Sylvan Beach.

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Earl and I headed to Sylvan Beach for the afternoon to celebrate Independence Day. Upon our arrival I immediately discovered that the battery in my digital camera was dead; thank the Universe for a relatively decent camera in the iPhone.

Sylvan Beach has a year-round census of just over 1,000 people. Located relatively half-way between Utica and Syracuse, Sylvan Beach is a village and popular summer resort destination on the eastern shore of Oneida Lake, the largest landlocked lake in New York State. Though close to the Finger Lakes Region, Oneida Lake is not considered to be one of the Finger Lakes, as it has a primarily east-west orientation (the Finger Lakes run north-south).

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Oneida Lake is a popular destination for people of all shapes and sizes and socio-economic standing. The “downtown” area is populated with several resort type shops, restaurants and beach side bars. The radio station I used to work for would hold it’s annual Summer Bash Concert on the beach each year in the late 1990s. The largest artists we had at one of these gigs included Alisha and Kim Syms.

There is also a 1960s era amusement park reminiscent of Seaside on the Jersey Shore (not Jersey Shore, Pa.) Earl and I kicked off our afternoon with some games of Skee Ball. We’d never played Skee Ball together before; I like to think that he was impressed with my Skee Ball skill. The “270” on the machine to the left of Earl in this photo is my highest score of the 10 games we played. We gave all of our prize tickets to a youngster that was playing at the machine next to Earl.

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After our fun with Skee Ball and walking the beach a few times and admiring the scenery, we stopped at Eddie’s Restaurant, a large restaurant with it’s original 60s motif. To be seated we stood in line under the sign that said “Parties of 1 to 4 ↓". The other line said “Parties of 5 or more”. If memory serves correctly, Grandma and Grandpa Country would head to Sylvan Beach several times during the year to eat at the restaurant. I had the broiled salmon with cole slaw and french fries.

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One of our stops along the walk was to snap each other’s photo along the Barge/Erie Canal. It’s at Sylvan Beach that boats traveling along the famous canal are dumped into Oneida Lake, which they must cross it’s entire length to pick the canal back up in Brewerton as they head towards Buffalo.

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Even though Sylvan Beach is relatively close to our home, it’s rare for us to make the drive to hang out in the area. With today’s gas prices, I’m certain that we’ll do it more often this summer. There are more photos available on my Flickr account and they can be found here.