[itinerary | lodging] Big Tree Road is named for the Seneca tribe’s original moniker for the Genesee River Valley, an homage to a giant oak tree that once stood at the river’s edge closer to Livingston County’s seat of Geneseo (source: Livingston County Historical Society). The tree eventually fell during a great flood, but you can still see its hefty stump on display in the Livingston County Museum. Big Tree Road originates at an intersection with NY Route 20A in Richmond, NY, wanders west through Livonia, and ultimately joins 20A on its journey toward Geneseo and the river valley. You drive Big Tree Road through Lakeville every day of your life on Conesus Lake. It’s your main thoroughfare.

Lakeville Family Restaurant

So it’s no surprise that one of your first explorations brought you to Big Tree Road in Lakeville soon after moving into Conesus Lake House. It’s been two years — and you’ve transacted with many businesses along this route — but it’s your first time visiting the cozy-looking diner you’ve passed so many times. On a crisp early spring morning, you decide to scope out Lakeville Family Restaurant.

Big Tree Road in Lakeville, NY

The most striking feature of Lakeville Family Restaurant is the consistently busy parking lot — especially on Friday nights, when the breakfast-and-lunch diner stays open until 8:30 PM for a weekend dinner crowd. This morning is no exception as you manage to finagle a spot in the rear of the building, closer to the edge of Conesus Lake. Even from the road, the diner’s large windows reveal the activity inside as multiple servers zip back and forth between tables and the kitchen, like bees running pollen to the hive. Sometimes the number of patrons is the best advertising.

Thankfully, the dining area is larger than the exterior of the building would suggest, and you’re able to find a nice booth by the window right away. Across the floor, the expedite window into the kitchen reveals busy cooks in constant motion, alternating between griddle and plates. Servers wait patiently but attentively, ready to bring hot breakfast to eager guests. Customary of any “greasy spoon” diner, there is counter space with stools, and every table comes equipped with the necessary sundries: syrup tureens, ketchups and mustards, napkins, and laminated menus. The walls are adorned with lake life-themed décor in a show of lighthouses, oars, and large-mouthed bass. The environment reminds you of your recent adventure to The Texas Hot in Wellsville, just with fewer Bill Pullmans.

Counter-side at Lakeville Family Restaurant

The server greets you promptly and asks for beverages. Your companion chooses an iced tea, but you need your coffee (it is before 9:00 AM after all). In classic American diner style, the server has a pot at the ready to pour whenever you see the bottom of the mug. Charged with a little caffeine, you’re able to take in a better view of the scene. The customers sit in larger parties of at least four, and even now as you relax in your booth a group of seven — a family spanning at least three generations — walks through the front door. Makes sense given the name of the restaurant. You imagine this place will be perfect once you have a little one in tow.

While it’s still before lunch, your companion is craving a grilled cheese. The menu hasn’t switched over yet, but you’re confident the cook can slap a slice of American between two pieces of toast and call it a day. You ask the server for one, and she’s happy to put in the custom request. Call it a breakfast sandwich sans egg, if you will. For entrees, it’s a no-brainer for you: any American diner worth its weight has to wow you with its pancakes. You order a short-stack with sausages in patty form, the server pointing out they have links as well. In the grand debate between links and patties, you’ve switched sides multiple times over the course of your life. The patty era does not define you, but it certainly influences your dining experience. Your companion can’t help but follow your lead and orders a tall stack of buttermilk pancakes, remaining neutral in the link-patty debate by ordering neither.

The grilled cheese sandwich comes right away, and sure enough it’s filled with golden, buttery, and gooey goodness. The bread is toasted a fine golden-brown, soft and chewy on the inside with crispy crusts. Thick-sliced pickles provide a sweet-sour palette cleanser, and you’re grateful to share a bite with your companion. When the main events arrive, you’re almost worried you’ll be too full to handle it. But nothing has ever stopped you from devouring a stack of pancakes in the past. The cakes are warm and golden, thick and fluffy. You smother them in a pat of butter and syrup, with some syrup for your sausage patties as well (if you never put maple syrup on your sausages, you’re severely missing out). You’re lying down in the clouds of glorious griddle goodness, gazing at a total eclipse of the sun in Lakeville, New York.

Scenes from Lakeville Family Restaurant: Classic booths, fluffy pancakes, crispy sausage, golden grilled cheese

Vitale Park

With hunger satiated, you sit back and take a long sip of your never-ending coffee. The sun repeatedly tries to poke its way through the clouds outside. You, too, are tired of being stuck inside all winter. Feeling the itch of springtime, you pay for your hand-written bill with good old-fashioned cash and head out to Big Tree Road again. Just down the block — and you can’t believe you hadn’t stopped by before — is the anchor of Lakeville and northern Conesus Lake, Vitale Park. You decide to go for a quick walk in the brisk morning air. It’s time to touch the waters of the Lake you’ve loved so much these past two years.

At the water’s edge: Vitale Park – Northern point of Conesus Lake, NY

Like most parks, Vitale Park includes a playground, pavilion, and paved footpaths for light walks. In your quest to snap a photo from the top of every single Finger Lake, you had unfortunately neglected your home Lake up until now (with a nod to your view from within Galene this past winter). What makes Vitale so unique — not least of which is the gorgeous view of Conesus Lake — is its emphasis on nature and the surrounding ecosystem, from the Chip Holt Nature Center to the quaint outlet bridge leading to a butterfly garden. Maintained by volunteers, Vitale Park is a beautiful neighborhood park that could easily rival Canandaigua’s Kershaw Park or even Geneva’s Seneca Lake State Park. It’s still a little early for the docks, but you know from last summer the park will soon be inundated with boats and “anything that floats.”

You make your way past the nature center and across the footbridge, where a tiny outlet curves between the park and a few private homes to feed into the Conesus Creek outlet at the park’s west entrance. Here a walking loop encircles colorful little gardens on its way around back to the shore, with a quick view of the Pebble Beach community across from the creek. You exchange good mornings with another couple walking by and settle on a rocky patch of the shore to take a breath of fresh Lake air.

The vitality of Vitale Park

Powder blue sky has broken through the cloud filter above, while the sounds of gentle waves lapping lulls you into a mellow state. Looking down the left coast of the Lake from here, you can just barely make out Conesus Lake House through the budding trees. You tip-toe down to the water’s edge and scoop your palm into the life-giving waters of Conesus Lake. You feel the cool, clean water revive your skin. You hear an American flag pinging against the neighboring flagpole in the light breeze. You were right in the beginning. It is here on Conesus Lake that you have healed. It is here that you have become whole.

Star and Stripes and the Lake

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