Paul Szmal: To tell us about some events that you could attend as part of Mother's Day and some other stuff that's happening around the Finger Lakes, we turn to Carolina Taylor from Visit Finger Lakes, the Finger Lakes Visitors Connection. Carolina, good to have you on board as always. Good morning.
Guest: Good morning, Paul. Thank you for having me. Excited to share some information with everyone about things to do and how to, you know, go around and enjoy the beautiful weather that hopefully is coming soon.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, we're going to have to get through a little bit of ick weather here for the end of April and then hopefully things will turn around. There is one thing that is happening right now and this is tied into the opening of the Finger Lakes Virtual Museum. The community launch happened on the 25th. There's now a scavenger hunt that's going on and this runs through May the 25th.
Guest: Yeah, so we just launched the Finger Lakes Virtual Museum and this is a great digital app that people can use to go around some of the historical markers around Ontario County and there are more than 65 that have QR codes and you scan the QR code and then you go to the app and the app tells you more information about that place, the history that happened, and to inspire people to go and explore the virtual museum and these historic markers. We created the scavenger hunt so people can go to our office at 19 Susanby Anthony Lane, pick up some trading cards that are related to the museum and those cards are going to tell you which sign you should visit to go learn the history. So you can go visit the sign, take a picture with the card and the sign, and then you post it or send it to us and you tag us and then you can participate to win different prizes from different establishments from Ontario County, such as tickets to Sonnenberg Gardens Museum and Ganondagan State Historic Site, some wine tastings, Bristol Mountain IRL Adventure, some different things and everyone can see the information and instructions on how to participate when you go to visitfingerlakes.com slash virtualmuseum slash launch event.
Paul Szmal: You had me at the mini golf prize that you have up for grabs there for Roseland Mini Golf. That is something that's definitely in my wheelhouse.
Guest: Yes there are very amazing prizes that a lot of establishments donated for this and it's very exciting so please everyone go participate, go explore this virtual museum that is available for everyone and maybe you'll get to win a very exciting prize.
Paul Szmal: Yeah and again that's visitfingerlakes.com slash virtualmuseum slash launch event. Let's talk about some of the events that are happening. One of the prizes by the way for that scavenger hunt contest happens to be general admission tickets to Sonnenberg Gardens and they will have their seasonal opening coming up Friday.
Guest: Yes so Friday May 1st Sonnenberg Gardens Mansion State Historic Park is going to open for the season so this is a great opportunity for everyone to get out to Canandaigua and explore the gardens. You know that this place has different internationally inspired gardens like a Japanese garden, an Italian garden, a rose garden so please come enjoy the season, explore the gardens and explore the mansion and the history that's connected.
Paul Szmal: And file this one too under a possible Mother's Day activity at Sonnenberg Gardens. The Canandaigua Lake Wine Trail is going to really start to kick into high gear as we get into the month of May and one of the events is Sip Into Summer.
Guest: Yes this is going to be hosted at Inspire More in Naples and is presented by the Canandaigua Lake Wine Trail. It's going to be May 16th from 12 noon to 4 pm and people can spend an afternoon enjoying wine tastings, different activities and meet the winemaker conversations, pizza, local vendors, live music so it's going to be a great way to kick off the summer activities.
Paul Szmal: Now the next event here we're going to actually find out a little more about this tomorrow. I have a couple of guests coming in. It's on Sunday May the 17th at the New York Kitchen. It's called Meet Your Local Farmer Fair.
Guest: Yes it's hosted at the New York Kitchen. It's going to be from 11 to 3 pm and this just wants to celebrate locally grown agricultural products so they're going to feature live music, live chef demonstrations and it's a family-friendly event that presents local farm and beverage vendors throughout the New York State, sorry the New York Kitchen building, gardens, outdoor tents and they're going to offer different goods such as meats, eggs, flowers and more.
Paul Szmal: Yeah if you're into the farm to table thing good thing to check out and again we'll have more details about that event tomorrow morning here on FLX Morning. We're talking with Carolina Taylor from visitfingerlakes.com and the Finger Lakes Visitors Connection. A traditional event on Seneca Lake comes up in the month of May 23rd and the 24th. It is the annual Lake Trout Derby.
Guest: Yes it is very exciting and people can participate for a chance to win a 7,500 grand prize along with other exciting prizes so please come to Seneca Lake and participate. It's going to be very fun.
