Lakeside Beach State Park (NY)

The final camping trip of the season was spent at Lakeside Beach State Park in Waterport, NY. It was a great spot to enjoy Fall in upstate NY with beautiful changing leaves, apple orchards, Lake Ontario views and farm stands full of pumpkins. We started out in Medina, NY at the Medina Railroad Museum. It was a nice little museum for anyone interested in model trains and mini-worlds with a number of stools to help the little ones look upon the model world. The kids can also enjoy interactive buttons that make the trains and more run. Scenic and theme train rides leave the station on most weekends and Thomas the Tank Engine fans enjoy the annual Thomas the Train day filled with activities and a ride. Other scenic trips include a wine tasting tour, murder mystery, the Polar Express and summer rides. The museum was about a 3 star activity in our opinion but the train rides may be more interesting. The town of Medina, itself, is similar to many other struggling upstate towns-you can see what was once there but there is little of it left. We ate at Avanti's Pizza & Grill and the service was great, the restaurant was clean and nice but the food was only so-so (great wings and not so great pizza). I would really like to try the Shirt Factory Cafe next time I am in town and take a little look-see at the historic and hip Hart House Hotel that is in the same building. We left Medina and drove the short distance to the campground.

The campground was a great place to explore and we hopped along the boulders on the shore, trying to stay dry and walked along the trail looking for leaves from the rainbow. The girls tried out every playground, the rec center and the candy counter at the camp store. The old-school metal slides, near the picnic area parking lot, were a big hit but no one has given disc golf a toss yet. The air was crisp and the campfires were burning that night so smores were had one last time until Spring 2017. The bathrooms were just a hop, skip and jump away and, despite needing some updating were clean and the showers were private. Lakeside Beach was a great homebase to leap from and enjoy beautiful fall fun in NY. The drives anywhere were filled with old barns, Amish families, pumpkins, mums and colored leaves. We bopped down the road and purchased very inexpensive pumpkins to carve in the camper and threw the guts in the fire when done. I have to say, it might have been my imagination, but the fire had a wonderful seasonal scent thereafter.

The other true NY fall classic is apple-picking and we tasted, tried and took ours from Lynoaken Farms. The thing I love about this orchard is that they are a smaller orchard with smaller crowds and they offer a new twist with heritage apples. Lynoaken has 15 varieties of classic apples, including the Sweetango that was introduced in 2009 and is super delish! They also have well over 300 varieties of heritage apples that date back as far as 450 AD and a winery with tasting inside their main building. The apples are all grown on small trees that are easy to pick from, even for shorties like myself. There are also resident cows that love to try the apples too!! The bartender that served us a beer flight with local brews was not so pleasant but the rest of the staff seems to go out of their way to help out (maybe the election is just stressing her out).

Whenever we are in this neck of the woods, there is one more place that we always stop and check on the growth. The Shoe Trees! I don't know how the trees began or when but, for us it was about 8 years ago, in search of a geocache "Tree of Soles". There are now 4 trees blooming with shoes of every variety and size. The trees are on a corner near a large Amish farm and many days you can see the work of the Amish farmers in progress. The legend says that if you make a wish and throw your shoes to the trees, if they land among the branches your wish will come true, so be sure to bring some old broken down shoes and a wish on your visit.

I know I have not said much about Lakeside Beach itself but it is just a great area to enjoy. I can say that the sites are level and many are deep and private. The lake is the perfect backdrop for some serious R & R and this is a spot we would visit again. If you are interested in camping at Lakeside or any other NY State Park Campground check out this great website with pictures of every campsite and tips on the best spots: http://www.campadk.com/campsitephotos.html. If you are looking for more ideas of things to do in the area or any area, please contact Stowaway Travels!!