm. Wiles notes that almost 30 percent of his passengers have sailed previously with Mid-Lakes.

“With the wide-open spaces, the wildlife and the scale of the canal system, these cruises are a lot more picturesque than first-time passengers expect,” he says. “It keeps them coming back for more.

“The biggest charge I get is from hearing passengers say this was the best vacation of their life, and so much more than they expected.”

Mid-Lakes Navigation was founded in 1968 by Dan’s father, Peter Wiles Sr., and remains a family business. In addition to the one- to three-day canal cruises, Mid-Lakes offers self-skippered canalboat charters, and sightseeing, dinner, jazz, brunch and lunch cruises on both the Erie Canal and Skaneateles Lake.

For more information on Mid-Lakes Navigation cruises, which run through early October, go to http://www.midlakesnav.com or call 315-685-8500 or 1-800-545-4318.