A Bucket List?

I'm afraid that Bruce has a bucket list in his head, you know, the list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket. We're doing some things that he hasn't done in his 40+ years in New York. (But I really don't believe he's thinking of things that way--he's good for a whole lot more years! Absolutely.)

A year or two ago we went to Parc Safari, a zoo/amusement park just above the border in Canada--about 30 minutes from here. That was a lot of fun. It's a drive-through safari place with large animals wandering free among the traffic (as in automobiles, no pedestrians!).

(I have a close shot of a zebra but you can't tell it was in the road so we'll make do with a "common" elk.) ANYway, we had a great time.

There were lions and tigers and bears, oh my. Really. The day was beastly hot and the carnivorous animals were all just lying and panting, but if it had been nicer there's a chance that the lions and tigers would have been walking over our heads as we walked through a (heavy-duty, I hope) Plexiglas walkway.

This picture was taken through that Plexiglas.

So that was in 2007, I think.

This year we went to Fort Ticonderoga, a fort built before the Revolutionary War, used through that war and then abandoned. It fell into complete ruin. In the early 19th century a wealthy man--Pell--bought it and began to rebuild it. It's now mostly reconstructed and impressive! It's a star-shaped fort --very neat design--and its historical organization has managed to greatly expand Pell's original collections of artifacts, Revolutionary and French & Indian Wars' weaponry, etc.

There was an adorable fife and drum corps (comprised of high school students working it as a summer job) and I took this video. I wanted them to turn about and march a bit but my batteries ran out before I could get they did. Rats.



I apologize for the pounding noise but it was a very windy day. In fact, immediately after the corps marched off the parade grounds it began to rain. It was a thunderstorm that then chased us pretty much all the way home--1 1/2 hours north. And while it was really fun to travel in Bruce's Audi TT, we discovered that the air conditioner wasn't working properly and wwe couldn't use it as a defroster. So we drove with the windows just slightly open, trying to stay un-fogged AND dry. But what a neat day that turned out to be. Bruce said he was really glad he went!

In the beginning of September we're going to the NY State Fair in Syracuse. I'll have a post after that for sure.