In a message dated 2/18/02 12:03:03 AM, Georg writes: << What is the best marina for a stopover on the Great Loop, and why? >> My choice is the Allen H. Treman State Marine Park, at the southern tip of Lake Cayuga, in Ithaca, NY. Admittedly this is a slight diversion from the Erie Canal route but the trip down the Cayuga/Seneca canal spur to the Finger Lakes is well worth the time. The whole Finger Lakes area is a summer playground. Ithaca is the pentultimate college town. Just what you imagined from seeing all those 1930s college movies. The marina, set in the middle of a large beautiful park, has ample transient docking, good showers and restrooms, and phones. Because it is a NYS supported facility, charges are minimal. There are ample boating facilites, marine stores, and repair facilities near the park as well as a number of first class restaurants. The park itself has hiking trails and a variety of play areas for kids. It also supports a really good repertory theater company that alternates between modern and classical drama during the summer season. A short cab ride takes you to some very large and extremely well stocked supermarkets where you can renew your supplies. This is the middle of New York's wine country and a winery tour of the Cayuga/Seneca region provides a good diversion for adults (designated driver, of course). Ithaca has one of the nation's very best liquor stores, specializing in wine, for restocking your other supplies. If you have the time, a visit to the Cornell University campus, perched on a hill overlooking the city, will make you wish you had gone there instead of Harvard, Yale or Stanford. It has been rightly called the most beautiful college campus in the country. Just outside of town is the Taughannock Falls State Park featuring the highest waterfall east of the Rockies, dropping 215 feet to a rocky gorge. Oh what the hell. Why bother continung the Loop? Just spend the summer at the Treman Marina as so many boats from the NorthEast and Canada do. Larry Z