Paul Szmal: Yeah that has been a tradition here in the Finger Lakes region for a number of years. Okay now here's a place that you may not be a hundred percent familiar with. It's called Burning Springs and their open garden weekend will be at the end of the month.
Guest: Yes this is presented by Bristol Hills Historical Society and it's going to go both days from noon to 5 p.m. and people can go and explore the waterfall, stroll through the gardens with the spring blooms and also watch talented plein air artists that capture the beauty of of this stage on their canvas and they're also going to offer a historical speech and a historical talk to learn about the property and about the tradition of of this celebration of their Burning Springs open gardens.
Paul Szmal: Yeah and that's at 4348 Case Road in Canandaigua. Again that's coming up at the end of May, the last weekend of May the 30th and the 31st. Okay we promised you that we were going to talk about Mother's Day events so let's dive into that Carolina because there are quite a few places that are offering either special events or we want to recommend some places to you that might be nice to take mom or grandma for Mother's Day. Let's start off with the New York Kitchen. We mentioned it just a couple of moments ago because they're hosting that Meet Your Local Farmer Fair but they do classes year-round and a variety of cooking categories.
Guest: They do classes year-round and every time there's a special occasion or a holiday they bring extra things that are super fun and special for the celebration and for Mother's Day they're going to have two different classes. One is on Saturday May 9th and it's the Chef's Table Class Mother's Day edition from 6 to 8 p.m. and it starts with a brief knife skills demo and then a recipe overview with their chef instructor and they just dive right into creating this this recipe and then the second one is on Sunday May 10th and this is the Mother's Day Brunch Cooking Class. This is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and they're going to have a morning with a class with brunch food and a mimosa for the mother so these are great experiences, hand-on experiences for people to share with their moms as a gift.
Paul Szmal: Moving over to Geneva, FLX Table is one of the most distinctive dining destinations in the area and they're going to be hosting a Mother's Day Brunch.
Guest: Yes it's a special Mother's Day Brunch with two exclusive settings at 11.15 a.m. and 1.45 p.m. and guests can enjoy the restaurant's signature five course tasting menu and they're always very thoughtful in crafting older menus for their special locations so please come and join them and spots fill up fast so make sure to make your reservation.
Paul Szmal: Yeah and if you want to celebrate later in the day, regular dinner service settings are 5.45 and 8.15 in the evening. There's going to be a double celebration. This is a combination of Nolan's on Canandaigua Lake and the Hotel Canandaigua. This is going to be very fun and as you said Hotel Canandaigua and Nolan's in Canandaigua Lake partnered and they are offering two locations to celebrate Mother's Day this year on Sunday, May 10th and guests can pick from going to the Hotel Canandaigua for a brunch that's going to be between 10.30 a.m. and 12.30 and then they can go to Nolan's if they want to enjoy an afternoon of different foods and they can find different things like chicken french, the Captain's platter, Angus beef tenderloin so they can enjoy different things at both locations.
Guest: We mentioned Sonnenberg Gardens will be opening this weekend and of course this is one of the prime locations to take mom or grandma for Mother's Day weekend. Yes on Sunday, May 10th they're going to host their special Mother's Day promotion from 9.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. so all moms can enjoy admission for just five dollars and enjoy a stroll through their gardens and visit their historic mansion.
Paul Szmal: And if you're looking for a stay for mom or maybe for your significant other as part of Mother's Day we might recommend a couple of places in Geneva.
Guest: Yes so when you go to visitfingerlegs.com slash blog slash Best Mother's Day Brunch Dinner we put together some itinerary ideas for people who want to come for the weekend and just spend some time in Geneva or Canandaigua visiting beautiful places, beautiful venues and hotels like the Bellehouse Castle or Hotel Canandaigua. We also give different recommendations about restaurants so please visit that blog if you want to see more activities and things to do if you want to come and spend the weekend here. And there's also at the bottom of that page if you're hard up for gift ideas there are a couple of great suggestions from businesses around the region and again that's at visitfingerlegs.com slash Mother's Day Brunch Dinner.
Paul Szmal: Of course visitfingerlegs.com anytime you want to find out about events or activities or locations in the Finger Lakes that you can visit. Carolina as always I appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Guest: Thank you Paul and thank you to everyone. I hope to see you around exploring the virtual museum and participating in this Cavendish hunt.
